How Big Data Can Revolutionize DE&I – If It’s the Right Data

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DEI DataData is commonly called “the oil of the 21st century” given how indispensable it is to the modern economy. Virtually every company today depends on collecting, tracking, and analyzing vast troves of data to better understand their customer needs. We have an unprecedented ability to become surgical in our understanding of a wide range of trends.

One of the great promises of having data at our fingertips is better tracking and more transparent reporting on measures of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Professionals in the workplace can arm themselves with data on key accomplishments and performance measures that can elevate the visibility and stature of their careers and teams.

Investing in understanding where the gaps are in diversity is advantageous to enterprises – not only in terms of doing the right thing, but in terms of business results. A mountain of research has confirmed that diversity pays off and leads to the creation of more innovative teams.

As the Harvard Business Review recently noted, companies with women in leadership positions saw a 10% frequency of terms expressing companies being open to transformation and change in company statements. Other studies back it up: more diverse C-suites are directly correlated with larger profits, higher margins, and increased total returns to shareholders.

There is a lot of work to do on this front.

The number of women serving in leadership roles, for example, remains dismal. The figures only look worse the higher you look on the corporate ladder. Today, about 25% of C-suite positions are held by women. The results are a little better for women on Boards at 29%. The purpose of having data at our fingertips is to enable organizations to report on their progress and give them the tools to address the gaps. The information gives investors, stakeholders, and employees a clear-eyed look at the obstacles.

It’s also critical that organizations use the right kind of data to meaningfully move the needle towards more inclusive workforces. If you’re not using the right information, your organization may lag behind its specified diversity goals.

There are two key challenges in how organizations use DE&I data:
  • They use lagging data – Lagging data refers to figures that indicate results only after a process is complete. This stands in stark contrast to indicators that track activities on an ongoing basis, which offer real-time data to help mitigate unconscious bias in the workplace. The use of lagging data is a common pitfall of organizations who are not diving in closely enough.
  • They don’t get granular enough – Organizations may track the hiring rates of women but fail to consider intersectional factors like race or sexual orientation. There is a pronounced need to go deeper and more granular in order to understand what your employees are experiencing. While an organization comprised of a majority of women may not believe they have inclusion challenges to address, how many of those women are people of color or represent other underrepresented groups? By looking only at only one consideration – gender – they risk missing key analytics and a better understanding of where barriers remain.

DE&I solutions require tools that provide greater insights through anonymized aggregated data which examines a range of factors. Measurement of data could enable leaders to better gauge levels of unconscious bias within their organization and develop an effective mitigation strategy. Not least, this is the first time in history as many as five generations of professionals have worked alongside one another in the workplace. An organization may recognize a need for dialogue and training to educate employees about working across generations.

Surgical granularity enables leaders to diagnose specific workplace trends, such as women of color experiencing disproportionately more discrimination than men. This process of measurement and evaluation must not be a “one and done” exercise, but an ongoing process updated in real-time.

The take-away is that effective diversity, equity, and inclusion work requires an investment of time, resources, commitment, and a sustained effort. Companies will find the dividends enormous given the tremendous boost to the bottom line organizations see as a result of building more inclusive and welcoming workforces.

About the author: 

Michele Ruiz is an entrepreneur, an author of a bestseller, a social media influencer, and a sought-after keynote speaker. Michele’s ventures include founding BiasSync, a science-based technology company designed to help organizations effectively assess and manage unconscious bias in the work environment with proprietary data and analytics. Michele also founded Ruiz Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in change management, reputational management, internal communications, unconscious bias training and assessments. She is an advisor to senior executives at Fortune 20 multinational corporations and some of the highest-profile thought leaders and elected officials.

Michele is a subject matter expert in empowerment, entrepreneurship, sophisticated communication strategies, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). Before becoming an entrepreneur, Michele Ruiz enjoyed a long career as an award-winning broadcast journalist and received 16 Emmy nominations during her news broadcasting career, 5 Emmys, 4 Golden Mikes, and LA Press Club Awards.

(The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com)

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Truth Check-In: Is Your DEI Performative or Genuine?

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performative DEI Too many leaders and organizations aren’t making it over the basic hurdles of credibility when it comes to employee well-being policies and DEI policies: that people believe what you say is truthful and that you’re committed to act in the ways you say.

Indeed, the Women in The Workplace 2021 report found that while 70% of companies say DEI is critical, only 25% of them are formally recognizing the work. Only 2/3 are holding senior leaders accountable, less than 1/3 hold managers accountable and even when it’s claimed leaders are held accountable, diversity goals make it into performance reviews less than half of the time.

Other research has shown that leaders are nearly twice as likely as their employees to perceive they are creating empowering and inclusive environments. And a Korn Ferry study of 24,000 leadership assessments revealed that only 5% of leaders globally would qualify as inclusive leaders. And while U.S. organizations pledged to spend up to $60 billion on racial equity initiatives, one year later only $250 million had been committed to specific initiatives.

In short: DEI words are not aligning to perceptions and in many cases, actions.

Are Organizations Being Performative or Genuine?

In a study of 7,000 people across 14 countries, Catalyst found that employees are more likely to perceive the Covid-19 and racial equity polices of their organizations in the last couple years to be merely performative.

More than 2/3 of employees feel their organization’s pandemic-related policies for care and safety were not genuine and 3/4 of employees feel their organization’s racial equity policies are not genuine. Employees from marginalized racial and ethnic groups were even less likely to view the latter as genuine (23%) than white employees (29%).

Here’s some ways organizations come across as non-genuine: talk without action, virtue signaling in social media or staff e-mails without visible follow-through, announcing plans such as training that don’t get implemented, over-claiming advances from minor policy updates, pledging funds that don’t get invested, putting new DEI positions in place without empowering these individuals with decision-making and resource, making big one-off claims while ignoring daily incidents of bias and exclusion, allowing remote work without being flexible for caretaking needs, and talking about burnout without doing anything to counter unmanageable workloads or 24/7 “on” culture.

Are companies failing to communicate or failing to convert talk into real steps of change? Based on Catalyst’s analysis, most organizational behavior around DEI is perceived as insincere – which can ultimately lead to people questioning the moral character, ethics and overall values of the organization; erode trust in leaders and the organization; and decrease team performance and productivity. Candidates also prefer to work for organizations that are perceived as having high moral character.

Is Pushing the Business Case Rationale Helping?

Meanwhile, in Harvard Business Review, Oriane Georgac and Aneeta Rattan reveal that how the majority (80%) of Fortune 500 companies explain their interest in diversity – through the business case of benefitting the bottom line – actually puts off candidates, and creates a 6% drop in feeling the commitment to diversity is genuine.

The researchers found about 80% of companies use the business case, 5% use the fariness/moral case, and 15% do not explain why they value diversity or do not list it as a value.

The business case is most off-putting to job candidates. Underrepresented participants exposed to a job posting that provided a business case explanation for valuing diversity anticipated to experience less sense of belonging (11% vs fairness explanation; 27% vs neutral message), were more concerned about being stereotyped (16% vs fairness; 27% vs neutral) and were more concerned they would be seen as interchangeable with members of their identity group (10% vs fairness; 21% vs neutral).

The researchers argue the business case backfires because it subtly positions ‘diverse’ employees as a means to an end, rather than valued in themselves as individuals. In that equation, the “benefits” that diversity provides – different skills, perspectives, experiences, working styles – could make candidates feel they will be depersonalized and stereotyped, as opposed to seen for who they are.

The researchers found the fairness case (which sees diversity as its own end) made people feel more positive about organizations than the business case, halving the negative impact. But the best approach was to express diversity was a value without explaining the why: “If you don’t need an explanation for the presence of well-represented groups in the workplace beyond their expertise, then you don’t need a justification for the presence of underrepresented groups either.”

