Scientific evidence supports the wide-ranging benefits of high levels of inclusion and equity for women, yet we still find ourselves emphasizing the need to elevate women in the workplace and beyond.

It’s time to change the systems that hinder progress.

This report analyzes 5 key challenges we must overcome in order to elevate women and support full inclusion and equity:

1. The struggle to get more women into senior roles, despite increased focus and investment on women in leadership
2. The additional obstacles women face on the path to leadership
3. How women’s innate leadership strengths can lead them to burn out at a faster rate
4. Women’s reluctance to ask for the challenging job assignments and increased exposure that propel careers forward
5. The systemic barriers that hold women back

Find out what’s beneath the surface of these challenges and the actionable steps you can take to elevate women at your organization to drive greater innovation and productivity by downloading our research report.

Download Research Report

The post Elevate the System to Elevate Women Leaders appeared first on CCL.

Organizations can greatly benefit from the perspectives of transgender and non-binary employees, many of whom have lived experience and insights stemming from navigating a unique journey in a society that has struggled to embrace gender nonconformity.

Understanding Terminology for Supporting Transgender Employees

First, make sure you and organizational leaders understand the meaning of the following terms:

Gender identity is a person’s deeply felt, internal sense of their own gender. While many of us were raised within a rigidly binary gender construct (male / female), gender identities are vast and varied. There are myriad genders — especially when we look across cultures, subcultures, and around the world.

Gender expression is how people attempt to communicate their gender to the outside world through behavior, physical appearance, clothing and accessories, and mannerisms. It’s important to note that someone’s gender expression may not accurately reflect their gender identity (for a variety of reasons), and it’s a best practice to avoid making assumptions about gender identity based on gender expression.

Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people who identify as any gender other than the one that they were assigned at birth. To identify as non-binary (often seen as being “under the trans umbrella”) means that a person’s gender identity doesn’t fall squarely within the binary construct of male vs. female. As is the case with most of the language we have for social identities, the term can mean different things for different non-binary identified people. Some identify as both a man and a woman. Others describe their gender as a unique blend of masculine and feminine traits. Some report feeling neither masculine nor feminine at all, while some experience their gender as being beyond the rigidity of binary gender norms. For others, it might mean something else entirely.

Why Supporting Transgender Employees Is Critical

Transgender and non-binary employees face a variety of issues in the workplace. Socially, they’re often subjected to microaggressions (indirect, subtle, sometimes unintentional discriminatory acts), as well as overt bias, bullying, and isolation. They may experience pushback from colleagues when requesting that their name and gender pronouns (he, she, they, etc.) be honored. They often run into challenges in the work environment’s gendered spaces, such as restrooms and locker rooms.

At an organizational level, HR policies don’t always outline practices for supporting transgender employees. For example, anti-discrimination policies often omit gender identity and expression as protected classes, and many employer-provided insurance policies don’t cover access to care for those who are seeking to medically transition.

For those who do transition on the job, navigating the workplace can be even more complex and difficult. Without overtly supportive policies and practices in place, and a culture that promotes inclusive leadership practices, trans or non-binary team members are likely to feel excluded and unsupported, become disengaged, or even resign.

Individuals of all social identities should be able to feel respected and supported at work, and transgender and non-binary people are no different.

7 Ways to Recruit Transgender and Non-Binary Talent

Tips for HR Leaders and Organizations

To benefit from the diverse backgrounds and lived experiences of trans and non-binary talent, your organization needs to authentically recruit from these communities. Trans people want to know that your organization will offer an affirming work environment in which they can bring their whole selves. Here are 7 of the many ways to authentically recruit and retain transgender/non-binary talent:

1. Train all staff on gender identity / expression topics.

It can be damaging for all parties to hire trans and non-binary people into an environment where there’s a risk that some colleagues may not be informed or supportive. At CCL, we’ve partnered with Transpire Trainings for this purpose and highly recommend their programs as a tool to educate and inspire your team. When your staff is knowledgeable on trans topics, it will be apparent to people you’re attempting to recruit from trans / non-binary communities.

2. Welcome trans / non-binary applicants in all job postings.

This could mean including a direct invitation or an anti-discrimination policy that clearly spells out gender identity / expression as being protected at your organization.

3. Recruit through targeted LGBTQ+ platforms and channels.

To ensure your job postings are reaching qualified trans and gender non-binary applicants, consider recruiting through targeted LGBTQ+ platforms, including online exchanges and message boards (“Queer Exchanges” on Facebook or other social platforms, local LGBTQ+ media outlets, etc.).

4. Cultivate authentic relationships with local LGBTQ+ organizations.

Another way to reach qualified trans / non-binary applicants is to form relationships with local LGBTQ+ organizations and community centers, who often meet with people in need of employment.

5. Ask appropriate self-identifying questions during the application process.

Within your application’s demographic questions, offer multiple gender identity choices as well as a write-in option to allow applicants to self-identify their gender (as opposed to limiting the options to the standard “male,” “female,” or “prefer not to answer”). Not only will this let prospects know that you understand and respect the broad spectrum of gender identities, but this data is also useful for your organization to understand the gender diversity of your applicants and team.

6. Share that trans / non-binary employees are already on the team (if true).

If the applicant openly discusses their gender identity during the interview process, share that there are already trans or non-binary people on the team (if this is true). The applicant may be testing the waters by bringing it up, and just hearing you say this signals that your team or organization is striving to be inclusive.

7. Prepare for gender-related questions from the interviewee.

All hiring managers and interview panels should be prepared to answer questions from candidates about gender diversity and transition-related HR practices. If you’ve invested in educating your team on gender identity and expression and are committed to supporting transgender employees, this part should be relatively easy.

How to Retain & Support Transgender and Non-Binary Employees

Build Psychological Safety for All Team Members

When people don’t feel a sense of psychological safety at work, they’re likely to leave for new opportunities — and your organization misses out on the richness of their talents and contributions. Once you’ve made the hire, ensure you retain trans and non-binary talent by implementing the following recommendations.

1. Establish inclusive and specific anti-discrimination policies.

If you’re serious about inclusion in the workplace, it’s important to specifically name gender identity / expression as protected classes in your organization’s anti-discrimination policy, as well as to outline specific practices such as allowing employees to use restroom facilities that correspond to their gender identity or gender expression. Just as with applicants, employees should be allowed to self-identify their gender in official records, and to use the name and pronouns they’re most comfortable with in the workplace (even when there is incongruence with legal documents).

2. Ensure transition-related care is adequately covered by your insurance policies.

It’s vital for organizations to provide medical insurance policies that specifically cover transition-related care. For trans people seeking to medically transition, it can be stifling and harmful to be hired into an organization with a trans-exclusionary insurance policy. There are many challenges that trans communities navigate when seeking gender-affirming care; access and affordability are at the top of the list.

3. Normalize gender-inclusive language and all pronouns.

Educating your team about normalizing gender-inclusive language (using “hello, everyone!” versus “hey guys!” or “hi ladies and gents!”), and the sharing and respecting of all gender pronouns, will go a long way toward supporting transgender employees. Train leaders in techniques to build belonging at work and encourage all employees to include gender pronouns on business cards and in official email signatures. Not only does this reduce the likelihood of misgendering staff internally, but it also communicates organizational comfort with gender diversity to employees, customers, and external partners.

4. Interrupt bullying and discrimination quickly, sensitively, and appropriately.

Supporting transgender employees and improving retention of trans / non-binary people includes taking seriously incidents involving microaggressions, bullying, or discrimination, and dealing with them quickly and sensitively (centering the needs of the trans / non-binary person). Learn more about leading with inclusion and belonging in the workplace.

5. Compensate transgender people fairly.

Much like people from other marginalized communities, trans / non-binary individuals have been historically underpaid and relegated to frontline (or back office) roles. Through an equity lens, it’s important to compensate your trans / non-binary staff fairly, to invest additional organizational resources into their development and success, and to create genuine opportunities for advancement, mobility, and visibility. Offering opportunities where they can use the breadth of their talent will maximize the value they bring to your organization. And because you asked all employees to self-identify their gender in official records (tip No. 1 from above), you’ll have accurate data to conduct pay audits.

Supporting Transgender Employees Through Allyship

As more organizations make a committed effort to take real action on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), it’s important not to leave behind trans / non-binary communities, who experience incredible challenges with garnering and maintaining gainful employment. According to a study from The Conversation, individuals who described themselves as transgender were 11% less likely to be working compared to non-transgender, or cisgender, people.

Diverse gender identities aren’t new, but in many organizations, trans topics are still quite novel. And because gender identity and expression are so deeply personal, many leaders express apprehension around doing or saying “the wrong thing.”

However, shying away from these conversations only reinforces a culture of silence, stigma, and even transphobia, all of which are hurtful to trans and non-binary communities, and damaging to our collective efforts to support diversity and inclusion.

Perhaps most importantly, understanding how we can show allyship and supporting transgender employees means embracing an ongoing willingness to make mistakes, learn, and grow together.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Diverse organizations are more resilient, innovative, and higher performing. Discover how our equity, diversity, and inclusion practice and solutions can help create sustainable changes in your organization, and explore more about supporting transgender employees by reaching out to Transpire Trainings.

