ERGs are useful for ensuring employees within an organization feel acceptance, camaraderie, and fairness in the workplace. But, for LGBTQ+ persons, many are seeking more than a sense of belonging—they are seeking a sense of safety. ERGs are often those safe spaces that make it possible for employees to feel like they can be their authentic selves at work. Joining an organization’s ERG specifically for the LGBTQ+ community & its allies, helps employees to feel safe, to feel seen, and to feel heard.
Read MoreWhen employees possess the confidence that they are safe, and they are armed with the skills to advocate for their wellbeing, they not only feel better —statistically, they perform better.
Read MoreAfter 17 years of being a stay-at-home mom in a Mormon heterosexual marriage and 6 months of conversion therapy that nearly ended me, I filed for divorce. As someone who thought she’d know her role “for time and all eternity”, filing that paperwork meant two things: I was completely starting over and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life. The only things I was sure of any more were…
Read MoreIf as a leader, you do not actively seek out and consider all perspectives in your organization to inform your decisions and collaborate more effectively, then you may need to reflect on how you can expand inclusion in your leadership—and with that, you may also be largely unaware of what makes your organization unique. You may not understand the values or mission—the “why” behind what you do.
Given how crucial core values are to an organization’s success, it makes sense that if we want our diversity and inclusion strategies to be successful, authentic, and sustainable, we should align these strategies with the core values.
Aligning the two ultimately creates safer working environments where everyone is accepted and valued for who they are—and where inclusive leadership can thrive.
Read MoreEarly in my consulting career, I observed a disturbing trend with my clients. Organizational leaders, most of whom identified as Generation X, were facing challenges that coincided with the rising numbers of LGBTQ+ employees in their ranks.
As more and more Millennials are coming out as LGBTQ+ in the workplace, many in this generation are also leaving their organizations for more inclusive work environments. This exodus of a specific portion of their workforce has left many Gen X leaders to question whether they have the allyship skills necessary to attract, manage, and support these employees.
Read MoreNon-Binary Thinking as a part of Inclusive Leadership is a framework that promotes innovation, communication, and a more welcoming workplace
Read MoreUtilize This Technique to Understand Our Work, and Ourselves, Inclusively. When I was 37, I realized that I had no idea who I was. My sense of identity and self-worth had disappeared…
Read MoreInclusive leadership has helped me to live the legacy I want to leave behind—as a leader and as a human being.
Why invest in Inclusive Leadership? The answer is easy—it’s the best way to not only increase profit, but…
Read MoreJax* (they/them) has worked their way up the ladder at their company ACME Marketing*. It was their second job out of college and they truly loved the position. When Jax decided to come out as non-binary, the company was…
Read MoreIs it just buzzwords? Does it impact the way you communicate with your team? Can it help you find solutions among the many challenges of being a leader?
Read MoreThis means that many members of the primary workforce in the US are parents of LGBTQ+ youth. And they are struggling right now. Being a parent is hard enough given the increase in school shootings and other violent acts that target our young people. Add a child whose marginalization is compounded, and you have a whole other set of problems. Parents of LGBTQ+ youth struggle to walk the line of encouraging their children to be true to themselves, while also being safe in a homophobic and transphobic society that is getting increasingly more violent against them.
As a corporate diversity and inclusion consultant, clients often ask me, “How do we measure our allyship? How can we know where we need to grow?” It feels like a grey area, too nuanced to be measured objectively, right? But at the same time, most of us want to ensure we're hitting our allyship potential. We want to be a person who is actively part of the solution and acting as the change we want to see in the world.
For my clients who'd like to understand their baseline knowledge of allyship, I created
Read MoreHave you ever struggled with "naming" yourself and what you do? Recently I presented this quandary to my mastermind. "What do I call myself in three words or less? I am a speaker, trainer, author, podcaster, executive coach, and documentary subject. How do I say alllll that in a concise way?"
Read More
We left Phoenix at noon and went directly to Oak Creek Canyon. Driving up Highway 89A immediately transported me back to the magic of childhood. Living in the house on Roadrunner with the huge wild backyard, playing fairies in the red dirt, and feeling like outside was the only safe place to be. 89A in the Canyon is just two lanes with no shoulder, a narrow path snaking through one of the most beautiful and photographed places in the world. When I was in high school working in the Sedona restaurants, tourists would tell me it was prettier than the Grand Canyon (just two hours north) and how much did I love living amongst so much beauty?
I never had the words to tell them, that you don’t know Sedona’s beauty until you’ve sat in her forest and felt her speak peace to your 7-year-old heart. You’ve never known solace until you’ve sat on the smooth rocks of Red Rock Crossing, toes in the water, ears filled with the sound of ancient wind with whispers that even though your family is imploding, the earth still loves you. You don’t know celebration until you’ve climbed to the top of Bell Rock, past all the tourists asking you if it’s actually possible, and stood on the literal top of the world, feeling both soulfully huge and physically tiny. That’s my Sedona.
We parked at about the place that Kristen said we would emerge from and then hiked back down the highway to get to the starting point. With no shoulder on the road, we walked single file, our packs on our backs, fly rods in hand. It was so warm, that we definitely didn’t need waders but the rocks are still slippery so we still wore our fishing boots, a technique called wet wading. As we walked to our drop-in spot….
Read More
After TED, I was all out of whack. And all my old strategies weren't working. I've done a lot (like a TON) of personal growth in the last few years. And I've learned many times over, that after a period of expansion, comes contraction.
Read More