The researchers argue that when something is truly a core value (such as innovation or integrity), you don’t try to convince others why. Why an organization should value integrity, for example, is not up for discussion. So why does diversity require a justification, or convincing?

Empathetic Leadership And Genuine Action

Going back to the Catalyst work, truly genuine policies “are aligned with the stated values of the organization, motivated by care and concern for employees, and thoughtfully implemented.”

Organizations show they are genuine by: taking a stand both externally and internally, admitting bias and being transparent (including data) about the organization’s current diversity and inclusion, providing safe spaces for employees to report feeling psychologically unsafe, taking actual steps to remove bias, empowering employees to create resource groups, taking visible steps to diversify senior leadership, being consistent in communication and actions around DEI, treating everyone with respect, celebrating cultural heritage and bringing DEI experts on board.

The employees who actually do perceive their organization’s policies as genuine (whether Covid-related or racial equity) experience many benefits: more inclusion, engagement, feelings of respect and value for their life circumstances, ability to balance life-work demands, and intention to stay with their jobs.

Further, perceiving empathy in senior leaders is a key determinant to whether policies are perceived positively and sincerely. An empathetic leader “demonstrates care, concern and understanding for employees’ life circumstances.”

When a leader authentically “gets it” from an intrinsic standpoint, they are more likely to commit: previous research by Harvard Business Review Analytics found that among companies who are “DEI Laggard,” 50% of people feel a lack of leadership commitment hinders their DEI efforts. Whereas “DEI Leader” organizations are more than twice as likely as Laggards (77% vs. 34%) to have visible executive support.

Catalyst found employees who perceive both empathetic leaders and genuine Covid policies have less burnout than others (about 30% less). Among employees of color, the combination of genuine policies and empathetic leaders increases inclusion – and there is a general halo effect on women feeling more respected, valued and engaged, too.

The Call To Interconnected Leadership

Research has shown that “the ability of a leader to be empathetic and compassionate has the greatest impact on organizational profitability and productivity.” The research from HBR Analytics indicates that DEI Leaders have two clear things in common: “a commitment from leadership and a commitment to data.” Indeed, the most important factors in creating a culture of inclusion are leadership commitment and demonstrating a visible awareness of the bias within oneself and the organization.

Empathy is a distinct component of emotional intelligence, which becomes increasingly important with seniority in leadership: at executive level, emotional intelligence accounts for 80% to 90% of the abilities that distinguish high performers. An empathetic leader can also own fallibility and personal and organizational susceptibility to systemic realities like institutional racism and sexism, and rise to that challenge.

Catalyst found that having a highly empathetic leadership (versus less empathetic leadership) makes a huge difference in an employee feeling regularly innovative at work (61% vs 13%), feeling engaged at work (76% vs 32%), feeling included (50% vs 17%), feeling able to navigate work/life demands (86% vs 60%), and having fewer thoughts about leaving.

The question is does leadership really “get it?” Do leaders see the reshaping of power structures to harness diversity and the inclusion of all employees as win-wins for themselves, others and the organization? Could we have more that do?

As previously shared, the late Bell Hooks said equity would require a revolution of self-actualization and any real movement of social justice would be based in the ethic of love, where we would recognize that oppression and exclusion cost too much to every single one of us, including those who benefit: “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

Intrinsic motivation does not come from the societal or legal pressure to do something, the business case or even the fairness argument: it’s beyond all that. When more organizations start demonstrating they truly “get it,” we will not be wondering if it’s genuine.

By Aimee Hansen

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Beyond Pride Month: LGBTQ+ Inclusion Is About Every Single Day

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LGBTQ+ InclusionLGBTQ+ is a form of invisible diversity that is both growing and significantly changing, especially among younger generations. Yet, many LGBTQ+ employees continue to report a lack of real inclusion and safety in the workplace.

During Pride Month, let’s remember why valuing LGBTQ+ employees is not just about a month of celebration, adapted logos and rainbow flags – but about a deep commitment to building LGBTQ+ inclusive and safe workplaces that allow all individuals to contribute and thrive every single day.

Underrepresentation for LGBTQ+ From Entry to Leadership

According to Gallup in 2021, 7.1% of the U.S. identifies as LGBTQ+ (doubling since 2012) and 21% of Gen Z do (twice the proportion of millennials). LGBTQ+ identification is increasing across major racial and ethnic groups – giving rise to more diverse, intersectional identities.

Yet under-representation in the workplace for LGBTQ+ groups begins at entry level. McKinsey found that LGBTQ+ women are underrepresented by more than half, even at entry level. Meanwhile at the top, only .5% of the board seats in the Fortune 500 are held by openly LGBTQ+ directors and only a few Fortune 500 CEOs are openly gay, including one woman. One transgender woman leads a Fortune 1000 company. The lack of visible LGBTQ+ executive leadership limits visible role models for younger talent.

LGBTQ+ men (80%) are more likely to be out than LGBTQ+ women (58%). Senior LGBTQ+ leaders (80%) are more out than junior employees (32%), even though their peers are more accepting and demand inclusivity in the workplace.

Globally, the World Economic Forum is advocating for LGBTQ+ visibilty: more LGBTQ+ representation in business and media that tells more diverse and inclusive stories of LGBTQ+ individuals, to advance both equality and acceptance. LGBTQ+ community members report feeling least authentically represented in media depictions. And while 63% of non-LGBTQ+ people perceive the “community” as one collective group with similar needs, the reality of a changing LGBTQ+ culture has never been further away.

While LGBTQ+ acceptance has grown globally since 1981, an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills are proposed in U.S. state legislatures, 71 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 15 countries criminalize the gender identity and/or expression of transgender people and 11 countries deem consensual same-sex relations punishable by death.

LGBTQ+ Experiences In the Workplace

A LinkedIn survey of LBGTQ professionals found 24% were not open about their identity at work and 26% feared they’d be treated differently by coworkers, echoing McKinsey’s findings that one in four LGBTQ+ employees are not out at work.

McKinsey research found that half of out LGBTQ+ individuals have to come out at least once a week: especially challenging for women, junior employees, and people outside Europe and North America. BCG found 40% of U.S. LGBTQ employees are closeted at work and that 75% have experienced negative day-to-day workplace interactions related to their identity.

Yet being out has helped many to access more of their potential. According to LinkedIn, LGBTQ+ individuals report being open at work helps them connect with others for support and build better relationships. According to McKinsey, individuals experience greater well-being and are more able to focus on work. Those who are out are far less likely to plan to leave their current employer. But in absence of strong cultures of inclusion, many are deterred or facing headwinds.

According to CIPD research on LGBTQ+ inclusion, LGB+ employees (40%) and trans employees (55%) experience more workplace conflict and harassment than heterosexual employees (29%) and feel less psychological safety. LinkedIn found 31% reported facing discrimination or microaggressions at work.

Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law also found that nearly half (46%) of LGBT workers have experienced unfair treatment at work, such as harassment, dismissal or hiring discrimination based on their LGBT status. Nearly one-fourth have experienced discrimination when applying for jobs, and even more so for transgender workers.

67% of LGBT workers have heard slurs, jokes and negative comments about LGBT people. Half are not out to their supervisors. While 40% of LGBT cis-gender employees are likely to adopt behaviors to “cover,” nearly 60% of transgender employees are. Trans individuals are twice as likely to hear sexist jokes about people of their gender, three times more likely to feel they can’t talk about life outside of work, and think more often about leaving.

When it comes to advancing, McKinsey reports that many LGBTQ+ employees believe they have to outperform non-LGBTQ+ colleagues to gain recognition and 40% of LGBTQ+ women feel they need to provide extra evidence of their competence. Compared to 2/3 of non-LGBTQ+ employees, only half of LGBTQ+ respondents saw people like themselves in management positions at their organizations. Less than 1 in 4 of have an LGBTQ+ sponsor, even though senior LGBTQ+ leaders are twice as likely as straight and cis-gender peers to credit sponsors for their own career growth.

