Lead at Any Level®

Essential Skills for Inclusive Leaders

leadership

When Do You Feel Included?

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Recently, I had a conversation with young woman from the United Kingdom. She asked me about the stickers I use for my Network Beyond Bias program. The stickers look like name tags. They say “Hello! I feel included when…”

Hello. I feel included when...

Usually toward the end of my programs, I prompt the audience to ask one another, “How can I help you feel included?” or “When do you feel included?”

This is something that gets lost in our day-to-day work. It’s very rare for a manager to ask this question when someone new joins their team. It’s a simple question. How can I help you feel included? What makes you feel included? This question has tremendous power because it helps you understand very quickly how to show respect and appreciation for another human being.

If you’re a leader, whether you have a management title or not, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the people around you feel welcome and feel included.

This prompt, “I feel included when…” is one to which people respond all sorts of ways. Some people feel included when someone asks their opinion. Sometimes I’ll have people say to me, “I feel included when I get invited out for happy hour.” And usually I ask, “Do you go?” And they say “Never, but I want to be invited.”

Sometimes I have people say they feel included when there’s clear communication. Or when they’re involved in important decisions that affect them. Some people feel included when you ask to see pictures of their children. For others, it’s when you don’t mention their families. For each person it’s different. It’s important because when we have different dynamics on teams, we often talk about treating everybody the same. Instead, we need to realize everyone wants to be treated a little bit differently.

Rethinking the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule says we should treat others as you want to be treated. The Platinum Rule, on the other hand, implores us to treat others the way they want to be treated. That’s an important distinction. If I want to be invited to happy hour and someone else doesn’t want to be invited, you might invite us both to treat us the same. However, you may have made someone else feel excluded by extending the invitation. On the flip side of that, if you ask me about my family, I feel very included. When someone else does not want to discuss their family, you’ve inadvertently created a trust gap between you and that person.

It’s important to get down to the heart of what makes each person feel valued and what makes each person feel special.

When Do YOU Feel Included?

So tell me, what makes you feel included? It may be something simple like people pronounce your name correctly. Or it may be something a little bit deeper and more complex. Either is okay.

The idea here is that we get to know each other a little better. When we show an effort to respect each other right from the beginning, it can make all the difference in the relationships that we build with each other.

After you’ve thought about this for yourself, go to work. Ask your team members, ask your boss, ask the newest person in your department, the people that report to you. “How can I help you feel included?” And then see if you can’t do that thing.

Let me know what you learn!

TL;DR? Here’s the video version:

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How do you measure “inclusive culture”?

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It’s back-to-school time in Indiana, which means new teachers, new classes, and new classmates. Every year, I worry whether my kids will have friends in their classes, whether their teachers will recognize their unique talents, and whether the administrators support a truly inclusive learning environment.

Is being an employee really any different? As our organizations grow larger and more diverse, culture can become difficult to measure and manage. Clearly, our employees worry about whether their teams will be accepting of them, whether their managers will recognize their unique talents, and whether executives support a truly inclusive culture in the workplace. After all, culture plays a critical role in the recruitment, retention, and engagement of our workforce. But how do we measure inclusive culture?

Measuring Inclusive Culture

The Spectra Diversity Inclusion Assessment (SDIA) is the only statistically validated self-assessment that provides data at both an individual and organizational (or team) level. It is particularly useful as an organization-wide or team-based benchmarking tool.

Lead at Any Level® is proud to announce its status as a Spectra Diversity Change Partner. This relationship allows us to administer the survey, provide tailored reports, and facilitate follow-up discussions with your organization’s leaders.

With the SDIA, Executives and HR Professionals can:

  • Understand the fundamental components of inclusive culture
  • Benchmark organizational inclusion across a variety of demographic dimensions
  • Identify contributing factors in employee turnover and customer satisfaction metrics
  • Provide direction for organizational education and training efforts
  • Offer individual reports for employees to assess their own biases and cross-cultural competencies (optional)

If you’re interested in measuring your organization’s inclusive culture, contact us today!

Stop Wasting Time as a Leader

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As a leader, you may find yourself strapped for time, especially when you are juggling clients, team members and the constant flow of work that comes in any leadership position. Learning to manage your time more efficiently, then, is a very valuable lesson for you to learn as a leader. With that in mind, here are some ways to stop wasting time at work. Take note and speed things up!

1. Have Fewer Meetings

Never schedule a meeting when an email or phone call could accomplish the same goal.

When you do have meetings, make sure they are as efficient as possible. Have a structure, know what is going on, and work to ensure your mutual goal is met. That way you will start to dread meetings less and less!