We would like to thank Landon Woolston, Founder of Transpire Trainings, for their contributions to this article. 

The post Supporting Transgender Employees: Advice to Recruit and Retain Talent appeared first on CCL.

Feeling out of sync with colleagues of other generations as you work on projects and in teams? Some people call this the generation gap in the workplace.

But here’s a secret — regardless of age, they’re probably a lot more like you than you might expect.

Today, 5 generations are in the workforce: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation. While some motivations differ, they do share similar desires. Employees of all generations, for example, want to work on teams with people they trust and care about.

Creating a team dynamic that works for everyone is essential — and it can be done.

10 Tactics for Leading Across Generations

How to Bridge the Gap of a Multigenerational Workforce

We’ve compiled 10 tactics to address the generation gap in the workplace and help leaders look past the stereotypes and effectively lead across generations. The approaches here are adapted from over a decade of our research, including our research on emerging leaders, which is based on data from thousands of Gen Z and Millennial young professionals around the world; our book What Millennials Want From Work; and our white paper What Makes a Leader Effective?, which polled Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. These are the keys to successfully leading a multigenerational workforce.

1. Learn from one another.

Older workers often have significant experience that can’t be learned in school, and younger team members usually appreciate it when that wisdom is shared. But being told that something needs to be done a particular way just because it’s “how things are done around here” will open the door to pushback. Those who’ve been in the workforce for a long time should recognize that, just because things have been done a certain way in the past, that doesn’t mean it’s the best way for the future.

There’s a stereotype that younger workers think they should be exempt from boring work. Older team members may remember “paying their dues” earlier in their careers and have no sympathy. But what if, working together, you could come up with alternatives to doing repetitive work, or at least find ways to reduce it considerably?

Younger employees, many of them digital natives, may have ideas or technology options that haven’t been explored, and more experienced employees have the knowledge and expertise to make new processes work. That’s why some organizations, recognizing the need to bridge the generation gap in the workplace, are beginning to partner their older and younger team members in formal or informal reverse mentoring arrangements.

2. Foster wellbeing.

Want to keep your organization competitive in retaining employees of all ages? Consider our best practices that support employee wellbeing and leading across generations. These include helping young workers nurture a broad network of relationships both inside and outside the office, and encouraging regular exercise and time for mindful reflection.

Remember to lead by example. “Walk and talk” meetings can help marry business with exercise, while a daily “out of office” email reply after work makes it clear that team members aren’t expected to be on call 24-7.

Workers of all generations report that they’re more likely to stay with their organizations if flexible schedules are allowed and remote working is supported. Employees of all ages are willing to work long hours but also want to have a life outside of work. Whether raising families, preparing for retirement, caring for elderly parents, or pursuing personal interests, employees often feel that their organizations forget that they have lives outside work.

3. Share values and show respect.

We often hear that younger people are disrespectful of older employees and people in authority. We also hear complaints that older people show no respect for younger talent and ideas. Many people think that older and younger people value vastly different things.

However, our research has shown that different generations actually have fairly similar values. For example, “family”  is the value chosen most frequently by people of all generations. Other widely shared values include the following:

• Integrity
• Achievement
• Love
• Competence
• Happiness
• Self-respect
• Wisdom
• Balance
• Responsibility

The reality is that everyone wants pretty much the same thing, which is for their organizations to cultivate a culture of respect — they just don’t define it in the same way. Some would argue this is really the secret to teamwork and leading a multigenerational workforce.

Our research shows that today’s young professionals also prioritize value alignment between their personally held beliefs and their organization’s mission and driving principles. Clearly defining and communicating what your organization stands for is an important way to deliver upon this. Also, take steps to show that you value the perspectives of the youngest members of your team, especially around issues such as equity, diversity, and inclusion.

4. Be a trustworthy leader.

By and large, people of all generations value trust in the workplace. At all levels, they trust the people they work with directly — such as bosses, peers, and direct reports — more than they trust their organizations. And people trust their organization more than they trust upper management.

What do different generations expect from their leaders? Conventional wisdom says older generations want a command-and-control type of leader and that younger generations want leaders who include them more in decision-making. But our research says that effective leadership is less about style and more about substance. People of all generations want leaders who are credible and trustworthy, above all else.

5. Promote psychological safety.

Our research study with Y20 found that 41% of young adults (ages 18–30) want to lead in the future. The top personal barrier getting in their way: psychological safety.

A psychologically safe workplace encourages workers of all ages to make meaningful contributions. Young professionals want a sense of belonging at work and to feel accepted for who they are, including those characteristics and perspectives that make them different from others. They also want encouragement to learn and grow — without fear of repercussions for asking questions or making mistakes.

To promote psychological safety at work, consider asking your senior leaders to share stories about mistakes they’ve made, or use organization-wide meetings or newsletters to share “failing forward” stories that encourage risk-taking. This transparency makes it clear across generations that missteps are an opportunity to deepen learning.

6. Communicate change.

The stereotype is that older people hate change and younger generations thrive on it, but these are inaccurate assumptions. In general, people from all generations are uncomfortable with change and can experience change fatigue. Resistance to change has nothing to do with age; it’s all about how much someone has to gain or lose with the change.

The best way to manage change and be a successful change leader is to communicate. Send out memos, host meetings, or implement an open-door policy that embraces communication. Make your team feel comfortable with asking questions and voicing concerns.

7. Break down silos.

The ability to build bridges — across an organization’s divisions and across a multigenerational workforce — is important. Successful leaders must help everyone learn how to span boundaries.

Help your young leaders view boundaries not as barriers, but as opportunities for new ways of working and collaborating. Ensure they understand the social aspects of their role and how to work through and with others to achieve results, regardless of age and other factors. One way to break down silos and lead across generations: Set aside time for colleagues of all ages to share their stories, including how their personal background and social identity influence the way they work.

8. Do the right things to retain talent.

It’s as easy to retain a young person as it is to retain an older one — if you do the right things. Just about everyone feels overworked and underpaid. People of all generations have the same ideas about what their organization can do to retain them. Employees want room to advance, respect and recognition, better quality of life, and fair compensation.

An audit of leadership representation — and whether multigenerational voices and perspectives are included when important decisions are made — is one thing to consider. By engaging a diverse cross-section of young employees in your analysis, you can broaden your perspective when leading a multigenerational workforce. After the audit and review, you’ll be poised to take informed steps to level-up access and make your talent management processes a lever for change.

9. Create a learning culture.

Everyone wants to learn — more than just about anything else. Learning and development were among the issues most frequently mentioned by study participants of all generations. Everyone wants to make sure they have the training necessary to do their current job well.

Leading across generations includes creating a learning culture that prioritizes and rewards gaining and sharing knowledge. You can also help employees create a personalized development roadmap that provides a clear understanding of what the organization needs, how their performance compares to peers, and which improvements they must make to support success. Building the core leadership skills needed in every role and career stage is another way to boost employee motivation and learning.

10. Build coaching skills.

Almost everyone wants a coach. We’ve heard that younger people are constantly asking for feedback and can’t get enough of it. We’ve also heard that older people don’t want any feedback at all. According to our research, everyone wants to know how they’re doing and wants to learn how to do better. Feedback can come in many forms, and people of all generations appreciate receiving it. Building coaching skills and a coaching culture at your organization can help.

Equipping everyone to hold coaching conversations can help create a stronger organizational culture for workers of all ages.

Leading a Multigenerational Workforce or Team: Final Thoughts

Our research shows that, fundamentally, people want the same things, no matter what generation they represent. So the so-called generation gap in the workplace is, in large part, the result of miscommunication and misunderstanding, fueled by common insecurities and the desire for clout. Successfully leading across generations is actually pretty straightforward.

So let go of your assumptions about the challenges of a multigenerational workforce, and spend more time developing your leaders of all ages.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Support your multigenerational workforce by scaling leadership development across your organization. Partner with us on an enterprise solution, such as CCL Passport, that supports learning and growth for your leaders at every level.

The post Tactics for Leading Across Generations appeared first on CCL.

In today’s workplace, 4 or 5 generations are often working together in organizations: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and sometimes, too, the oldest members of the workforce — the Silent Generation. While it’s undeniable that people of all ages have a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, conventional wisdom about generational differences in leadership is rooted in stereotypes, not reality.

Our research confirms that the “generation gap” is largely a myth perpetuated by miscommunication and misunderstandings. This webinar will reveal research-based insights about how, fundamentally, people from all generations share common values and preferences at work. We will discuss how making assumptions about generational differences in leadership can create barriers to building trust, fostering inclusion, and establishing a culture of psychological safety at work.

What You’ll Learn

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• Stereotypes and misconceptions about generational differences in leadership
• Practical tips for managing, leading, retaining, and working with individuals of all ages
• Strategies for building a positive workplace culture for workers of every generation

The post Generational Differences in Leadership appeared first on CCL.

For years, many caregivers sought to achieve a “balance” that allowed their work responsibilities and family demands to peacefully coexist. Surely, many felt, it must be possible to excel in or, at the very least, feel satisfied with both realms.