LGBTQ+ employees earn 90% on every $1 and transgender employees make 32% less per year than their cisgender peers. 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ U.S. employees feel discrimination has impacted their promotion or salary levels.

And a study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology found that leaders with same-sex sexual orientation are perceived to be less effective and receive less follower conformity than heterosexual leaders, regardless of gender presentation or biological gender, especially among male followers (women followers were more supportive). The researchers note that extra care must be taken to ensure same-sex sexual orientation leaders are evaluated fairly in performance reviews.

The Remote Workplace Has Mixed Impacts on LGBTQ+ Inclusion

In a global study, McKinsey found that LGBTQ+ employees in the remote workplace were 1.4 times more likely (twice as likely in Asia) than straight and cis-gender peers to report acute challenges with workload increase and fair performance reviews. They struggled more from a loss of workplace connectivity and belonging. Two of three LGBTQ+ employees reported acute or moderate challenges with mental health. Additionally, a survey of remote workers in tech reported that online harassment and hostility went up for LGBTQ workers during the pandemic.

McKinsey researchers noted: “The allyship found in social and work settings is an important source of belonging among many in the LBGTQ+ community.”

On the other hand, some LGBTQ+ employees found remote work to be a ‘game changer for inclusion.’ With remote work, employees can remain in a place where they have a supportive community and work for an employer in a different location. Some find the remote office reduces the pressure of office interactions and helps avoid appearance-based comments. It also makes it straight-forward to introduce pronouns.

The Cost for Lacking LGBTQ+ Inclusion

It’s been estimated that the US economy could save $9 billion annually if organizations had more effective inclusion policies for LGBTQ+ employees.

A recent argument in Forbes demonstrated that a lack of LGBTQ+ inclusion is costing companies. If an LGBTQ+ employee – either out or closeted – spends even 15 minutes of their day either explaining or evading uncomfortable situations related to their identity, it amounts to 65 hours a year, or over $1500 per LGBTQ+ employee based on median income, to compensate for a workplace that isn’t LGBTQ+ inclusive: which sums to a quarter million for a company with 10,000 employees or $2 billion for U.S. employers, annually.

“Add it all up, and employers are wasting a huge amount of money by not creating spaces where LGBTQ+ folks can bring their whole selves to work, do their jobs and be successful,” writes Michael Bach.

Meanwhile, many studies confirm that when employees are within a genuinely inclusive organizational culture, it benefits individuals, teams, organizations and the bottom line.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion Is a Cultural Commitment

While Pride Month is a celebration that lasts for a month, a LGBTQ+ employee needs to feel included – and protected from homophobia and transphobia – every day, and regardless if they choose to share their identity in the workplace. Because LGBTQ+ individuals are less visible than other underrepresented groups, organizations must go the extra mile.

Inclusion is not performative but about mitigating biases, creating authentic belonging, valuing LGBTQ+ voices and providing equal opportunity to contribute and fulfill potential. When it comes to LGBTQ+ inclusion, dedicated corporations advocate for legislative change and oppose legislative discrimination.

At a DEI commitment level, LGBTQ+ inclusion must be a specific priority and companies must seek to understand how individuals who are LGBTQ+ experience the office differently to other groups. It means visible leadership commitment to inclusion and leadership representation, and activating sponsorship of LGBTQ+ talent.

At an advocacy level, it means leveraging the corporate voice to oppose discriminatory legislation that targets the LGBTQ+ community and even leading the charge as powerful allies on LGBTQ+ rights.

At a policy and processes level, inclusion means making sure policies are LGBTQ+ inclusive such as domestic-partner benefit and trans-inclusive healthcare coverage as well as clear about non-discrimination on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation regardless of whether employees are “out”; mitigating assumptions and bias in hiring, reviews, pay and promotions; adapting technological interfaces to be inclusive (such as freedom to input chosen names in data fields); providing gender-neutral restrooms; and protecting employees from bullying whether in-office or online.

At the level of everyday cultural interactions, it means cultivating compassion and awareness among employees; using inclusive and gender-neutral language in the workplace; actively encouraging allyship, empowering better allyship and making allyship visible; investing in LGBTQ+ networks and rewarding contributions; setting aside safe spaces for voices to come forth; normalizing the adding of pronouns on LinkedIn and social media profiles; recognizing that identifies are fluent and complex and letting people tell you how they identify on their terms; celebrating LGBTQ+ calendar events and days; and most of all creating a culture of learning, openness and psychological safety.

It’s the organizations and leaders that champion not a month, but a sustained and iterative commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion, that will make a real difference to LGBTQ+ lives.

By Aimee Hansen

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A Matter of Pride: Words on Embracing Your Difference

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matter of prideAs part of celebrating Pride Month, The Glass Hammer features inspiring and empowering words on embracing wholeness, diversity and celebrating your difference – no matter what it is – from proud leaders from the LGBTQ+ community we have interviewed over the last five years. 

We re-share them in the spirit they inspire you to embrace your own uniqueness and difference, and celebrate those of others.

On finding both magnetism and internal strength in your difference.

“One of the things now running through my veins is the knowing that what makes me connect with people is the ways in which we are similar, what intrigues and draws me to people is the ways in which we are different.”

“I found a different lease on my otherness. I can’t chase everybody’s projection of me, but the more I recognize the uniqueness of my own experience, the more I feel I have to offer.”

Words from: Elena Kim: VP Business Development, TV/OTT at Global Music Rights

On recognizing diversity as a catalyst to growth and adding value.

“Any difference you think you may have is not a shortcoming. It’s always your springboard. You have to embrace that diverse part of you, because it’s only through diversity that we thrive.”

“Bring your difference to the table because that is what really adds value to an organization, to a meeting, to a friendship, to anything. That diverse point of view is what makes everything grow.”

Words From: Valeria Vitola: Managing Director, Anti-Money Laundering Region Head – Latin America (Except Mexico), Citibank

On why being yourself liberates you.

“Even if it did affect my career in some way, I don’t care. I’ll never know. I don’t care, because I feel like being out has made me more productive, more creative, more content than I could have imagined back then.” (on being the first out lesbian on the trading floor)

Words From: Erika Karp: Chief Impact Officer, Pathstone

“You often hear the phrase ‘bring your whole self to work,’ which underscores the concept that authenticity frees up discretionary energy, enabling you to engage more powerfully. For those in the LBGT+ community who are in the closet at work, it’s not simply that they are choosing to leave behind certain discretionary aspects of their lives, but rather they are actively hiding this very elemental aspect of their personhood.”

Words From: Corinne Heyes, HR Director for the Americas at Barclays

On why realizing your full potential requires your authentic self.

“Now this was 20 years ago, and times were different, but I hid who I was. I changed my image, tried to behave and walk differently, and it destroyed my career. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t, and I wasn’t authentic to myself or to the world around me. If I could do it over again, I would have behaved differently, even though it would have dissolved my access to income at the time. Trying to hide who I was made it impossible to be great. I couldn’t be my best without being my full self.” (in her experience as a former professional athlete)

Words From: Natalie Tucker: Head of Strategy & Operations, Radioligand Therapy

On finding a culture where you can thrive in your difference.

“I bring to the table my lived and learned experience as a woman, a lesbian woman, a Hispanic woman. The things that kept me quiet in the room before are the things making me speak the loudest in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion space.”

“Go somewhere where you can be yourself. I’m very passionate in my delivery and it’s part of my culture. Making sure I’m in an environment where that doesn’t have to be shut off is important. Look for environments that are ready to receive you, because that’s where you’ll be your most productive, innovative, creative and strategic.”

Words from: Noelle Ramirez: Project Manager, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, PGIM (career update: VP, Morgan Stanley)

On sharing your authentic self as the foundation of trust-building.

“Sharing our personal lives helps us be a more cohesive team. When pressure and deadlines come, you can get through those rough times better when you have established a high level of trust.”

