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If anyone knows the pressure to keep going, break new ground and succeed despite the unknown, it is Ndidi Massay. In her role as vice president of workplace culture and diversity initiatives for CBS Sports, Massay is charting new territory. Shortly after George Floyd’s murder, the network was looking for someone who could take over immediately to push the network’s diversity and community service. Massay’s leadership style fit the bill perfectly.
“You walk in, you turn it on and you do it,” she says.
CBS Sports already had a strong reputation for inclusion, “but we can always be better,” says Massay. Her main goals include building a more diverse workforce, with better retention and higher-level diversity that includes more women of color, disabled, and LGBTQ + employees. Since taking the job in February, he has been on a company-wide tour sparking candid conversations about prejudice, privilege, and belonging. “We have weekly meetings with senior leadership to discuss what is happening within our walls and what is happening in the communities around us,” he says. “We face issues like microaggression or hiring biases and look at them through different lenses.”
Not everything has been easy, but Massay is not the type to throw in the towel. “I think, how am I going to get through that wall? I can get around it or go over it, or even dig and sink, depending on the situation, ”he says. “But the challenge excites me more because when you win, it is much sweeter, because you went through X AND Z and you came out on top. “
And that tenacity is paying off. “When someone tells me, ‘Hey, this happened and I remembered our conversation and I went in a different direction,’ that’s great progress,” she says. “People are assimilating the training and it shows in their behavior.”
Massay’s influence is also having an impact on broadcasts. He met network producers, directors, and on-air talent, and the result has been deeper and more diverse stories and features. “People are tweeting compliments,” says Massay. “That shows us that the audience is paying attention and recognizes the thought and extensive research that goes into our storytelling.”
Massay draws attention. He says that so far he has spent most of his time with CBS Sports listening, meeting people and understanding their voices, but it is obvious that when he speaks, people act. The same thing happened when she took the Northwestern softball team to the College Women’s World Series as a catcher. She never doubted or questioned herself, earned a reputation for stealing bases and was inducted into the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.
In less than a year, Massay has stepped up the network’s focus and made inclusion and diversity the heart of not just the workplace, but also how CBS Sports does business. “I have the opportunity to report directly to the president of CBS Sports, which allows me to really see all parts of our business,” he says. “Each party has a committee that works on diversity and inclusion, but I’m the only one that does it as a full-time job.”
He is quick to point out that his success is due in large part to the team he works with. “As a leader, I believe that gratitude is a strength. Especially when you hit a wall. How boring would life be if everything was easy? I am fortunate that we work together … so that next time we avoid that challenge. I am grateful for what we learn and the relationships we build. ”
Before joining CBS, Massay was a commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission. Prior to that, she worked as a consultant for ABC and ESPN and, in 2015, helped launch the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (now RISE). She is also a lawyer. “This is a dream job because it’s the first time that I can literally pack all of my passions and experience and put them to work in one role,” she says.
Because Massay was born in Nigeria and grew up in two races, he has a strong personal connection to his work. “I am married to a black man and I have two black children,” she says. “I know what it’s like to be overlooked and mistreated. I look at my children and their friends and begin to calculate the odds. I see the challenges my husband faces. It is one of the few in the workplace. Me too, as a woman of color. It is a reality for us every day ”.
Massay likes to win. Fortunately, his colleagues at CBS Sports have embraced his strategies and are executing on his plan to grow D&I initiatives on a global scale.
“Our world is really so small because technology brings us together. I’m hopeful that in five years, these little flames that I’ve helped start will turn into fires that make D&I less of a strategy and more of a way of life at CBS, ”says Massay. “We want to give everyone a voice and build an even more welcoming culture so that we can bring the best to the field through diversity of thought, diversity of skills and diversity of talent.”
Madelyne Woods is a contributor to Empower Onyx, a diverse multi-channel platform that celebrates the stories and transformative power of sports for black women and girls.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.