U.S. Bank

Greg Cunningham

As the U.S. Bank's Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Greg Cunningham is responsible for maintaining workplace culture, customer loyalty, supplier diversity, and community outreach. He is the company's first black leader on the management committee and a passionate advocate for equity and inclusion; he envisions a world in which diversity officers are no longer required. Cunningham brings his complete self to work and has aided U.S. Bank in significantly increasing its investments in opportunities for all—both within the corporation and in communities of color across the country.

How has COVID impacted the D&I space lately? 

Diversity and inclusion have been impacted in different ways by the pandemic. Covid taught us that what affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly; it’s the principle of mutuality. The disparities in our society are so deeply rooted andtragedies like the pandemic disproportionately impact communities of color, and women.. As a result, people are making different life choices, causing an extraordinary labor shift that will have an impact for generatrions.  The practice of D&I is all about thinking of this moment as a unique opportunity to achieve our full potential as organizations and as a nation.

2022 will see a new wave of support with organizations moving beyond setting the foundation to actively supporting gender identity and expression. These will include the use of gender-inclusive language and communication. Your views on this trend?

I believe gender-inclusive language is emerging as a distinctive and crucial capability for organizations seeking to foster inclusive leadership qualities across their workforce. Our job descriptions necessitate a thorough examination of the words and behaviors that we use. I emphasize behaviors because DEI's job is not simply determining success, but it also has some systems of assessment to look at behaviors and reward them when they match your goals. This notion of tying it to leadership expectations is so important that gender-inclusive language has to be crucial for the next phase which includes creating a culture of belonging and co-creation. Bias and roadblocks to equality must be removed wherever they exist. In D&I, there is no room for favors.

What are some of the challenges existing for the leaders looking to establish Diversity and Inclusion in their organizations?

For many businesses, diversity and inclusion are public relations and risk management exercises. They really haven’t done the work to truly understand why it’s important to them beyond not wanting to feel like bad corporate citizens. All leaders must first assess, at every level, why is it important to you personally and for our business a whole Our primary focus  was to acknowledge that we could not fulfill our company’s mission and purpose without effect DEI policies and practices across the entire organization; not just in HR. We set clear goals for ourselves and have systems of accountability linked to leadership expectations so that every leader in the organization is aware of the expectation around DEI. As part of our personnel assessment processes, I believe the largest difficulty that most employees have is a lack of accountability. Therefore, I believe there must be consequences, positive and negative, to upward mobility for leaders aligned with DEI capability.

"I believe Gender-inclusive language is emerging as a distinctive and crucial capability for organizations seeking to foster inclusive leadership qualities across their workforce."

What would be your piece of advice to your fellow peers and leaders?

I would like to mention three major points that will help young professionals become successful in the D&I space. First, a person must have a sense of accountability in the workplace. Second, transparency and accountability go hand in hand because you must be entirely honest with your stakeholders. They want to know where you are on your journey, what steps you are taking to improve, find out if your words and intentions are aligned and if you are making daily progress. Finally, moving away from destination-oriented thinking and toward journey-oriented thinking is critical. Rather than focusing on the end result, you need to focus on what you need to accomplish today.