Words From: Terry Albarella, Vice President, Enterprise Architecture, Prudential Financial (career update: Senior Manager, IT Operations, Relativity)

On not boxing yourself out of opportunities based on expectations.

“Diversity is an asset and a valuable contribution to a large organization such as Goldman Sachs. Junior women should not be swayed by misconceptions that the financial services industry is searching for ‘cookie-cutter’ candidates – it’s important to be yourself because everyone brings something new and different to the table.”

Words From: Michelle Nyberg, Vice President, Services Division, Goldman Sachs (career update: Executive Director, General Manager of Corporate & Workplace Solutions + ESG liaison, Goldman Sachs Australia)

On challenging stereotypes and being a visible inspiration to others.

“It can be hard to find your confidence when you’re not being your true self. I often having people saying that I don’t look gay, and for me that’s an invitation to break the barriers down on a daily basis so we can treat everyone as equals.”

Words From: Laura Raymond, Vice President and Business Development Officer, Wells Fargo Commercial Banking

“When you are open and visible about who you are, others who may be struggling can see that and say ‘She’s doing it and seems to be ok, and maybe I will too.’ Even if you never interact with them, you can be a lighthouse that offers that level of comfort…The most important thing you can do is be yourself; in fact you can’t be successful without it.”

Words From: Francesca Harris, Business Development Manager, PwC UK

“You get a different perspective from unusual backgrounds and combinations of influences. It’s eye-opening for so many people and paves the way for them to be themselves.”

“Having a lesbian woman in the highest position changes the perspective on everything, and I appreciate that I can be a role model for women, lesbians and anyone who’s different from the stereotypes people have in their heads.”

Words from: Liesbeth Botha, Strategic Digital Transformation Leader at PwC Africa (career update: Chief Digital Officer, PwC Africa)

On going beyond your difference to rise into allyship for others.

“ln my attempts to make sure I kept my job and kept growing in the way I wanted to, did I do enough speaking out on behalf of others around me? Did I do enough ally work? I think the answer, probably up until recently, is ‘no.’” (on her rising commitment to allyship for others)

Words From: Caroline Samponaro: Head of Transit & Micromobility Policy, Lyft

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Avoid These Four Leadership Failures To Retain Employees Through The Great Resignation

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Great ResignationFor more than a year, the employment world has experienced significant upheaval as millions of workers make a mass exodus from the traditional workplace: a phenomenon now commonly called ‘the Great Resignation’. Women leaders who recognize and avoid four common leadership failures in the workplace will be better placed to retain their best employees through these turbulent times.

World-wide, leaders are grappling to understand what is fueling ‘the Great Resignation’. Also known as ‘the Big Quit’ and ‘the Great Reshuffle’, this is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse since early 2021, primarily in the US.

Research into this phenomenon that is wreaking havoc in the employment world suggests that many people are rethinking their careers, seeking a better work-life balance, facing up to long-endured job dissatisfaction, and preferring the flexibility of remote work.

As ‘the Great Resignation’ unfolds, there has never been a more important time for business leaders to think smart to ensure their work environment appeals to the post-Covid generation of workers.

Here are the four fundamental leadership failures that drive good employees away. Recognizing and rectifying these leadership failures will provide women leaders with an edge to help them retain good employees amid a mass exodus.

Rectifying leadership failure 1: Treating employees as the primary customers

The first crucial leadership failure is not recognizing that the employee is actually the primary customer.

Employees are initially drawn to work for a company because of various reasons, such as the company’s reputation. Ultimately, however, good employees stick around because of how well a company looks after them.

 Employees should therefore be treated as the primary customer. This means that each employee should be treated, cared for, managed, and responded to in a way that is consistent with how the company wants its customers to be treated.

Not only does it set a good example to manage employees this way, but it also increases one of the most important assets of any company: credibility, and the trust it brings. Employees want to work with and for a company that they can trust.

Rectifying leadership failure 2 – Recognizing leadership is not management

Another crucial leadership failure is not recognizing the difference between leadership and management.

Most companies have a management culture, which is not the same as proper leadership. Management is important and is a part of leadership responsibility. Managers have to make people follow, but leaders make people want to follow. Managers bring about compliance, but what leaders are able to create is buy-in, and this increases the likelihood of employees bringing their best self to work.

Recognizing the difference between management and leadership not only increases the likelihood of recruiting and retaining good employees, it also increases the chances of having a team that gives their best effort and go beyond the regular call of duty.

Rectifying leadership failure 3 – Realizing valued compensation is not just financial

The failure to recognize that finances are not the only form of valued compensation is a third common leadership failure today.

This is a recent development and is clear when considering the work patterns of the Millennium generation. This is the first generation in some time that does not out earn the previous generation. And it’s not because this generation is not capable or competent, but rather because they value some things more than money, such as flexibility, being part of something bigger or being valued as individuals.

Whereas paying employees so well that they tolerate toxicity in their working environment – often called ‘golden handcuffs’ – may have worked in the past, but will not work in the future.

Rectifying leadership failure 4 – Recognizing that EQ is the IQ multiplier

Last, but certainly not least, is the leadership failure of not recognizing that EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) multiplier, especially now during ‘the Great Resignation’. 

It’s not that employees are avoiding work, or that they prefer to stay at home, but rather that many have had a glimpse of what it’s like to work in peace and don’t want to return to a toxic work culture.

For this reason, building Emotional Intelligence is a core leadership competency. Fortunately, building EQ is possible, and requires attention to each of the four qualities of EQ, briefly described below.


The four qualities of EQ
  1. Self-awareness, referring to how well you are aware of yourself as a leader.
  2. Self-management, which is the ability to manage yourself based on what you know about yourself.
  3. Social awareness, or the ability to discern the difference in others’ relationship management approaches.
  4. Relationship management, which is determining how different people communicate, comprehend and are motivated, and the ability to lead and respond accordingly.

In a post-COVID work world, dominated by ‘the Big Resignation”, being an emotionally intelligent leader – able to manage yourself and others – is key and critical to recruiting and keeping good employees.

By: Dr. Dharius Daniels is an emotional intelligence expert, author of Relational Intelligence: The People Skills You Need For The Life Of Purpose You Want, and former professor at Princeton University.

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Q&A with Mary Matheson, British Film Director on Immersive Storytelling For Social Impact

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Mary MathesonWe interviewed Mary Matheson, an award-winning British director known for directing character-driven films in innovative ways for social impact. She was recently the lead director of the 10-part 360° New Realities VR Series 10 Young Women 10 Countries. One World, which showcases the stories of 10 young female activists across the world with focus on themes of education and fair access to technology, created for the Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset.

Matheson is currently directing a multi-platform documentary about the women behind NASA’s Artemis women-led mission to the Moon. Matheson mixes the latest technology (mobile, augmented and virtual reality) with intimate documentary techniques to bring the audience into the heart of the narrative. We spoke to her about creating impact, both through her work and in this new industry.

Q: Tell us about what has driven your career long passion for making films of social impact, especially related to women.

I started out as a journalist cutting my teeth in Latin America (in Venezuela and Colombia) when I was 23 years old, reporting on the Guerrilla War and drug cartels. My passion has always been to communicate between two different people – between characters and the audience. I’ve specialized in foreign stories, often in conflict or post-conflict zones, but what’s interested me most is the stories we don’t hear.

Even if you think about Ukraine, social media has enabled us to hear stories that we wouldn’t normally have heard through mainstream media. When I started out, those things didn’t exist. I was always more interested in what we weren’t hearing and weren’t seeing, and being able to communicate that. So leaving behind straightforward journalism, I began to focus on communication with a purpose and greater objective: communicating what life was like for the people that we often see or hear about from one particular point of view, and I’ve always been interested in sharing the other point of view.

Q: How has Virtual Reality (VR) created the platform of ‘immersive storytelling’?