Commonly touted solutions often suggested simple fixes to this complex problem: if only they could define boundaries, communicate more effectively, or find the right support, then work-life balance would naturally fall into place.

But then COVID hit, and the collision of work and home life created a tipping point. The pandemic’s shift to homeschooling and virtual work led many working parents — especially women — to take a step back in their careers, or to leave the workforce entirely. Exhausted caregivers left their jobs in record numbers, and organizations are still feeling the effects today.

While women’s employment numbers have since bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, senior organizational leaders continue to grapple with how to attract, develop, and retain women leaders (and working parents or other caregivers in general).

Physical offices have reopened, but many employees — both with and without children — remain somewhat hesitant about returning to work fully in person.

For those with caregiving responsibilities whose jobs can be done from home, most say that they want to continue working remotely in the future. A study from the Pew Research Center reveals that 71% of employees who work from home at least some of the time say doing so helps them balance work with their personal life.

Increased flexibility in the workplace comes as a long-awaited relief for working parents who struggled even before the pandemic to juggle both parenting and leadership responsibilities.

Is the idea of “balance” more attainable at last?

Organizations Must Lead the Way to Support Caregiving & Leadership Responsibilities

Certainly, flexible and remote work arrangements help, but the golden notion of “balance” probably still feels beyond reach for many caregivers and working parents, and for good reason: we consider work-life “balance” to be a faulty metaphor.

It’s simply not possible for parents and caregivers to be fully present for their employers and their families all the time, while also taking care of their own health and wellbeing.

And the truth is, caregivers shouldn’t be forced to seek this equilibrium without organizational support.

If your organization is reconsidering how it’s supporting working parents and caregivers, you’ll want to ensure that you’re creating an environment where all your employees can thrive by offering inclusive family leave policies, permanent hybrid and remote work options, and ample equitable growth and development opportunities.

For companies to support working parents and attract and retain top talent, they must be willing to acknowledge the juggle between parenting and leadership responsibilities, connecting leadership and employee wellbeing. It starts with managers who can create environments where others thrive — reducing stress and burnout while increasing morale and productivity, yielding people who thrive and a workforce that is flourishing. ​​

Here are some specific actions that organizations can take to signal they’re serious about supporting working parents — and all caregivers.

Supporting Working Parents, Caregivers & All Employees: 5 Tips

Specific Actions That Organizational Leaders Can Take

1. Offer equitable and inclusive family leave policies.

Workers now have more bargaining power. Companies don’t want to lose talent, so employees can often enact change by calling attention to archaic and inequitable leave policies, courageously asking for the support they need from their organizations.

While these conversations are useful, we still believe the onus and impetus to adopt more inclusive leave policies should fall on employers, not on employees.

Organizations are charged first with recognizing that families come in all shapes and sizes. Statistics show that the traditional stereotypical idea of the nuclear family — 2 married, heterosexual parents of the same race with 2 biological children — has become increasingly obsolete.

To increase equity, acknowledge diversity, and build inclusion into your organization’s policies around time off from work, “maternity leave” policies should be reframed as “parental leave” — or even better, caretaker or family leave policies — to reflect an expanded definition of caregiving. Providing care for a family member isn’t limited to biological mothers and new babies, and caregiving for children often includes fathers, adoptive parents, spouses or partners, etc.

Inclusive leave policies should also cover an employee taking time off work to care for any family member — including aging parents, sick partners, adolescent children, those with special needs, etc.

And further, managers should normalize actually using the leave to focus on childcare or other types of caregiving. Simply renaming your maternity leave policy to a “parental leave” policy is not enough; senior leaders should actively encourage new fathers and domestic partners to take the available leave (and model this behavior themselves where applicable). This signals that your organization is serious about enabling employees to bring their whole selves to work and helps to combat ingrained stigmas and societal expectations that a mother’s role as caretaker is more essential than a father’s.

When organizations offer inclusive family leave policies, they’re better able to compete for talent and retain strong performers. That’s why both company language and culture should be explicitly and intentionally inclusive, so that taking time away from work to care for a family member seems (and actually is) equally accessible.

2. Be a champion for flexibility by extending it to all employees.

Flexible work policies aren’t effective (and can actually be quite harmful) when they’re only available to a select group, or in specific scenarios. While talent managers generally acknowledge that new working parents just returning from leave might need flexibility in their work schedules, it’s important to specify and remind your employees that flexibility is available to everyone.

According to research, people without children sometimes feel they’re expected to pick up the slack at work when colleagues with children are granted increased flexibility. This dynamic not only inequitably burdens employees without children, it also creates an environment that positions flexibility as an organizational weakness instead of a strength. But the opposite is actually true.

During the pandemic, many employers realized that they don’t have to trade flexibility for productivity. On the contrary, studies revealed that productivity actually increased as many employees shifted to remote work. So don’t assume that, post-COVID, your organization should have everyone came into the office all the time, or resume the same work arrangements as before.

Design company policies around flexibility, including remote and hybrid work options, with a focus on equity, as well as diversity and inclusion. Offer compassion and flexibility for caretaking of all kinds. Regardless of whether they have children, employees who have the freedom and flexibility to schedule when and where they work can be more productive with the time they have.

Provide as much autonomy as possible in determining work schedules and locations. You’ll improve employee retention post-pandemic with flexible work arrangements that enable a greater sense of control and lead to more fulfilled, engaged, and loyal employees.

3. Support Employee Resource Groups.

Also known as “affinity groups” or “business networking groups,” employee resource groups are formed by employees who share a common social identity characteristic, such as ethnicity or gender. Within these informal groups, members provide one another with support, career development, and professional networking.

During the pandemic, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for caregivers gained popularity, as working parents and others struggling with balancing family or parenting and leadership challenges found they needed a network for support and advice. Your organization can help ERGs become even more impactful through your support. Here are a few ideas:

• Assist the ERG in achieving specific goals; for example, connecting them with other working parents or caregivers throughout the organization. ERGs are most effective when they’re diverse and inclusive of biological, adoptive, and LGBTQ+ parents.
• Share the ERG’s goals and immediate wins with your executive leadership team to encourage senior-level sponsorship and engagement.
• Connect members with resources and learning opportunities.

4. Offer flexible opportunities for leadership development.

When working parents and other caregivers are feeling challenged by work-life conflict, leadership development can give them new skillsets and mindsets to adapt and show up in the ways they’d like to — both at work and at home.

For example, our flagship Leadership Development Program (LDP)® introduces participants to the idea of a button with 4 holes as a symbol for holistic leadership. The button helps participants remember that leaders are most effective when they understand how the 4 elements of their lives — self, family, career, and community — are woven together in an interconnected way, working in tandem to strengthen their leadership and enrich their lives.

Other training opportunities that incorporate vertical development can be especially helpful for employees trying to juggle parenting and leadership responsibilities, because it helps them grow through heat experiences and walks them through the process of reconciling colliding perspectives.

Importantly, for any type of professional development to offer genuine benefit to the employee and to avoid overwhelming their already full schedules, there must be adequate “air cover” from the organization. Acknowledge training as an important business priority, and provide participants with the space and time to focus on their development, as well as to integrate the learnings into their daily routines.

Working parents and other types of caregivers need options for how they engage in leadership development opportunities, including the format that best fits their needs. Whether it’s face-to-face training, virtual development programs, asynchronous learning, or a combination of formats, providing flexible development opportunities in a variety of modalities will help your employees balance parenting and leadership demands, while improving engagement and retention of your talent.

5. Support employees who choose to “power down” and stay the course.

Some caregivers, particularly women, may choose or be forced to step away from their careers entirely for a period of time to focus on child-rearing or other family needs. This was common before the pandemic, and data shows that COVID accelerated the trend, as it disproportionally impacted women, causing many more to step back from their careers or leave the workforce entirely.

When an employee expresses a desire to step back, talent managers and leaders within organizations can support this decision and also offer an alternative. Parents may not need to leave their organizations entirely, if they can adjust the demands of their roles.

Learn 10 specific tips for juggling parenting and leadership in our book, Kick Some Glass: 10 Ways Women Succeed at Work. Co-authors Jennifer Martineau and Portia Mount explore the “power down” alternative for mothers to accommodate childbirth and child-rearing, balancing caregiving and career.

The “power down” advice is widely applicable as a way of supporting working parents and caregivers in general. Organizations can support employees by providing opportunities to reduce their hours if needed and enabling them to stay connected through professional networks.

To ensure caregivers avoid losing momentum in their careers when doing this, talent managers should have candid conversations about what the “powered down” period will look like, when it might end or be reviewed, and how they can support working parents or caregivers when they do ease back into work.

Organizations can also pair younger employees with more senior mentors and sponsors who are willing to provide guidance and support, as well as advocate on their behalf.

While mentoring at work is beneficial for all employees, such programs can be especially critical in supporting and retaining talented women leaders. Learn more about how and why sponsoring and mentoring women leaders is so important.

Help Caregivers Bring Their Whole Selves to Parenting & Leadership

While many companies around the world have publicly made claims about supporting working parents and have issued diversity & inclusion statements in the past few years, many have not followed through and lack measures that enable organizational accountability for equity, diversity, and inclusion when it comes to actually changing their policies, processes, and culture.

