![]() ![]() Show courage not just in what you ask but in how you listen. You can also offer another opportunity to speak if they don’t want to do so in the moment. In those cases, honor whether they want to engage in your questions or not. For those who have been unduly bearing the burden of marginalization and exclusion, though, some questions may trigger deeply held emotions. Most often you will find that your employees will welcome feeling seen and valued. If you’re afraid of making a vocabulary blunder - using the wrong terminology for someone’s race, for example, or misgendering people - just ask about their pronouns or what role race plays in how they experience the workplace. How can I help amplify your voice and that of other underrepresented voices?.Whose voice or what perspective is missing from this conversation?.What percentage of your time is spent on addressing exclusion or microaggressions against you or others?.Do you feel safe enough to take risks at work? To contribute? To belong to the community?.What are the biggest barriers to your success and what role can I play in helping to remove them?.This doesn’t mean tasking others with achieving your own goals: “How do we move the needle on our diversity and inclusion gaps?” Instead, seek to understand what challenges your employees face every day, especially any practices and behaviors that are causing them pain. And because you don’t have to pretend you’re more knowledgeable about these topics than you already are, asking questions can also help you overcome uncomfortable silences and awkward exchanges regarding power and privilege. Genuine inquiry can promote trusting relationships and a safe, respectful, and supportive work environment even in times of complex change. Here’s what I tell leaders who are afraid of taking a misstep when trying to solve for diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplaces. If you want your team to stand up for inclusion, you need to stand up.ĭon’t let fear hold you back from this full engagement. I’ve led inclusion strategy and learning discussions at startups after which founders express dismay that their leadership teams did not participate more actively. When they don’t, they lose their teams’ trust and belief in their willingness to lead fairly - and they also set a poor example. Should they say something? Do something? How could they, as white leaders, speak about anything related to the Black experience without offending anyone? Would I look over messages they were drafting for their teams before they sent them? They needed encouragement, permission, and advice before they could do the work of inclusive leadership.īut it is critical that leaders not put this work on employees of color but rather be visible doing this work themselves. Several of my white manager-level colleagues approached me to express their anxiety about how to effectively engage with their employees of color about the protests. Black employees led walkouts to shine a light on the marginalization and structural inequities they faced in the workplace. Take my experience at Google in the summer of 2015, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. ![]() These leaders are so terrified about messing up and saying the wrong thing to all their stakeholders -employees, board members, funders, clients, customers - or the wider world via social media - that they’re paralyzed into inaction. But again and again I find one thing plaguing their attempts: fear. ![]() Indeed, in my work in talent and diversity at Google, Disney, and other large firms, I’ve found many leaders eager for actionable frameworks and advice to create more inclusive cultures. While 27 percent of chief diversity officers find themselves still having to make the case for diversity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace, the good news is that the majority of top leaders already understand how critical these efforts are.
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