Immersive storytelling is literally being able to step into the story. Instead of peering through the window into another person’s world, you open the door and step inside.

Virtual reality became another tool for me to use to communicate with audiences and try to convey another person’s experience, so they can understand what it’s like in a country they wouldn’t normally visit. What has been incredible about VR is that it suddenly opens this extraordinary door to a whole world that you can feel you’re part of, rather than just viewing.

For me, that was transformational in terms of both my work and the characters themselves being able to communicate with you, the audience, directly. In a way, as a director, I stopped being the interpreter of the story and became the facilitator between two people.

The 10 Young Women series is a 360° film series- it’s shot like a film and looks incredibly real. You feel like you’re immersed in their world, because you’ve got the Quest 2 headset on and the audio is also 360 degrees, so you’re cut off from your real world environment. Your body and your mind suspend belief, and you feel like you’re in the country with the girl you are visiting. She talks to you directly, usually looking right at you, so you feel like you’re a good friend of hers – and she’s just telling you her story.

In India, due to the timing with Covid, we ended up sending the camera to the young woman herself, taught her how to use it, and she shot the film herself. That episode has an extraordinary authenticity, like a video diary shot brilliantly from her perspective.

Q: How were you impacted by working on the 10 Young Women series?

I now try to involve and co-create the characters in the filmmaking as much as possible, giving them power in the narration of what goes in and what doesn’t. I talk to them about what they would like to do, and it means you get these extraordinary authentic moments you would never expect, and little snapshots of their lives that you wouldn’t normally get if I was imposing my ideas. It’s revolutionized my job. Even as somebody who’s traveled a lot, I’m constantly surprised by reality and the true story.

For example, I was in Germany filming with a young Syrian woman who faces a lot of racism in Germany. I had the idea to have her sitting static and have people walking all around her and use the sound to hear all the words that she hears, hear the racism she faces and feel how she feels. She was absolutely furious with me and said, why should I have to go through this again? She wanted to do it differently. She wanted a very strong image of herself (which ended up being on a bike cycling) and to talk about how supported she felt by her mom, her sister and her aunts. Her idea was to use the ululation singing of her aunts in Syria around her, and it’s such an extraordinary moment in the film.

The technology and this industry is at such a wonderful, innovative and creative place. We all know how to shoot a sequence in a film smoothly and the techniques to use to create a certain feeling, whereas with virtual reality, we’re at the dawn. Even though I’ve done a lot of 360° filmmaking now, I’m still trying out new techniques every single time. So it’s really liberating and very experimental and invites co-creation.

Q: Tara Brach, Ph.D, talks about creating ‘unreal others’ – how when distanced from someone, we project into their world, making them unreal. The more distant a group, the easier it is to do that. What role do you think immersive storytelling plays in making others ‘real’ and creating empathy and compassion?

Even from the beginning of my work, I was really committed to trying to reduce “othering” and for me, this is just such a powerful tool that’s indescribable until you get in there. Once you do, you suddenly feel that you’re there and it does take you to a different level of empathy.

We talk about something called presence, which is like where you feel present in a different place, and the goal for me as a Creator is to make you feel present in that world. That’s what creates the feeling of empathy, or perhaps a different feeling, but it’s strong because you feel that you’re present. There’s examples where the headset technology has even been used to help people with trauma, to help opposing sides come towards agreement through empathy, and in peace building.

Q: How has virtual reality impacted upon and changed your creative process and sensory awareness, as a director and a creator?

Suddenly I have a toolkit at my fingertips that is extraordinary and has multiplied. I am now using techniques from theater and from gaming. I’m 53 years old and I’m not a gamer or technical person – but I’m using gaming techniques all the time now. It’s just blown my mind. I’m learning and using new skills with every experience.

For example, sound is transformational. Because as a director in VR, I can make a sound behind you and you’ll turn and look behind you. So, now you can use sound as a tool to direct your viewer’s gaze.

I have had to also learn about techniques from working with immersive theater – how to draw an audience in and do blocking, a technique that you use in theater and fictional filmmaking, not in documentary. In virtual reality we talk about creating a world you’re setting up for somebody to step into, not necessarily a scene as in film, and I’ve learned about that from working with immersive theater groups.

Q: What would be an example of a gaming technique you find compelling?

I never realized gaming is so extraordinary in the sophistication of their storytelling. It’s complex and layered. Branching narrative is a classic gaming technique I’m using.

For example, I’m working on a project on NASA, about the new Artemis mission, which will put a woman on the moon for the first time in 2024. There’s a main storyline, but you’ll also be able to go off and discover more about the astronauts if you want to dig deeper into their narratives, and then come back to the main storyline.

But there are also other ways of using branch narrative where you take a choice, go down a storyline, and don’t necessarily come back to the same ending.

For example, female director Gaëlle Mourre created this experience called Mechanical Souls, examining the difference between humans and avatars. As the viewer, you didn’t know you were making a choice, but your choices were made by where you looked in the scene. If you looked in a particular direction and were more interested, then the storyline would go along in that direction. Whereas, if you were looking over here at this person, then you’d start to follow a different storyline. At the end of that experience, everybody took off their headsets, started talking and realized they’d had different experiences based on where they’d put their attention.

Another experience I had was in Northern Iraq, where I was creating an experience about the Yazidi people, who were attacked by ISIS in 2014 and lot of the women were taken as sex slaves. The way I branched the narrative was that, as the viewer, you could choose whose perspective you wanted to hear about – whether from the young woman who had been taken as a slave, from her brother who had survived an attack or from the perspective of an ISIS fighter. These were all documentary interviews, but you as the viewer can choose whose perspective you want to listen to about a particular moment in time. And you could go back and listen to all of them, too. That’s not how I would structure a story if I was making a regular film – it would have incorporated the different viewpoints or come from one particular viewpoint.

Q: What further creative possibilities are you excited about in this industry?

I’ve just taken up a job as Professor of Practice for Arizona State University’s new center for Narrative and Emerging Media in Los Angeles. What I find really exciting is helping other people to learn about this technology and making sure they understand what they can do. I’ve had students build completely different immersive experiences. It builds on my knowledge, and then I say see what you can do and they go off and do something extraordinary.

I love film, so I personally get really excited about photo-real stuff. Animation and CGI are dominating the space, but photoreal is getting there, little by little. It’s not going to be long before you can have holograms in VR that will be live – you’ll be able to talk to somebody in Kurdistan or Northern Iraq, in photo-real 3D embodiment.

Another passion of mine is getting this technology out to the underrepresented voices. It’s about making sure that those people have access to the technology and there are no obstacles in the way. That’s often what the problem is – not that people don’t want to or don’t know how to do it – but that they’re blocked. We just need to make sure the obstacles aren’t there. Maybe not everyone can afford a headset, but we can make them available, such as in libraries or community centers, so there’s not a block to entry. We’re in the middle of working that out at a grassroots level in LA.

Q: What are the opportunities to create more equitability of voices in this industry?

We’re right at the start, it’s a whole new medium, and we can set the new rules. For example, I’m passionate that this is not for young people, but everybody. Why shouldn’t women in their fifties do this? There’s a lot of cultural prejudice against middle-aged women, that we won’t be able to keep up with technology. There is a myth around VR being techy or gaming, that it isn’t our world, but actually why shouldn’t it be? We can simply use it for what we want it to be.

In terms of diversity, equity and inclusion, what’s really interesting for me is who’s creating and distributing these narratives? How do we, early on in this game, meaningfully create an industry that is equitable? How do we really change the structure so it becomes an industry that has proper representation? It’s still white and male, and there’s yet also a strong female directing presence. But where the money goes is the big thing. When it comes to venture capitalists and female run businesses, that’s where we’ve got to really put in a lot of work – both bottom-up and top-down.