To show your internal and external stakeholders that you’re genuinely committed to making real and sustainable change, your organization must evaluate your current practices and make upgrades where necessary — including addressing outdated leave policies to better support those struggling with caregiving, parenting, leadership, and workplace responsibilities.

Properly supported working parents and other caregivers will become better, healthier leaders at work, at home, and within their communities — leading to positive impact for your organization that’s much greater than an annual retention report might reveal.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re interested in supporting working parents and enabling caregivers at your organization to stay and thrive, thereby attracting, retaining, and engaging more talent, sign up for our newsletters to get our latest research, tips, and insights on leadership.

The post Supporting Working Parents: 5 Ways Organizations Can Support Parenting & Leadership appeared first on CCL.

In our work to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion within organizations and communities, we’ve found many leaders asking us, “How can I serve as an ally for others?” And more fundamentally, “What is allyship?”

In our webinar on Becoming an Ally in Times of Racial Unrest, we shared some our thinking on the meaning of allyship and the role that leadership plays when working through issues of inequity within our organizations and communities.

During that session, participants submitted questions they had on the topic, and since then, we’ve reflected on more thoughts on showing allyship, so we offer the following recommendations, which we hope are helpful. In sharing our approach to these responses, we also hold space as 2 facilitators with different racial identities — Joanne identifies as South Asian; Jayke is White.

First, What Is Allyship?

When we talk about the meaning of allyship in the workplace, we’re referring to the actions, behaviors, and practices that leaders take to support, amplify, and advocate with others, most especially with individuals who don’t belong to the same social identities as themselves. (Note that we say “advocate with …” rather than “advocate for …” because advocacy should be done in partnership with those we intend to serve.)

At CCL, our approach to this work has been less about answering the question “What is allyship?” and more about reframing that question into “How can we act as allies?”

Fundamentally, when we’re working on allyship, we’re talking about ally as a verb, and not a noun: we’re talking about actions and behaviors that make an impact, rather than a label or a title that gives someone moral credibility or social capital.

As a side note, some leaders who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color) have been calling for an adoption of new language to describe the role of an “ally,” in terms such as “co-conspirators” or “accomplices.” And in some cases, leaders of racial equity work have stopped using the term “allyship” altogether, to prioritize language beyond positional titles that better reflects the actions, behaviors, and practices that leaders are being increasingly called on to play in society.

But we choose to use the terms “ally” and “allyship” for now as a more familiar point-of-entry to conversations about race and other issues of inequity, with an awareness and acknowledgement that allyship is an imperfect term.

How Can I Become a Better Ally?

What Leaders Must Do to Show Allyship

First, it’s important to note that allyship isn’t a single action, rather it’s ongoing action itself, with a focus on other people, not on yourself. That being said:

• Allyship needs to start with an examination of self, to better understand the power, privilege, and access available to you as an individual, as a result of the different identity groups to which you belong. Once you understand social identity and you’re more fully aware of the power and access that you have available to you in relation to the groups you aspire to serve, you’ll be in a much better position to leverage those privileges to advocate with and for others.
• Being an ally also requires deep education about the communities that you’re interested in demonstrating allyship toward. We always recommend the approach of educating ourselves through the avenues available first, before reaching out or leaning on others to teach us. Educational sources are readily available through a multitude of platforms (e.g., local libraries, on the Internet via advocacy websites and media accounts, and local and national organizations, among others).

Building a strong foundation of competencies, knowledge, and awareness is the best way to turn allyship from a buzzword into actual, sustainable behaviors that create inclusive environments and build a sense of belonging at work.

An example is the decision-making and selection process for teams within organizations. Often, when senior leaders pull together a task force to deal with a challenge, they lean on those who they know best and may unintentionally overlook others. As an ally at work, you can show inclusive leadership and advocate with and for someone who doesn’t get tapped on the shoulder to join the team to ensure that other leaders are aware of that individual’s unique and valuable talents and perspectives.

A common misconception of allyship is that it requires big, public action or loud proclamations of beliefs and values. But loudly professing allegiance without taking any meaningful actions of support is merely performative allyship.

In contrast, true allyship is available in every interpersonal interaction and can be very powerful when demonstrated through quiet, private actions and being a compassionate leader.

What Happens if I Try to Be an Ally & I Get It Wrong?

This question comes up because people are worried about “doing allyship right.” But if we are treating allyship as an ongoing, constant set of practices, we are going to get something wrong, eventually. Mistakes are going to happen.

Regardless of where you are on your allyship journey, right now is the time to get used to the idea that showing allyship is an inherently uncomfortable thing to do. It takes courage, vulnerability, and humility — both to put ourselves out there, but also when we realize we’ve gotten it wrong.

Allyship mistakes happen by those who are even the most well-intended: We may intend to speak out for someone who we think is being treated unfairly, and then later learn they found it offensive that we didn’t let them speak for themselves. Or we may think we’re giving an affirming compliment to someone’s cultural identity, only to find that the impact was that they thought the comment was insulting.

Our intent and the impact we have on others are often different, but it doesn’t mean that we give up trying to do what’s right. Leaders learn from their mistakes, no matter how difficult the lesson. In the words of Maya Angelou, “Then when you know better, do better.”

While the impact we have as leaders and allies is ultimately what matters, the failure of leaders to even act on their positive intentions out of the fear of perfection is what we find most often holds them back from being strong allies.

Many leaders never “get it wrong” because they’ve never really tried to “get it right,” and have avoided difficult allyship practices such as engaging in difficult conversations and collaboration.

Failing to engage in allyship out of the fear of perfection has the same consequences as failing to engage out of apathy: conversations don’t happen, mindsets don’t shift, and systems don’t change. In fact, engaging in conversation and collaboration enables individuals to create connections, build psychological safety, and maintain healthy relationships.

When you do choose to engage, you’ll likely find yourself feeling “called out” by someone, eventually, for something you said or did. In these moments, it’s more important than ever to keep trying, choose not to give up, and avoid getting discouraged to the point of checking out. This hard work is part of the process, but often a necessary one for us to learn.

Whether you agree with the feedback or not, we recommend first recognizing the courage it took for someone to give you that feedback, and to use it as an opportunity for reflection and growth. Misunderstandings happen, and there may be opportunity to have a follow up conversation later. However, leaders set themselves up for failure when they react to being called out by getting defensive, dismissive, angry, or upset to the point that it becomes about managing your own response to the neglect of the feelings of the person who gave the feedback.

If you are truly well-intended with your actions, the feedback (regardless of whether you fully agree with all of it or not) is worth learning from to have a better impact the next time. Remember: Don’t give up!

Keep trying, because truly understanding what allyship means and how to show it at work is critical for good leaders, no matter their position in the organizational hierarchy, if they want to continue to become better leaders. (At CCL, we’re focused on how leadership can and should evolve with our changing world. We invite you to explore our many resources for (better) leadership.)

What’s the Best Way to Help Senior Leaders Understand the Importance of Allyship at Work?

Although the need for more diverse teams and equitable and inclusive environments has existed for as long as organizations have, recent years have showcased that organizations are not as close to having diverse, inclusive, and equitable environments as they might have believed.

Studies have repeatedly shown that diverse teams drive better business performance, and companies with more diversity become more innovative, resilient, and better able to respond to complex challenges. In addition to understanding the business case for having diverse perspectives, there’s also a strong likelihood that the benefits of a diverse and inclusive organizational environment are already reflected in your organization’s mission statement and values. Most often, we find that linking to the business case and moral imperatives helps to bring leaders on board.

Corporate diversity and inclusion statements must show real commitment to advancing on goals for equity, diversity, and inclusion. It’s important that allyship in the workplace isn’t just cosmetic platitudes or empty gestures.

At CCL, clients who partner with us to build equity, diversity, and inclusion utilize our REAL framework to help them understand the relevant opportunities that are available to them at their organization through elevating equity, activating diversity, and leading inclusively.

We typically find that this approach demonstrates the need and value of true allyship in the workplace by tying it to an organization’s unique culture and values. This is key for long-term workplace culture change and taking real, concrete actions in support of professed values and commitments.

How Does Allyship for Racial Equity Take Place in an Organization That’s Mostly Homogenous?

For leaders who operate in mostly homogeneous spaces, this is a common question and challenge that comes up. In the United States, homogeneity typically refers to predominantly White organizations, but extends to other identity groups who often make up the majority group of employees and tend to hold the most positional power within organizations, such as men, cisgender, able-bodied, and neurotypical individuals, people who are heterosexual, and people of the Christian faith.

We’re intentionally framing this response with White audience members in mind, who we argue are ultimately responsible for the practices of allyship, especially within predominantly White organizations.

There is no better space or opportunity for White employees to serve as an ally and advocate for racial equity than there is within a homogenous organization. Period.

For White people, allyship in the workplace isn’t just about supporting colleagues from historically marginalized, underestimated groups while they’re in the room. The meaning of allyship is more about the often-behind-the-scenes work helping all of our colleagues, specifically those in power, to better understand the systems in place that make equity, diversity, and inclusion necessary for our other colleagues … even when it’s difficult, or even when it feels risky.