Meetings are the bane of most workers’ lives, so reducing them as much as possible is the only way forward. Reduce the meetings, and make the ones you keep more productive.  You may be surprised by how much more both you and your staff get done!

You may aspire to be an inclusive leader. But if you’re not there for your employees, they won’t feel supported. Learn to strike that delicate balance.

2. Streamline Tasks, But Not at the Expense of Quality (Usually)

Have you ever spent a long time doing something which you know isn’t worth that much effort? You may have a process with unnecessary steps, create reports no one reads, or over-engineer a simple task. Have you considered how you can work to reduce that effort?

Seriously consider whether you can sacrifice quality for efficiency. For example, if the work is not customer-facing, you may be able to skip the third round of edits. In some cases, quality cannot be compromised. Know when your shortcuts could put your credibility at risk, and act accordingly.

3. Get a Plan in Place 

Failing to plan is planning to fail. The better the plan, the more likely your team will succeed. “Better” doesn’t always mean “more detailed.” Strike a balance between structure and improvisation that works for your team. Remember, plans change. Review your plan frequently, and communicate changes to everyone who needs to know, You will build trust by showing that you are competent and reliable.

Make sure that you have a day, week and even monthly plan which you base your working life around. Good planning can save you a lot of time as a leader and help to give you more room to deal with the little emergencies that appear every day.

4. Keep Your Priorities Balanced

Prioritising is one of the hardest parts of any job. Especially as everyone thinks the tasks you’re doing related to them is the most important thing for you to be doing. Learning to balance and manage these tasks, then to prioritise them, then, can be quite difficult.

If you want to be a good leader, this is a balancing act. Make sure you address all of the important issues, but don’t overlook what your subordinates are asking of you. It may seem relatively small in the grand scheme of things, less important than x, y or z on your list. Yet, sometimes prioritising the little things can make you a better leader.

At the very least, communicate to those you lead that you care. Let’s face it, every molehill can feel like a mountain during a bad day at work – whether you’re a PT, officer of the law or corporate solicitor. Mountain or molehill, you need to help your team to the top of either one.

5. Stop Being ‘Busy’

Busy work is a real issue when it comes to leadership and wasting time. You may find yourself doing way too much of it. Much like anything else, being busy is great until it becomes detrimental to your working life.

Busyness preoccupies a lot of managers. When employees notice this, it is all too easy for them to become resentful. They see themselves as doing the real work.

Stop being ‘busy’ and start being productive. You will be surprised by how much more you accomplish!

Final Thoughts

Leadership doesn’t have a secret formula. You can’t become an amazing leader by reading a self-help book, though that would be nice. It’s trial and error, learning to communicate, and being open to change. When you quit wasting time, you’ll create space for that growth!

Status Quo: How Male Allies Can Effect Change

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I happened to be visiting a city recently where I had family and a couple of meetings. Between engagements, I stopped for some lunch and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. While I was sitting on a bench in a surprisingly not-so-clean park, a gust of wind lifted up my napkin. As it danced in the air, I thought to myself “Ah, just let it go – the place is littered anyway.” For the record, this is atypical for me as I’m a strong anti-litter guy. As luck would have it the wind blew it back right where it started. It actually landed right on the bench next to me. It occurred to me then how the littered environment adjusted my thinking, or more correctly how I adjusted my thinking to the environment. That day I was willing to accept litter and my being complicit  with it. But that is what happens, people adjust and get comfortable, and complacent. They don’t often challenge. And status quo remains so.

We Don’t See Who’s Not There

Too often we accept things as given. Women are underrepresented, and undervalued, in a great many places. Most people simply accept this, and just don’t notice. In fact, only 33% of men believe there is gender bias in the workplace. Far fewer (only 10%) believed that women are treated unfairly at their own workplaces. Men have become so accustomed to seeing mostly men in power positions that when just one woman is added among nine male leaders, 50% of men say that is good female representation.

Recently, I was working on gender issues for a large federal agency. At their national training center, I noticed an evaluation exercise was taking place with an all-male group. I asked the exercise coordinator why all the evaluators where male. He said, “Because these are the guys that always do it – I know they can.” I pressed on, “Are there women who would also have the capability?” He had to pause and think. “Yes, but …”

This is no isolated incident. For example, 75% of all conference speakers are male. (Editor’s note: Here’s a woman for your keynote stage!) And progress is not being made. There has been a 25% drop in the number of female Fortune 500 CEOs since 2017, for example. This, despite media’s attention on the outliers, the rare new female face at the head of the corporate table.

Status quo remains status quo until challenged.

Where Are the Women?

One way to challenge is very simple – just ask, “Where are the women?”

If you see an imbalance in male panelists at a conference – ask, “Where are the women?”