From the bottom up, that means looking at the big companies – who they’re hiring, who they’re giving internships to. Looking at people’s potential as opposed to necessarily their qualifications is a really interesting and different way of hiring people, not necessarily through traditional routes. It also means making sure funding, not only venture capitalists, but other types of funding both within business and also foundations, goes towards women, BIPOC communities and other marginalized voices.

We have an opportunity now to ensure that it’s really a representative industry that is being created and built in a way that reflects society, so it’s not one singular point of view that we’re seeing. That’s what I’ve always been excited to be a part of, and the possibility I see here, too.

Interviewed by Aimee Hansen

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Asian American Women Leaders: No Equity or Inclusion without Promotion.

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Asian American Women LeadersDiversity is not the same as equity and inclusion, and that case is made strongly by the real gap between the large numbers of Asian Americans and Asian American women in professional roles and the slight numbers holding senior and executive leadership positions.

An evolution of both equitability in promotions and more inclusive images of leadership is needed to breakthrough the nebulous bamboo ceiling – propped up by perceptions, stereotypes, projections and some cultural differences that have very little to do with leadership competency.

It’s A Promotion Issue

When we talk Asian American heritage in the U.S., we are talking about a widely diverse aggregate of people – individuals from distinctive ethnic backgrounds from 3 major regions and over 20 countries: East Asians (incl. Chinese and Japanese individuals), South Asians (incl. Indians and Pakistanis) and Southeast Asians (incl. Thai and Vietnamese individuals).

As a diverse whole, this fastest-growing demographic group of Asian Americans are over-represented among the highly educated and the professional workforce, but highly underrepresented in leadership: they represent 7% of the U.S. population, 13% of the U.S. professional workforce and only 6% of executive posts. Only 4 CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are Asian American women, 4 CEOS of S&P 500, and none of the S&P 100.

Asian Americans are least likely to be promoted to senior management and leadership: In 2016, Ascend found that one of every 12 white men and one of every 28 white women in the professional workforce is an executive, but only one of every 30 Asian American men and one of every 64 Asian American women have reached executive level.

This invisible barrier to senior leadership shows up across professional sectors:

  • Ascend found that only 1 out of every 285 Asian women and 1 out of every 201 Asian men in Silicon Valley was an executive.
  • Yale reported that Asian Americans have the lowest ratio of parters to associates.
  • Asian Americans manage less than 1% of capital in the asset management industry despite meeting and exceeding industry performance benchmarks.
  • While comprising 23% of middle managers and professionals in banking’s six largest U.S. lenders, Asian Americans make up only 7% to 19% of executives in these organizations.

As Buck Gee, researcher and executive advisor to Ascend, summarizes: “The problem is equity of promotions.”

The Gaps in Inclusion and Addressing Discrimination

Not surprisingly, 65% of AAPI managers view the bamboo ceiling as a moderate to serious problem in their careers and nearly all see it as problematic – yet Asians are too often not prioritized or even included in DEI efforts. In Bain’s research on belonging and inclusion, Asians – both men (16%) and women (20%) – felt the least included of anyone, even though more represented than other groups in many environments.

45% of Asian adults have experienced outwardly offensive incidents since the start of the pandemic. 67% of Asians feel business has ignored racism against their community, 58% say racism in the workplace has damaged their relationship to their employer and 55% say little has been practically done to address systemic racism.

As highlighted last year during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the myriad form of discrimination and stereotypes that Asians experience are invalidated, obscured and gaslighted by the “model minority” mythology. These include lack of ethnic discernment, cultural ignorance, imposed cultural stereotypes as well as real cultural values and communication norms at odds with Western ‘masculine’ leadership concepts, racialized sexism/sexualized racism, and disproportionate work expectations due to perceptions of being content with self-sacrificing, hard-working, and delivering high performance standards. In terms of microaggressions, the term “interchangeable Asian” has come to qualify the frequent experience of being mistaken for someone else alongside the presumption of the perpetual foreigner.

Experiences of Exclusion Despite Representation in Tech

Ascend previously found that while Asian Americans comprised the largest cohort of entry-level, non-managerial employees with a college degree in Silicon Valley (47%), they are half as likely as white men and white women to hold positions within two reporting levels of the CEO.

Due to representation, Asian women are often excluded from DEI initiatives, but a Center for Worklife Law report released in April on women of color in tech reveals that the experiences of diverse Asian women in tech more closely parallel other women of color who are underrepresented.

East Asian women report lower engagement and career satisfaction. They are 66% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 42% more likely to have felt demeaned, disrespected, left out of the loop, or treated as invisible, 47% more likely than white women to have their competence and commitment put into question when becoming mothers, and 38% more likely to have difficulty getting administrative support.

South Asian women were 60% less likely than white women to see a long-term future in tech, 54% more likely to be given work beneath their skillset, and 54% more likely to feel that distancing from those like them was a politically savvy move at work. Whereas Southeast Asian women were 29% more likely than white women to leave a job for the workplace culture, 57% more likely to feel called on to perform emotional labor, 51% more likely to feel corralled into traditionally feminine roles, 45% more likely to feel perceived as a team player not a leader, and 43% more likely to feel expected to be a worker bee.

Diversifying the Image of Leadership

We previously called out that organizations are blatantly overlooking Asian American women leaders, who are already in the talent pipeline but getting caught in a career plateau, and organizations need to diversify the image of leadership:

  • Western leadership norms that are too narrow and over-emphasize “assertiveness,” not even the best indicator of an effective leader, are keeping East Asians from the US C-Suite. Too often, the cultural norms of humility and conformity are perceived as a lack of confidence or motivation, which they are not.
  • Insights into successful C-Suite Asian American Executives reveal many source their leadership in the non-visible values of continuous learning, collectivism and humility – but a too narrow definition of leadership inhibits companies from recognizing and promoting diverse leaders in, and for, their authentic leadership styles.

Asian-American Bain Partners and researchers, Karthik Venkataraman and Pam Yee, observe that equitability in systemic enablers (relative to everyday behavioral enablers) – such as performance management, promotion and recruitment – are more meaningful to Asian-Americans in creating inclusion. This is not surprising when statistics reveal that systemic inequities are at play in creating unequitable outcomes – and real interventions need to happen.

For one, clearly Asian Americans need to be included in equity and inclusion strategies, and formal executive sponsorship programs are needed to support Asian American women into those leadership spaces. If you’re a leader, considering being the sponsor that supports with visibility and exposure, and advocates for high-profile work and opportunities, for an Asian American woman who is being overlooked. If you’re an Asian American woman and you don’t have one now or have never had one, truly consider finding a sponsor to advocate for you, even if it’s uncomfortable to ask.

Inclusion means that individuals feel equitably valued and supported as their authentic selves, empowered, and able to fulfill their potential in the workplace. Bain Partners Venkataraman and Yee reflect on the leadership gap for Asian Americans, that also exists in their organization, and the potential cost of assimilation their generations made: “We believe that our junior colleagues are going to insist on being able to bring more of their cultures and experiences to the workplace than we did so that they can feel as though they belong as their authentic selves, and we need to do our part to make that possible for them.”

Indeed.

By Aimee Hansen

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Why Micro-affirmations Matter as a Leader

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micro-affirmationsWhile microaggressions and micro-inequities contribute to experiences of exclusion for many at work, frequent experiences of micro-affirmations could help to cultivate a culture of inclusion. Every single person is capable of being an agent of micro-affirmations – and as a woman leader, you’re more likely to be ahead of the curve.

Microaggressions and Micro-Inequities Create Exclusion

Microaggressions are the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to marginalized groups. Though often unconscious, they perpetuate a devalued “otherness” by: establishing the majority group as the norm, “highlighting a person’s ‘difference’ from the majority represented group” in a way that diminishes, discomforts or disapproves, and reinforcing thinly veiled stereotypes. This includes “complimenting” an individual in a way that implies “exception” to a hidden underlying group assumption.