It’s about helping other White leaders understand why diversity and inclusion are important organizational values. It’s helping team members to understand why a diversity of perspectives and identities will add incredible value to your team. It’s about helping other White leaders to examine why the organization is homogeneous in the first place, and identifying relevant opportunities to change that.

We’re big believers in the “If not you, then who?” approach in this regard. Serving as an ally isn’t just about managing the interpersonal dimensions of diversity and inclusion, but about helping to prioritize equity, not just diversity and inclusion, across the systems, policies, and practices in which we operate — even (and especially) when it’s difficult. Every system, including homogeneous ones, will benefit from that form of allyship in the workplace.

Effective Allyship: Moving Beyond Awareness Into Action

In closing, to answer the question “What is allyship?” we must look beyond just the meaning or definition of allyship or mere awareness of the concept, and instead identify ways that we as individual leaders can move into action and advocate with and for others. And while shifting individual behaviors is key, lasting change requires teams and organizations to make shifts collectively.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Help your organization move beyond awareness of allyship toward taking meaningful actions with our Beyond Bias solutions, designed to equip your team to recognize, address, and overcome unconscious bias and create a more inclusive organizational culture.

Frequently Asked Questions About Allyship

More questions? Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation!

The post What Is Allyship? Your Questions Answered appeared first on CCL.

To do this, they must understand and consider their team’s different perspectives and lived experiences. This starts with understanding social identity.

Social Identity Explained

What Is Social Identity?

Social identities are labels that people use to categorize or identify themselves and/or others as members of specific groups. Some common social identities include generation, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, (dis)ability, political affiliation, relationship status, profession, and socioeconomic status.

Social identity is one of the aspects of your “self-concept” — how you see yourself as a person. Along with your personal identity (e.g., personal attributes you use to describe yourself, like being tall or conscientious), social identity influences our values, the stories we tell about ourselves and others, and things that motivate us toward action.

Why Does Social Identity Matter?

Social identities are powerful because they’re also often at the root of unequal power or privilege. As humans, we categorize ourselves and each other into groups along social identity lines. This categorization often lays the foundation for bias, stereotypes, prejudice, and favoritism. It also often serves as a catalyst for action (e.g., we may feel motivated to mobilize, organize, speak out, or demonstrate allyship based on social identities).

Understanding the nuances of social identity is critical for any people leader, because aspects of social identity affect how you lead and work with others. A social identity lens can help you spot situations when people don’t feel free to share their perspectives or are being unintentionally shut out, or when actions or decisions may be rooted in unconscious bias. It’s also foundational to any organizational-level efforts to take action on DEI in the workplace, build belonging at work, and foster a more inclusive culture.

Our (Better) Leadership Project highlights the ways leadership can (and should) evolve with our changing world, including understanding social identity, and how this leads to organizations that are more innovative, successful, and (better) prepared for the future.

4 Things to Know About Social Identity

To understand how social identities can inform your equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts, it’s helpful to remember that social identity is:

• Dynamic,
• Multiple,
• Sociological, and
• Salient.

1. Social identities are dynamic.

There’s no one specific way to acquire a social identity. You could be born into a social identity group (e.g., being born into a given generation) or acquire one as a result of specific choices made (e.g., becoming a doctor). Still other times, a lived experience may create a new social identity (e.g., an accident or illness may change your ability status). Some social identities are visible, while others are invisible. Some social identities you may hold your whole life, while others may shift throughout your life. Social identity isn’t static; it can change over time.

2. Everyone has multiple social identities, and combinations matter.

Although social identities are often talked about in terms of a single category (e.g., “Republican or Democrat;” “Black or White”), everyone has multiple social identities that combine in unique ways that influence our lived experiences and interactions. For example, the experience of being White is likely to be different if a person is also rich, heterosexual, and cisgender, as compared to a person who is poor, queer, and non-binary.

3. Social identities are shaped by society.

Society and culture determine when and how differences between people become social identities. For example, eye color is not considered a social identity in most current social groups, but skin color is. Because social identities are norm dependent, what is and is not considered a social identity can change over time and in different cultures.

4. Social identities can be more or less salient, depending on context.

Certain social identities may feel more prominent in certain situations and contexts. For example, if you are a White American living in North America, you might not often think about your national identity. However, if you were to take an expat position in China, this might suddenly feel like a huge part of your identity, because it will likely impact how others see you, as well as how you interpret your experiences.

Understanding Social Identity

An Exercise to Explore Your Own Social Identity

To bring focus to the way social identity impacts how you work and lead others, try this exercise.

1. List as many of your own social identities as you can.

Consider categories such as race, sex, gender expression, ethnicity, religion, generation, occupation, nationality, sexual orientation, social or relational roles (such as parenting or caregiving and leadership roles), (dis)ability, neurotypical status, etc.

2. Reflect on these social identities you’ve listed.

Consider the following questions:

• Which social identities are most central to how you see yourself as a person? Why?
• Which social identities have the biggest impact on how others treat you? Why? Does your answer change depending on context (e.g., at work, at home, with your friends)?
• Are there aspects of your identity that you keep hidden at work? What impact might that have on you and those around you? Are there aspects you try to make explicitly known about you? What impact does that have on how you move through the world?
• What assumptions do you think other people make about you based on your social identities?
• What assumptions may you have made about other people based on their social identities?

3. Consider how your various social identities have an impact on you.

Do your social identities affect your:

• Access to various types of support, resources, and people in positions of authority?
• Ability to direct your own and other people’s work?
• Authority to make decisions?
• Ability to influence through position or relationships?

How to Lead With Social Identity in Mind

3 Strategies for Leaders to Try

Not all of these strategies are appropriate for every group or organization, but some of them may be useful to you. You can also generate your own strategies to fit your specific situations.

1. Notice social identity representation at your organization.

Pay attention to how social identities play out in your work group and organization. Is there diversity within your organization, but less so among the decision-makers? Is there diversity among the decision-makers, but less among certain groups?

Once you notice who’s missing, consider how you could increase representation among the social identities you’re not hearing from. Make an intentional effort to increase representation of different social identities where possible, and consider how inclusive leadership practices could help.

2. Facilitate routine contact across social identities.

One of the simplest and best established strategies to decrease bias and stereotyping is to cultivate contact between people from different social identity groups to increase collaboration across boundaries where you can. Consider which social identity groups do not often interact in your current work structure, and how you might arrange more opportunities for connection (e.g., projects, social events, retreats, or team-building activities). Relationship-building starts with empathy and inclusion, and they’re imperatives for diversity initiatives.

3. Use your understanding of social identities to elevate equity at your organization.

Leveraging your understanding of social identities can help you reveal opportunities to elevate equity and lead with compassion. Equity is about giving people the resources they need to succeed (which is different from equality, which is about giving everyone the same resources). Equity is an important factor when considering diversity and inclusion in organizations, because without a focus on equity first, diversity & inclusion initiatives may be less effective and can even seem tone-deaf.

For example, when creating a new HR policy, examine how it may impact people with different combinations of social identities at your organization. Pay special attention to social identities that may be underrepresented or historically oppressed. For example you might ask, How might this new remote work policy impact people of color? Caregivers? Disabled people? Non-binary team members? Older workers without college educations?

If it seems like the policy could create an additional burden on certain groups, consider how you could adjust it, and be sure to check with people who have social identities likely to be impacted. Inviting them to share their input directly, and listening to understand their perspectives (while providing psychological safety) can go a long way.

These and other such considerations make a world of difference when it comes to attracting, retaining, and promoting a diverse workforce.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

After you finish the How Aspects of Identity Can Affect the Way You Lead & Work With Others webinar, let’s partner on research-based development solutions for your organization — from turnkey, scalable virtual courses and industry-leading 360-degree assessments to customized learning journeys for your leaders. Contact us to explore what would best meet your organization’s needs.

The post Understand Social Identity to Lead in a Changing World appeared first on CCL.

During the pandemic, women’s labor force participation dipped to its lowest level in over 3 decades, and although numbers are back up again now to pre-pandemic levels, many organizations are still struggling to retain and regain the women who were disproportionately leaving the workforce.

So before we explore these women’s leadership themes that emerged from our research on what an individual woman can do to bolster her own personal chances of success, we first want to emphasize our belief that the larger culture in which a woman operates will have a direct effect on her ability to succeed.

Key Women’s Leadership Topics & Some Larger Context Around Them

That’s why we say that the most effective investments in women’s leadership take a dual-pronged approach, with a simultaneous focus on increasing equity, providing support, and building a sense of belonging at work, while also ensuring that any development opportunities address important women’s leadership topics and equip individual women to recognize and embrace the themes that will enable them to thrive.

Most importantly, enterprise initiatives to support and develop women leaders (or diversity programs in general) are more likely to be long-lasting and successful when they include a focus on increasing equity. Equity is such a critical and foundational piece of the DEI puzzle that at CCL, we urge organizations to reframe DEI efforts as EDI efforts to prioritize equity first.

With all that being said, our research has found that highly successful women leaders often approach their careers and their lives by embracing these 4 keys to success:

• Agency,
• Authenticity,
• Connection, and
• Wholeness.