When you see a conference program that is dominated by male speakers, ask, “Where are the women?”

And when you walk into a meeting where most of the seats are occupied by men, ask, “Where are the women?”

Of course, this is not an original idea. “Where are the women?” has been written about in the Huffington Post, Fast Company, and any number of other publications. But that does not mean the call to action is heeded.  Even where obvious disparities exist, too few speak up and ask even simple questions concerning the disparity.

Why Don’t We Ask?

When people witness any number of forms of injustices, there are three key reason why they don’t act:

  1. Bystander effect – the belief that others will take responsibility and act
  2. Conformity – pressure/fear/trepidation against upsetting the opinion of the majority or to act against it.
  3. Psychological standing – a sense of not having skin in the game – the sense that it is irrelevant to them or not their place to intercede.

Do you recognize conformity as “not upsetting the apple cart”? Accepting things as given, rather than challenging the situation? Comfort and complacency go hand in hand.

I do wonder about that park I ate lunch in, how many people notice the litter and how many would notice one more piece of trash. What if I had not only picked up my own trash, but also started picking up a good deal of it. Would others join in, or would they just think I was nutty: fighting a losing battle, and musing about what difference I could possibly make. I don’t have these answers, but I do know others witnessing my actions would consider those actions if only briefly. The starting point to solving any problem is to get people to consider the problem.  To get others to see that status quo, especially where unacceptable, need not be accepted as given. Sometimes it takes just one person, and perhaps just a couple of words to shed light that turns into actions by others.

“Where are the women?”

by David S. Rowell – The Parity Consultant

Learn more about David’s work at http://www.parityconsultant.com

 

Is Your Company Leaving Talent on the Table?

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Half of your LGBTQ employees are still in the closet at work. (Source: Human Rights Campaign)

Why should you care?

Employees need to bring their full selves to work if they are to contribute at the highest levels.

Perhaps you’ve already created Resource Groups or a Diversity Council to provide a sense of community and safety for underrepresented employees. Even so, most companies’ LGBTQ professionals are still holding back, struggling to present themselves authentically, and leaving trust (and talent) on the table.

What can you do about it?

Bring in experts to work with your Pride ERG and other emerging LGBTQ leaders!

In a new collaboration, John Tedstrom (Tedstrom Associates), Erin Passons (Passons Consulting), and Amy C. Waninger (Lead at Any Level®) have combined their decades of leadership experience and thought leadership to help your LGBTQ employees be “Out & Outstanding” at work!

Out & Outstanding is a unique leadership development program designed to enhance the abilities of your corporation’s LGBTQ professionals to contribute and lead.

Together, we’ll uncover hidden leadership strengths of your LGBTQ work force, build a trusting and supportive professional cohort, and empower your leaders to tackle new, more complex and demanding assignments that have greater impact on your bottom line.

Read more about our new Out and Outstanding program here or contact us for more information!

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John Tedstrom, Founder & CEO of Tedstrom Associates, has held senior leadership positions in government, academia and business, integrating issues of national security, economics, and social justice. He served in the White House where he advised President Clinton on Russia and Ukraine, founded and led major international organizations fighting AIDS and other global maladies, and directed research and taught economics and national security policy at RAND and Columbia University.  Most recently he founded NextGen Leaders, to support the career advancement of younger LGBTQ professionals.

Dr. Tedstrom serves on the Boards of the Victory Fund, Equality California, and the Global Business Coalition for Education. He is active in Democratic politics and served on the Foreign Policy Committee, LGBT Policy Committee and National Finance Committee for the Obama for President campaign in 2008. He has lived in Munich, Moscow, and Kyiv and earned a Ph.D. in international economics and Russian studies from the University of Birmingham, England. He is the author of dozens of articles; his book, Socialism Perestroika and the Dilemmas of Soviet Economic Reform, was published in 1990. He is certified to teach Primordial Sound Meditation.

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Amy C. Waninger, CEO of Lead at Any Level®, works with organizations that want to build diverse leadership bench strength for a sustainable competitive advantage. She is the author of several books, including Network Beyond Bias: Making Diversity a Competitive Advantage for Your Career.

Amy is a Professional Member of National Speakers Association and a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner. Her other credentials include two degrees from Indiana University and a World’s Best Mom coffee mug.

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Erin Passons is the president and founder of Passons Consulting.  She has spent her career helping business leaders, managers, and employees improve their performance and effectiveness, and is an expert in coaching and facilitating workshops using StrengthsFinder.

Erin is also the founder of StrengthsNetwork San Diego, an association for StrengthsFinder professionals and followers in the Southern California region.  Erin earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California-Santa Barbara and received her MBA from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.