“Moving Forward With Diversity & Inclusion” with Marc Zwetchkenbaum of Marc Z Legal Staffing

Jeffrey (1s):
Well, welcome back to Radio Entrepreneurs. The show that has had more than a million people connect with it, a million people who like entrepreneurship are entrepreneurs and right from day one, standing beside me first in person. And now in zoom is the fabulous Marc Z from Marc Z Legal Staffing with his weekly updates and is going to share again a special Marc Z moment.

Marc (24s):
Well, thank you, Jeff. It’s great to be here as always, right?

Jeffrey (27s):
I know you always wait for my big introductions. It’s the, I get the Ed McMahon of the year award.

Marc (37s):
Oh God.

Jeffrey (38s):
So what’s the topic? There’s your mark?

Marc (41s):
Well, I thought we talk about diversity and inclusion, which is a thread going through companies and professional services organizations right now, a lot of companies and law firms had always, for example, said to us, when we’ve done searches, if you have a diversity candidate, that would be great, but what’s happened over the last couple of years, particularly in the last year and a half are firms companies of all kinds of organizations, of all kinds and associations. For example, almost every major bar association.

Marc (1m 25s):
I got something yesterday from the Rhode Island bar association. The mass bar association is very big in it. Bar associations in major states across the country are all having taskforce tax forces to go over diversity inclusion and really promote not only understanding, but the best way for inclusion and moving forward with the way these organizations are run to, to networking professional networking organizations. I belong to have really made an effort from early on. As soon as the subject was talked about to have diversity inclusion committees have sub committees really focused on initiatives to reach out to law firms and organizations about better diversity inclusions.

Marc (2m 17s):
And then lastly, we’ve gotten many, many types of searches for diversity inclusion officers, coordinators, people to run departments. So this is a very big initiative that’s being taken seriously in the business and legal community. And it’s been a long time coming

Jeffrey (2m 40s):
Well, you know, I think it is a big topic and it has been for a long time, at least inside my home. And, you know, I have a sister-in-law who was, I think the director of equal opportunity in Canada that must’ve been over almost 40 years ago. So there’s a, there’s a, there’s a whole country that looks at that. And I think it’s important for law firms who are thought leaders for the business community to do this, because I think, you know, a trickle down theory that if your attorney and your law firm are practicing good diversity and promoting diversity, I think it’s not hard. It’s a big stretch for companies to start understanding that this is something that they need to follow as well.

Jeffrey (3m 24s):
It’s not just safe business, but it’s good business. Wouldn’t you agree?

Marc (3m 29s):
Correct. It’s good business. It’s what’s that saying? Do good. Do well. And what’s happening is more and more initiatives. The more and more you have people talking about different situations, what they experienced. We have, for example, two associations that I’ve been on, they always have exercises feet for you to do. Has this ever happened to you? Does that ever happen to you and whether it has, or it’s not, it really has you thinking things that you took for granted or things that you unfortunately experienced are now coming to the top of the bubble that had been buried.

Marc (4m 9s):
And I think it’s healthy to talk about, and it’s always been there. It’s like, I’m the invisible person. They were always there. And so you just didn’t notice them. It’s like, remember when, when your wife was pregnant and you didn’t, you never noticed pregnant women. And all of a sudden you notice because your wife is pregnant and it’s the same thing. It’s a topic that was always there, but now it’s getting the attention because people are seriously focused on it. And the people that were always focused on it are now really shining because they have all this material, all these exercises, all these conversations that they can talk about and now people will listen.

Jeffrey (4m 52s):
Well, I think historically people tended to be, you know, very provincial and run in packs of similarity and higher impacts of similarity. If we’re going to sort of dumb it down. And I think the whole goal is to hire and run impacts of diversity. That when you run in a pack of diversity, it may challenge you to be better than you are and bring, it brings talent to the table that you might not have had before. So I think it’s both a leadership challenge and a management challenge leadership in terms of hiring and setting the tone. But I also think it’s a challenge for learning how to work in that type of environment. Just hiring is not enough. You have to create a culture and an environment that knows how to utilize these people to the fullest and work together to the fullest.

Jeffrey (5m 36s):
Because if you still are working from a preconceived notion of success, and even if you hire the right people, you’re not going to use them correctly. Right.

Marc (5m 46s):
Right, right. I totally agree with you. That’s gotta be the right plan and actions speak louder than words.

Jeffrey (5m 56s):
I think it’s a great topic, mark. I hope we can talk about it more. I know it’s a special Marc Z moment. I’m glad you’re promoting this within your clients and your targets. I try to talk to people about this as well. You see it a lot also in family businesses, mark, I’ll just say that in closing that families who have the same socioeconomic background tend to see their way as the way of building a business and they need to look outside themselves and really have a lot more diversity as well. So I think again, law firms, public companies, they’re a little bit more sensitive to this, but I think family businesses really need to embrace this as well.

Marc (6m 33s):
Correct. I mean, you got to go with the times and there are a lot of family businesses that are now out there with the next generation pitching business, working with bigger companies. And they’re like, who’s on your, who’s on your team. That’s of color. Who’s on your team. That’s female, who’s on your team and you have to, whether you like it or not, you’ve got to get with the times and it makes sense business wise. And it’s the best thing to do.

Jeffrey (7m 1s):
I understand that. Totally. And I want to thank you. But look, if somebody else is looking to get smarter about this topic and needs your help, how would they find you, Mr. Mark? First of all,

Marc (7m 11s):
Google Marc Z MIRC and the letter Z and we’ll come right up or a Marc Z Legal dot com and they are C, Z L E G a l.com or 6 1 7 3 3 8 1 300.

Jeffrey (7m 25s):
Thank you, Marc Z. And you know, every week I wait for these moments, they are very special to me and I hope they’re very special to our listeners out there who tuned in to Radio Entrepreneurs. We’re going to take a break. We’ll be right back with more stories.