These 4 themes are woven into their career decisions and leadership styles. Collectively, these themes reveal deeper, more complex images of successful women and offer opportunities for reflection and insight for those who are navigating their leadership journeys. Together, these themes are a useful starting point for individual women to explore, and for organizations to consider as women’s leadership topics to prioritize in their development initiatives and retention efforts.

The 4 Keys to Success for Individual Women Leaders

Women’s Leadership Topics & Themes That Emerged From Our Research

1. Agency.

What do we mean by agency? “Agency” refers to intentional actions taken toward achieving a desired goal. Agency is about taking control of your career, being your own pilot, and feeling as if you’re shaping your job, your leadership style, and your life.

For example, women leaders may decide to take steps toward becoming more comfortable exercising authority or being more politically savvy. Strategies for realizing greater agency include:

• Analyzing your career steps and living with intention, both at work and at home;
• Asking for challenges outside your current functional orientation to broaden your experience and perspective;
• Intentionally cultivating your leadership brand;
• Defining boundaries to help you manage competing responsibilities and seeking out the types of support needed for the work-life juggle; and
• Setting goals that align with your values, and developing a plan for achieving them.

2. Authenticity.

Authenticity is being genuine, and being yourself. As the lines between work and home life continue to blur, it’s more important than ever before for women to resist the urge to comply with policies, expectations, practices, and environments that are in opposition to their needs as leaders.

Authenticity is important for all leaders, but it can be particularly challenging for women to show up as their genuine selves if their organizational culture is rife with gendered double standards. The importance of leading authentically for women in our research study was resounding, whether or not they felt they were living extremely authentic lives.

Authenticity comes from finding your own style, your way of leading. By developing self-awareness, you gain clarity about your values, behaviors, preferences, and skills. You can then determine the gap between “fitting in” and being yourself.

To increase your self-awareness, seek feedback to better understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and to understand the impact you have on others. Evaluate how your needs, motivations, and goals change over time, and continue to reassess what’s of value to you. Look for patterns, but be open to possibilities.

3. Connection.

Connection involves a focus on relationships. A desire for closer friendships and family ties drove many of the goals, choices, and decisions of the women in our study. Even the busiest executives invest in connections, both personally and professionally. To strengthen your professional connections:

1. Slow down and take time for people.
2. Build relationships.
3. Network, network, network.

Relationships and connection are important for all leaders, but they are especially important for women and other historically excluded groups. Learn more about cultivating a network of champions, and if you feel unsure about why or how, explore our networking tips for women. Find a mentor or establish your personal “board of directors” to serve as a support system and sounding board.

4. Wholeness.

Wholeness represents the desire to seek roles beyond work or to unite different life roles into an integrated whole. During these uncertain times, wholeness can sound especially daunting for women who already feel overburdened and/or under-supported at work and home. However, this was the most dominant theme we found in our research.

Some women in our study reported that they were concerned that they had nothing else in their lives but work. Others expressed concern about wholeness because they feel fragmented and divided between work and other life roles. They value multiple roles, life beyond work, and a broader definition of success.

To help you gain a sense of wholeness, let go of the idea that it’s about “balance” and an equitable division of time between work and other roles. Wholeness is about setting priorities and valuing all your commitments. It’s about setting boundaries and saying no to roles or obligations that no longer serve you. Learn more about how to be a holistic leader in every facet of your life.

A Closer Look at These 4 Themes at the Enterprise Level

How Organizations Can Prioritize These Women’s Leadership Topics in Development Initiatives

As noted above, for women leaders to succeed, their organization’s culture must be structured in a way that supports them in cultivating these 4 keys, and that starts with a focus on equity. Once policies, procedures, and behaviors that promote equity have been established, organizations and senior leaders can additionally encourage women (and everyone) to embrace the 4 themes that our research uncovered are often integral to success, in the following specific ways:

• Promote agency by ensuring that bosses give their direct reports as much autonomy as possible. For example, don’t make assumptions about whether a woman on your team might want to take on a difficult new project or role — just ask her directly and let her speak for herself. The key is to cultivate a culture of respect where women leaders feel psychologically safe to share their preferences and perspectives candidly. When individuals feel a sense of agency and control, and psychological safety at work, they’re more likely to stay engaged and committed to their organizations.
• Support authenticity by offering resources, training, and ample opportunities to reflect, so leaders better understand their own preferences, motivations, and the ways that aspects of social identity affect how they lead. Senior leaders should focus on building a culture of inclusive leadership so that all people, including women leaders, feel able to bring their whole, authentic selves to work.
• Build connections by ensuring senior leaders are aware of the importance of coaching, mentorship, and sponsorship for women. You can download our free resources on sponsoring and mentoring women, which include questions and exercises that can help create connection, opportunities, and building those critical relationships.
• Encourage wholeness by making space for your people to gain clarity about what they need and then show support in managing work-life conflicts so they gain greater resilience.

And again, enterprise efforts to develop women leaders in support of these key themes will be most effective if your organization takes a systemic approach to DEI culture change.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Organizations can support women leaders by providing women’s leadership development exploring all of these women’s leadership topics and by partnering with us to create organizational cultures that that help attract and retain more women and people of color with our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion experts and solutions.

The post 4 Keys to Success for Women Leaders appeared first on CCL.

Today, the pledges and promises in these statements continue to be urgently important, and there must be organizational accountability for following through with actions that align with their words.

In this article, we’ll discuss what a corporate equity, diversity, inclusion statement is; share findings from our research study on statements issued by Fortune 100 and CEO Action Network companies; and provide advice for organizations on crafting truly meaningful equity, diversity, and inclusion statements and aligning them with measurable action steps to ensure progress.

And to help you get started with actions that lead to sustainable impact, be sure to download our Action Guide for Crafting a Meaningful EDI Corporate Statement & Approach below.

Also, as you may have noticed, at the Center for Creative Leadership, we refer to equity, diversity, and inclusion, or EDI, rather than DEI, with an intentional focus on leading with equity first. Our perspective is that an organization’s DEI efforts will be more effective when framed as EDI efforts, emphasizing the importance of pursuing greater diversity and inclusion only after investing in a culture of equity as the foundation.

Knowing that, let’s take a look at what our research found about organizational “diversity & inclusion statements,” DEI statements or, as we prefer to call it, EDI statements and approaches.

First, What Is a Diversity & Inclusion Statement?

Many of us are familiar with the idea of a mission statement, which describes an organization’s overall purpose and why it exists. Typically, a mission statement acts as a top-level summary about how a business approaches the work it does. Similar to a mission statement, an organization’s EDI statement also summarizes how the business approaches the work it does.

An equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) statement outlines an organization’s perspective on social justice issues and the action steps being taken to create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive culture. Think of your corporate statement on EDI as a roadmap for your organization and, importantly, a way to hold your leadership and organization accountable for change.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion statements are a powerful way to communicate — both to your employees and the public — about your organization’s priorities.

But the intention of developing and issuing such a statement should be to drive real culture change; not to position your brand. EDI statements should never be used as merely marketing tactics.

To signal authenticity, build trust, and create real change, the words in your organization’s equity, diversity, and inclusion statement must be matched with specific, measurable steps your organization is taking to truly move the needle away from cosmetic promises and toward committed actions.

Why Does Your Organization Need an EDI Statement?

An EDI statement gives your organization an approach to tackling equity, diversity, and inclusion issues. It’s a clear and succinct way to articulate your company’s values, expectations, and goals when it comes to EDI.

At this point, little needs to be said about the business benefits that arise from cultivating a diverse workforce. Statistics clearly show that diverse and inclusive businesses are more innovative, profitable, and attractive to talent. Employees deserve to work for companies who embrace these values, and they also expect it.

According to an Axios survey, roughly 80% of employees expect their company to act on matters such as racism and social justice. And the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that 60% of respondents expect CEOs to speak publicly about controversial social and political issues they care about.

Increasingly, we are in an age of employee activism; workers are seeking purpose-driven leadership. Employees want their leaders and organizations to take a stance on important topics — and silence is, in itself, a statement.

Corporate equity, diversity, and inclusion statements are a great way to announce and clarify your values, initiate change in your organization, and ensure that conversations about this crucial work are ongoing.

What Our Research Suggests About Corporate Statements on Diversity & Inclusion

At CCL, we wanted to better understand effective EDI communications and uncover relationships between EDI statement content, leader motives, and proposed organizational culture change. To do this we conducted a research study built on a web scraping application to analyze corporate statements from Fortune 100 and CEO Action Network companies in response to systemic racism.

Through analyzing 200+ corporate EDI statements, 3 consistent content themes emerged:

• Oppression is everywhere, all the time: In response to the public witnessing of George Floyd’s murder, many leaders issued statements that acknowledged oppression and the systemic mistreatment of certain groups by other groups. The statements widely recognize that oppression exists within organizations and organizational networks.
• Leaders are invitational: This observed theme casts senior leadership as open-minded, empathetic, and interested in finding common ground to promote understanding. Invitational leaders acknowledge and address systemic oppression, everyday racism, inaction, and silence. They know EDI work moves beyond cosmetics when employees feel safe, valued, and empowered.
• Messages and metrics should match: Here we see listings of desired general outcomes for organizational action that align with the acknowledged issues and goals. Desired outcomes are presented as short- to medium-term positive improvements resulting from long-term EDI-oriented culture change.