Verbal examples that different members of BIPOC communities experience include:

  • “Your name is hard to pronounce.”
  • “You’re so articulate.”
  • “But, where are you really from?”
  • “I don’t see color.”
  • “Your English is really good.”

In a similar vein, micro-inequities are “cumulative, subtle messages that promote a negative bias and demoralize.” These reaffirm the status quo of power dynamics and discourage, devalue and impair workplace performance for non-majority groups.

Common gender related examples that women face include:

  • Asking the woman in the room to get the coffees
  • Mansplaining and manterruption
  • More multi-tasking on phones while a woman is speaking
  • A woman’s idea being dismissed and later mis-attributed to a man
  • Women in the room receiving less eye contact from the speaker

Microaggressions create cumulative psychological harm – impacting upon mental, emotional, and physical health. Long-term exposure is associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and can be corrosive to self-worth and self-esteem.

In Forbes, Paolo Gaudino suggests that one effective way to measure inclusion is to ask people whether and how often they have incidents of exclusion. The sum impact of microaggressions and micro-inequities is the substantial harm of exclusion.

Micro-affirmations Help to Creating Inclusion

According to Mary Rowe at MIT, “micro-affirmations” are “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard-to-see, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective, which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed.” They foster inclusion, listening, comfort, and support for people who may feel unwelcome or invisible in an environment. Micro-affirmations can proactively affirm belonging, value and sense of self.

As shared by The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University, “Micro-affirmations substitute messages about deficit and exclusion with messages of excellence, openness, and opportunity.”

Drawing on her own experience as an executive at an international engineering firm years ago, Change Catalyst CEO Melinda Briana Epler, defines micro-affirmations as “little ways that you can affirm someone’s identity; recognize and validate their experience and expertise; build confidence; develop trust; foster belonging; and support someone in their career.”

University of Kansas research found that being aware of a male ally who is vocal about gender equality reduces anticipated feelings of isolation for women in STEM and increases anticipation of support and respect. Research has shown that experiencing micro-affirmations – such as “affirmations that people of your culture/ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation are important contributors to advancing knowledge,” “affirmations that you are a scientist,” and “affirmations that you can complete your degree” – help increase student’s integration into the science community and intentions to persist in the STEM field. Other research has suggested that integrating micro-affirmations in academic advising in the college environment could fuel optimal student development and better engagement, retention and graduation outcomes.

Rowe hypothesizes that regular practice of using micro-affirmations could increase one’s tendency to be “universally respectful” to others. Affirming others has the potential to create a positivity loop that ultimately fosters a more inclusive culture – supporting both marginalized voices in the workplace and your female peers and colleagues.

What Do Micro-affirmations Look Like in Action?

As found in the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report, employees report women are more likely showing concern for the overall well-being of their reports, supporting them emotionally and checking in on their work/life challenges

“Allyship is really seeing the person next to us,” says Epler. “And the person missing, who should be standing next to us.” She encourages us to all be allies to each other.

Here are examples of everyday micro-affirmations that you can use to help support others, especially those underrepresented and marginalized voices in your teams:

  • Give your undivided presence when others are speaking or presenting. As a leader, you have the opportunity to model being attentive to and listening to others. Notice when you go for your phone or an e-mail. Ask thoughtful questions that reflect real engagement.
  • Be an active listener. Use reinforcing body language. Eye contact, nods, facial expressions, tone of voice and choice of words all contribute to convey care and listening. By repeating back key points that struck you, you can let others know you were attentive and valued what they shared.
  • Invite individuals from marginalized communities into the room with you to be part of the discussion. Also help to create the space so they are heard, which may include leveraging your position of relative power to intercept an interruption. Using your voice to advocate for the voices of others is empowering to everyone.
  • Echo good ideas that members of your team raise and attribute those ideas back to the person, especially when you see their ideas being overlooked or highjacked. Support your female colleagues and underrepresented voices to receive the due credit for their contributions. “Building upon what Jasmine said” is one approach.
  • Publicly acknowledge the accomplishments, expertise and skills of marginalized team members and help raise their profile with others, especially as many have to reassert these more just to be heard. Reflecting back qualities or contributions you appreciate to individuals can also impact upon feeling seen and valued.
  • “Mirror” the language that people use to describe their identity. Epler emphasizes to listen and learn to how people describe themselves so you can use that language. Pay attention to how someone refers to their gender or pronouns. Don’t make assumptions about sexual orientation. If you don’t know how to say a name, ask and then, get it right.
  • Create openings for the underrepresented voices in the room. If someone is consistently quiet or not participating, check in on them, also as they may feel more comfortable to share ideas in another forum. Invite the less heard voices in the room to contribute on topics where you know they have value to add and encourage in confidence with your desire to hear it.
  • Give opportunities for visibility. When you receive an invitation to a networking opportunity, consider if you can bring an underrepresented individual along. When you have a speaking invitation, can you also use highlight an expert in your team and share the spotlight? For events you participate in, hold event organizers accountable for having diversity of representation. Refer and encourage underrepresented people to go for opportunities – help to close the confidence gap and mentor or sponsor them.
  • Acknowledge important moments – birthdays, milestones, holidays, anniversaries – which shows that you are paying attention to others and care. Overcome affinity bias by taking a genuine interest in people in your team who are less like you and in what their lives might be like outside of work.
  • Provide honest feedback, formal and informal, and both positive and constructive. Epler notes women tend to receive less quality feedback, and more on communication style than actionable developmental skills. While everyone needs to hear what they are doing well, make sure you are not shying away from giving constructive input to anyone out of discomfort, if it will serve their growth and development.

As Rowe says, micro-affirmations may often even be unconscious, too, as they just feel like caring. But you can actively create inclusion for others by intentionally affirming the value and contribution that we each bring to the table.

By Aimee Hansen

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How To Weigh The Risks Of Your Next Career Move

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Career Move“The Great Resignation” has been circling headlines for months as employers look to fill open positions post-pandemic, and employees look for greener pastures with a career move. The job hunt is increasingly competitive as 44% of employees are actively looking for new roles and 53% are open to leaving their current job.

The good news is that there’s no shortage of open positions. As of January 2022, the U.S. had 11.26 million jobs available — a 55% increase from January of 2021. The pressure to hire has encouraged employers to consider increased pay, benefits, and flexibility at work.

Diving into a new job presents plenty of opportunities to develop your career, skills, and financial wellness. It can also be intimidating to learn new processes, develop new relationships, and potentially find yourself in a less-than-ideal working environment.

After refining your resume, applying to positions daily, and attending a few interviews, you may finally find yourself presented with a job offer. A gleaming opportunity that may offer higher pay or a more prestigious job title, but you can’t be sure of its work-life balance or career challenges yet.

Some well-deserving workers may even receive multiple offers to consider. These situations create pressure to make a decision relatively quickly. It’s a good spot to be in, but having the skills to evaluate risk and rewards lets you fully enjoy the moment and guides you to make a confident decision.

If you’re in the middle of a job hunt or considering other career opportunities, here are some steps to help you weigh the options.

1. Identify Your Priorities

Your individual needs for your next career move are unique to you, and understanding those goals helps you create a framework for comparing offers. A majority of workers (56%) are looking for a pay raise, but there are several job benefits to consider, including:

  • Health benefits
  • Job security
  • Flexibility at work
  • Career goals
  • Employer culture

Take time to list the potential benefits of a new job and rank what’s most important to you. This is a great practice before you start applying so you can save your time and energy for positions that best fit your needs. It can also help you decide how well your current position matches your needs to consider if you’re ready for a change or not.

Next, make a spreadsheet or other list that includes all of these benefits and rank how well each job opportunity meets these criteria. This creates an easy and objective reference to compare jobs that you can update to reflect your needs as they evolve.

2. Research The Position

The internet age has given us a range of resources to evaluate employers and job expectations that too many employees don’t take advantage of. While you likely studied a company, its values, and the position itself throughout the interview process, another review before signing on is worth your time.

