I’m going to talk about employee inclusion, engagement, and participation. While each employee is an individual, if you understand the strategy and process to enlist employees in the mission of the organization, you can help almost any employee do their best work, no matter what kind of diversity they bring to the workplace.

It’s important to know your employees, their demographic background and their skills and talents in order to understand what would make them feel welcome, and appreciated, but to not focus on one group, since everyone is more complex than just having one identity.

Example: If someone is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, in order to help that person do their best work, they need to feel safe physically and emotionally. But that person is not just gay. they may be a baby boomer, Christian, introverted, and excel in technology. All of those factors contribute to their diversity, and as a leader in your organization, you have to create the kind of culture where everyone can excel.