Our research also uncovered 3 motives that underlie DEI strategies and corporate EDI statements, ranging from surface-level compliance to in-depth change. These employ EDI statements as a cosmetic tool, conversation-starter, and commitment-driver, as illustrated below:

Cosmetic motives for EDI statements were dominant in the data set we analyzed. We found that 96% of corporate DEI statements lacked key details to hold organizations accountable for making long-term workplace culture change and taking real, concrete actions in support of their professed values and commitments. What can your organization learn from this for your own corporate statements on diversity & inclusion?

When planning for or examining your EDI statement, it’s important to consider the motivations involved, and where your organization’s public statements to date might fall on this continuum. EDI statements should demonstrate a willingness to start sincere conversations across leader levels and drive a commitment to take concrete and sustainable systemic action.

If your organization’s EDI statement represents more of a public relations tactic than a vehicle for change, then it’s imperative for you to revisit and reconsider your motives. Our 4-step REAL framework can help guide you through making real, sustainable change within your organization.

Advice for Organizations on Crafting Meaningful Diversity & Inclusion Statements

How to Create a Meaningful Corporate Statement on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)

Sustaining organizational commitments to EDI requires a willingness to innovate and to solve problems that have not yet been solved by publishing statements alone. To make real progress, leaders should take the following 3 steps.

1. Remember that EDI is everyone’s issue.

Some of the corporate statements in our dataset that were sincere but fell into the cosmetic category addressed Black people with more frequency than White people. Such inclusions and omissions suggest the statements are motivated by a desire to cosmetically address an external crisis, while framing it as largely “someone else’s problem.” In so doing, these responses create social distance between racial groups, centralize White people and perspectives, and assign responsibility for dismantling systemic racism to systemically excluded people.

Instead, use inclusive language, including words like “together,” “powerful,” “we,” “all of us,” etc. to create community and help everyone understand and act on the invitation to care for one another, themselves, and the organization. This is a first step in making EDI work less cosmetic and more sustainable.

2. Lead with a “listen-first” approach.

To avoid performative allyship and to instead develop more sincere equity, diversity, and inclusion statements, embrace a “listen-first” approach.

Before announcing EDI efforts publicly, leaders should listen closely to their internal and external stakeholders about how equity, diversity, and inclusion impact their professional and personal lives. Listening first allows leaders to gather important information about historic and current problems, progress, conditions, and requirements, as well as the capabilities and limitations of resources. These insights can then be incorporated into your organization’s equity, diversity, and inclusion statement.

3. Engage in conversation and commit.

Your messages and metrics should match. Demonstrate that data-informed decisions have been made to normalize anti-racism and assign human and financial resources to provide tangible support to organizational EDI work. In our research, we found that words and phrases such as “anti-racism,” “pro-Black,” “journey,” “partner,” “provide,” and “people who are marginalized” were included in organizational statements that revealed a willingness to take responsibility for current and future states of organizational culture.

Consider using some of this language and get specific about the actions your organization is committing to, from internal operations, external philanthropy, and public equity standpoints. Then, connect those commitments to measurable short-, medium-, and long-term improvements that will reflect and result from an EDI-committed culture change. For ideas of specific commitments your organization can make and steps you can take that will make a real difference in your community, download our Action Guide for Crafting a Meaningful EDI Corporate Statement & Approach below.

Follow Through on Your Corporate EDI Statement

After publicly announcing your intentions, your organization and leadership team should put actions behind your words to solidify your commitment statement in the following ways:

• Reveal relevant opportunities. It’s important for your organization to understand that it’s not an option to ignore or brush aside systemic oppression; it’s an issue that must be addressed. Your statement should acknowledge systemic exclusion and demonstrate that it’s a problem that impacts our world and how we work at every point. Your EDI statement should acknowledge these realities and explain what the commitment is for your organization. In order to carry out the commitment represented in your equity, diversity, and inclusion statement, use resources or partner with a solution provider to identify 2–3 key objectives to begin transforming your organization. For starters, consider analyzing inclusion metrics, beginning listening sessions, and raising awareness across the organization about your EDI efforts.
• Move beyond a “view from the top.” While action can be taken from any seat, senior leaders hold the positional power to catalyze meaningful, sustainable change. To make that change, however, leaders must first understand the current state of the organization.Along with deploying culture survey tools, leaders can examine employee reviews on sites like Glassdoor, which describe specific issues employees are encountering, from recruitment and retention to promotion and exit. Employee surveys and reviews can reveal important insights about how employees work within formal and informal networks, how diverse and inclusive the organization’s culture is, and systemic advantages and disadvantages associated with employment and performance. Leaders should focus on taking action on commitments that include collecting and sharing representation metrics, achieving pay equity, ensuring that work is distributed appropriately, and most importantly, managing the impact and concerns employees have about EDI.
• Continue to listen and communicate. Recognize that committed EDI work will be a transformational journey, so take the time — simply issuing one diversity & inclusion statement is not enough. Once you’ve shared your organization’s values and commitment and begun the work, continue to seek opportunities for feedback, insights, and transparency. For instance, leaders can listen for ways to facilitate equity in professional development, quality employment, and healthcare. This kind of firsthand information can create new knowledge about EDI within your organization’s unique context, improve ability to identify and mitigate bias, and promote collaboration through which organizational leaders and stakeholders bring out the best in one another.

How to Measure Progress Toward the Goals of Your EDI Statement

It’s important to monitor your organization as things change. Pay close attention to employee reviews, survey results that indicate changes in employee sentiment, and metrics to track equity in hiring and promotion rates.

Remember that, while it’s critical to establish goals and metrics to hold organizational leaders accountable for commitments made, your journey to EDI transformation will be ongoing. A focus on cultivating an equitable environment in which all your employees can thrive must be incorporated into every facet of your company culture.

Building greater equity, diversity, and inclusion is a critical journey for every organization, large and small, and though releasing a corporate statement on EDI is a good first step, it’s even more important to take actions to keep the journey going and continue to make forward progress for the future.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Align your organization’s EDI statement with concrete actions that shift mindsets, behaviors, and practices. Our EDI researchers and experts can help create a roadmap for your organization to drive real change. Learn more by downloading our specific recommendations below.

The post Does Your Organization’s Diversity & Inclusion Statement Match Its Commitment? appeared first on CCL.

Belonging — the belief that we are connected, supported, and respected — is a basic human need. It’s also a critical component of creating cultures of equity, diversity, and inclusion at work. Belonging in the workplace can pave the way for greater performance, innovation, satisfaction, and persistence through challenges.

Most leaders have a rough idea of what belonging is, but the true importance and value of belonging at work is probably more complex than they might imagine. Beyond just “Do I fit in here?” having a sense of belonging in the workplace involves answering multiple questions, such as:

• Can I connect with my peers professionally? Socially?
• Do I trust my peers, supervisors, and leaders?
• Do I feel like my unique perspective and experiences are valued?
• Am I able to share my authentic self?
• Am I free from worries about fitting in?

The Value of Belonging at Work

Research suggests that in the workplace, belonging and uncertainty about belonging both matter a lot, as they influence everything from job satisfaction and self-esteem to performance and wellbeing.

This is because when everyone consistently feels included and certain that they belong at work, people are more willing to take risks and more comfortable asking for (and giving) help. So part of the value of belonging in the workplace is that it actually helps to encourage more innovation in the organization and fosters innovative mindsets through open communication.

In addition, belonging is linked to increased persistence through challenges, bouncing back after failure, less likelihood to be thrown off by organizational shifts, and reduced employee turnover. For example, in a recent partnership with a leading global automotive organization, our researchers found that employee perceptions of inclusion, belonging uncertainty, and belonging at work were the strongest predictors of turnover intentions, burnout, and work-life balance.

In another study, building connection and belonging with other participants was also highlighted as one of the most valuable outcomes of engaging in leadership development training.

Luckily, research confirms that belonging uncertainty and belonging in the workplace can both be influenced by organizations and their leaders.

“By intentionally working to decrease uncertainties around belonging, you invite employees to set aside worries, concerns, or stress they’re carrying around with them,” shares Dr. Stephanie Wormington, CCL’s director of Global Strategic Research. “Then they no longer have to expend as much energy wondering if they belong at work, and they’re free to contribute to business objectives in a meaningful, productive, and fulfilling way.”

The Impact of Uncertainty About Belonging in the Workplace

Belonging & Belonging Uncertainty: 2 Sides of the Same Coin

We often talk about belonging as a single concept of feeling that you fit in. However, feeling as if you belong is only one side of the coin.

Before we can fully understand the value of belonging — and particularly the importance of belonging in the workplace — we must first understand the other side of the coin: a term known as “belonging uncertainty.” 

People experience belonging uncertainty when they aren’t consistently sure whether they fit in at work. This vacillating sense of security can arise from feeling unlike others around you, either in appearance or cultural experiences. Belonging uncertainty is especially common if employees have a social identity that includes historically underestimated groups.