Start with the company itself and explore its communication channels. YouTube videos, press releases, and the About page can help you identify cultural values, how the company has and continues to grow, and insights into management. Some companies even go as far as to share their hiring secrets — a great reference in the interview phase.

Review sites like Glassdoor provide a peek into the employee experience through position and interview reviews. Check out the site to vet your priorities against what other employees report their experience with the company was. You’ll also have access to salary ranges that will help you negotiate your pay.

Finally, you’ll get the best information straight from current and former employees. Check out the company’s LinkedIn page to find current employees and search the company name to find anyone who previously worked there. You can connect with workers and send a quick chat that you’d like to know more about their experiences. You may be surprised to find how willing people are to help you find a job that fits.

3. List Your Risks

Most people stuck between two options are worried about making the wrong decision more than they are making the best decision. They’re hung up on the risks, wondering if it’s a step backward or if they’re really cut out for the position.

Imposter syndrome aside, it’s important to consider the risks of a new position. To compare the risks of staying and leaving, you need to start by identifying them. Sit with the moment and feel your excitement, fear, hesitation, and joy. What’s the root of each of these feelings? You may think:

  • “There’s no room to grow in my current position.”
  • “What if I don’t work well with my new manager?”
  • “If this career change doesn’t work out, I may have to restart where I am now.”
  • “If this startup goes under, I have to job hunt again.”

List these risks under the decision it ties to. Visually seeing the number of risks for each choice is helpful, but not all risks are equal. Place the biggest risks at the top of each list and continue the list from most to least risky.

moving careers

 

4. Evaluate And Control Risk

Now that you have clear lists of your potential risks and rewards, go back and consider how you can negate some of the risks. Here are some examples from the previous exercise:

  • If there’s no room to grow in your current position, is there a new skill you can develop to open higher career opportunities?
  • If you’re worried about your next manager, can you set up a meet and greet through the employer?

This practice can also uncover that the risks aren’t holding you back so much as a fear of change. That’s absolutely natural. Especially considering the economic turbulence of the last two years. Still, 80% of employees that quit their job in the last two years have no regrets.

5. Make The Decision That’s Right For You

Changing jobs is an excellent way to advance your career and financial health. Salaries increase an average 14.8% with a new role — especially if you’re early in your career. On the other hand, you’re placed in a new environment to develop new working relationships, which comes with its own networking benefits.

Ultimately, there’s probably not a right or wrong answer. No matter what you choose, you have the option to continue looking for new opportunities if you don’t love where you land. If you land in a position that helps you thrive, that’s a huge win for your well-being and career.

Following the steps above can give you peace of mind that you’re making the best choice with the information available to you. But remember that your next job is far from the end of the line, and there’s always another opportunity around the corner.

By: Bri Marvell is a content creator from Austin with interests in financial wellness and career development. When she’s not at her desk, you can find her exploring the city with her dog, Miko, or getting creative with a new craft.

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Inclusion: One Destination, Many Intersectional Paths?

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Over 2/3 of companies say that DEI work is critical, and the conversation these days centers on fostering cultures of inclusion to support the diversity of workplaces we need to have, do have and will have – if organizations are optimizing potential. Organizations are increasingly aware that “diversity without inclusion is exclusion.”

According to a new Bain report from a survey of 10,000 people (4,500 women) in seven countries entitled “The Fabric of Belonging: How to Weave an Inclusive Culture,” most people agree on what inclusion looks and feels like, but what actually creates the outcome of feeling fully included is more complicated – not only to organizations, but also to individuals, themselves.

Inclusion is Nearly Universally Defined, But Rare?

We all want to belong, but how we get there, together, can feel enigmatic and the solution is far from a one-size-fits-all approach. People, regardless of individual identities, levels and experiences – describe what inclusion feels like and what it looks like in very similar, nearly universal ways.

When it comes to what inclusion feels like, the researchers define inclusion as: “the feeling of belonging in your organization and team, feeling treated with dignity as an individual, and feeling encouraged to fully participate and bring your uniqueness to work every day.” When it comes to what it looks like, people to tend to come together on the notion that an inclusive organization is diverse and where people are heard, valued and supported. Other research has shown that we feel inclusion only when our needs for both uniqueness and belongingness are met.

While people hold a universal ideal of what inclusion means to them, one of the most “stark” takeaways Bain asserts is that the majority of employees – regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation – do not feel fully included (less than 30%), including those we tend to regard as most favored by the system and in positions of influence and power (straight white men). And no one demographic indicator can predict who feels excluded.

However, as Bain points out, “Even though the feeling of inclusion is fundamentally the same across groups, our research shows that the lived experience of inclusion is driven for various groups by a diverse variety of factors.”

To add some grounding, too, another perspective is that inclusion is really a net effect of day-to-day interactions, and individuals in particular groups experience acts and outcomes of exclusion far more frequently than individuals in other groups. In Forbes, Gaudino writes that “inclusion is invisible to those who enjoy it, because inclusion reflects the absence of negative incidents that make one feel excluded.”

Among the many examples we could draw on, McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance and 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair. Or consider that 59% of black women reported never having a casual interaction with a senior leader, versus 40% for all men and 49% for all women. Or that Asian American women have been the least likely group to experience being promoted to management.

If the experience of feeling “fully included” is pretty low in general, the evidence of exclusion is still highly punctuated for individuals in particular groups.

Feeling Included Matters For Individuals and Organizations

Amidst The Great Resignation, the feeling of inclusion is important to retention. Women who feel excluded at work are 3 times more likely to quit. Employees experiencing low inclusion are up to six times more likely to actively pursue new jobs compared with those in similar demographics experiencing high inclusion.

On the flip side, Bain found that approximately 65% of people across identity groups view an inclusive environment as “very important when considering new roles.” Employees who do feel fully included are much more likely to promote positive word of mouth about their organization. People in more inclusive environments, where psychologically safety is present, are more likely to innovate, challenge the status quo, and bring new ideas to the table. Bain argues the gains in creative thinking from inclusiveness are much greater than increasing diversity alone.

Just What Creates Inclusion?

Not surprisingly, the researchers found people hold different deep-seated notions on what creates inclusion, and those beliefs can clash in ways that create strong discomfort.

What is even more critical is that individual’s perceived notions of which “behavioral” and “systemic changes” would create more inclusion do not always match up to what actually drives impact or the experience of inclusion, so leaders are advised to “listen first for problem identification, not solution design.”

As an example, black women’s perception of how certain enablers are important to their sense of inclusion matched up 55% of the time – high perceived enablers corresponded to actual high impact on their sense of inclusion and same with low perceived enablers. But enablers such as “open and honest communication” and “coaching and professional development” were undervalued in perception, relative to how highly they were attributed to feeling a sense of inclusion for black women. And enablers such as “engagement check-ins” and “team feedback sessions” were overrated in perception relative to how attributed they were to feeling a sense of inclusion.

In inclusive cultures, people feel able to be authentic and supported to fulfill their potential, and Bain found that a common denominator of inclusion for everyone is opportunities for professional development and growth – in which there is much room for more equitable access to opportunities – and where employers can focus effectively.

When it comes to what individuals truly need, or different demographic groups, Bain emphasizes a data-informed intersectional approach that incorporates geography, demographics, and seniority to understand how to identify the systemic and behavioral enablers that can increase a sense of inclusion.

Other research has also indicated that inclusive leadership is fundamental, as Bourke and Titus point out: “what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether an individual reports feeling included.” They found the most important factors in cultivating a culture of inclusion are leadership commitment and demonstrating a visible awareness of the bias within oneself and the organization.

Ultimately, everyone wants to feel a sense of both authenticity and belonging and like they have access to the opportunity to thrive and fulfill their potential. People look to see if leadership is listening to this, and whether they are committed not only to the cause, but to understanding the real needs of their people.

By Aimee Hansen

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