Often, employees experiencing belonging uncertainty worry about being treated negatively based on a stereotype. Without intentional supports, these employees may experience isolation, tokenism, and pressure to assimilate. “It’s like carrying a heavy backpack that you can never set down,” says Wormington. “If you’re walking around feeling weighed down all the time, it’s hard to engage fully, think creatively, or bring your full self to your work.”

Belonging uncertainty often leads people to hide aspects of themselves, or not put their whole selves out there. “That makes it tricky to detect when someone is feeling belonging uncertainty,” Wormington notes. When key indicators are missing, like someone seems hesitant to participate, you have a clue that the environment might not feel very welcoming to them.

Belonging uncertainty has an important tie to equity, too. According to Wormington, “If one person on the team is carrying around an empty backpack while another is geared up for a week-long backpacking trip, it’s going to be much easier for the first employee to walk up the hill. As leaders, we have to recognize and acknowledge the potential impact on how equitable and inclusive the workplace feels to employees carrying different weights.”

The concerns that arise from belonging uncertainty can cause people to interpret neutral events negatively.

Imagine that 2 employees give a presentation at a quarterly meeting, and neither receives any applause when they finish. An employee with low belonging uncertainty may not really notice, or if they do, attribute it to an audience eager to get to the next break. On the other hand, an employee who does experience belonging uncertainty might jump to conclusions, interpreting the silence as feedback that their presentation was boring, confusing, or poorly received.

The second employee might even take it a step further, telling themselves they’re not cut out for their job or the organization. “For example, if you’re a younger woman in a leadership role, especially a younger woman of color, and you’re surrounded by older white men, you might interpret innocuous cues as subtle signs that you’re not supposed to be there. Even if you’re able to counter those thoughts with positive self-talk, the mental energy involved in processing those thoughts and questioning those cognitive distortions is a heavy burden to bear,” says Wormington.

You might consider belonging uncertainty to be a cognitive manifestation of inequity. Some people at work are constantly carrying the weight of stereotypes and messages about who can (and can’t) be successful, while others are free from those burdens. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to help lift that cognitive load however and wherever we can.

How to Create a Sense of Belonging in the Workplace

3 Tips for Leaders

Here’s the good news for leaders looking for advice on how to build belonging in the workplace: Your efforts don’t have to involve big or expensive gestures. Leaders can incorporate the following actions into everyday work life to counteract belonging uncertainty and instill a culture of belonging at work.

For maximum impact, know that the most powerful experiences involve fostering all elements of belonging: connecting with peers, building trust, valuing all employees’ unique voices, and decreasing belonging uncertainty.

1. Create intentional opportunities for connection.

When trying to foster belonging, most organizations begin with creating opportunities for employees to connect. Many of us have attended a company pizza party or team mixer as an opportunity to meet people and build relationships. While that’s a start, leaders can make those experiences more potent by prioritizing consistent, ongoing opportunities for connection over one grandiose but infrequent event.

Being able to connect with colleagues twice a month is more impactful than a large, once-yearly occasion, even if the opportunities are small, because it serves as a booster for belonging at work. Whether reserving time at the beginning of meetings for team members to share something about themselves or facilitating cross-group coffee chats, creating space for people to connect with peers in a meaningful way on a regular basis is a promising way to support a sense of belonging.

Leaders can also build trust, an important element of belonging, by creating both social and professional opportunities to connect. Offering opportunities to share hobbies or personally held customs encourages employees to bring all parts of themselves to work, and begins to build a foundation of trust. You might champion voluntary Employee Resource Groups to create spaces for certain identities, for example.

• TIP: Build in small, ongoing opportunities for connection into your team or organizational culture. If you consistently focus on building leadership trust and create time for colleagues to make connections with one another, the impact compounds over time. You might set aside a few minutes to express gratitude publicly at the start of every team or department meeting, and create space for others to do the same. Or you might ask colleagues to bring questions as icebreaker activities, or set aside time to share wins and give kudos to teammates. Regardless, finding a sustainable way for employees to connect authentically and consistently is key.

2. Flip the script on uncertainty and failure.

When people lack a sense of belonging, it can be an isolating experience. Akin to dealing with imposter syndrome, belonging uncertainty causes employees who feel like they don’t belong to think they are the only ones experiencing those thoughts.

But in fact, most of us — at some point in our careers — have questioned ourselves and our abilities. When colleagues are willing to share their own uncertainties or even failures publicly, they normalize the feeling and help take away its power.

This message can be particularly effective when it comes from colleagues further along in their careers. Wormington remembers a senior leader pulling her aside when she took on a new management role years ago. “She told me, ‘I remember I was terrified if meetings didn’t go well. If there was an awkward silence, I thought it was my fault and a reflection on me. But I’ve learned, over time, that not everything is about me. Others have the same doubts, and eventually those doubts went away for me.’ It was a powerful realization: I learned that I wasn’t alone in my worries and my concerns might dissipate over time.”

Wormington has tried to share that experience with others. “I now keep a resume of failures,” says Wormington, inspired by a story about a Princeton professor who created a CV of failures. Rather than bulleting her accomplishments, she lists every job she didn’t get, every grant that wasn’t funded, and every paper that was rejected. The resume of failures is much more extensive than her real resume, she notes, and more beneficial, too.

“Each failure initially reinforced that voice in my head telling me I don’t belong in my field. But it’s also helped me to grow. I’ve learned so much more from those failures than from my successes,” she adds. “By typing them out and sharing them with my team or newer colleagues, I hope to reinforce the reality that everyone has to overcome hurdles. Just because you fall short of your expectations doesn’t mean you don’t belong in a role or that you don’t have what it takes to succeed. It means you have an opportunity to learn and develop.”

• TIP: Normalize failure and frame uncertainty as common and temporary. Encourage a culture where employees can speak openly about handling stress, uncertainty, or setbacks. Encourage senior leaders to help bust myths around mistakes by reinforcing that failure is transient, and to be expected. Model open and candid sharing of lessons learned, because that signals a willingness to make yourself vulnerable and encourages innovation, rather than sabotages it.
• TIP: Explore mentoring as a way to support during transition points. During times of transition, like onboarding, promotion, and new managerial responsibilities, could senior members of the team help reinforce and support other members? For example, if a new person joins the group or if someone is promoted, invite a more senior colleague to step in to share his or her experiences with the new manager. Coaching and mentoring programs can be used to develop new leaders, not only helping to support and onboard them, but also enabling both parties to benefit from mutual trust-building and an enhanced culture of belonging at work.

3. Show humility by not assuming others’ experiences.

Leaders who consistently create space for connection and share their own self-doubts are more likely to have employees who feel psychologically safe at work, and subsequently more comfortable sharing their experiences with belonging and belonging uncertainty. This is particularly important for employees who are most often overlooked and underestimated.

Power dynamics can often come into place in group settings, with those who hold more senior positions or privileged social identities taking up the most “airtime” in meetings. For example, one Catalyst study found that 1 in 5 women leaders feel overlooked or ignored during group video calls. Individuals from historically underestimated groups often report similar experiences.

Break the mold by scaffolding opportunities for all employees to share openly and honestly with you. When they do, remain open and choose your words wisely. What may seem innocuous to you doesn’t always seem that way to others. “For example, if a woman on my team opens up to me, and I respond with, ‘Oh, I know exactly how you feel!’ I may think that I’m showing empathy, but that could come across as me failing to acknowledge her personal experiences,” Wormington says.

“We all have our own lived experiences, so it’s important not to downplay or invalidate others.” Here is where a well-placed silence can be powerful. Don’t cut off potential sharing by moving on to another topic too soon.

Also be mindful to not push employees to share their personal lives with you. “Your job is simply to provide the space, not force anyone to share.” Finally, discourage employees speaking for others by asking everyone to focus on their own experiences. “Give people a platform to share their own experiences and perspectives, so others don’t end up talking for them,” says Wormington. “The whole team can learn valuable lessons.”

• TIP: Don’t assume you have the answers. Compassionate leadership starts with listening, and leaders sometimes make false assumptions about employees they don’t hear from, relate to, or understand. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that someone is “just shy,” for example, consider other explanations. Foster a trusting relationship over time, so employees can feel comfortable opening up at their own pace. Build an organization that values different perspectives by modeling (and training your team) in inclusive leadership practices and active listening skills. Particular things to practice include listening for understanding, remaining present in the moment, withholding judgement, and speaking less to hear more.

Better Leaders Focus on Building Belonging at Work

Leading with a focus on building belonging at work requires humility and bravery. Without a focus on equipping leaders and teams with the knowledge about how to create a sense of belonging in the workplace, organizations will never be as strong or productive as they could be.

At CCL, we believe in equipping leaders to cultivate organizational cultures that truly support everyone in the organization — ensuring people are better than just okay. We’ve created a downloadable collection of leadership resources on compassion, wellbeing, and belonging with actionable tips gleaned from our research.

The bottom line: Belonging in the workplace is about more than just fitting in. True belonging is built on a strong foundation of trust, connection, and freedom from uncertainty. Fostering a sense of belonging at work acknowledges that everyone brings value through their different experiences and perspectives, and that some individuals might also be inequitably burdened with concerns.

Belonging in the workplace is also a critical component of employee wellbeing. When leaders consistently commit to fostering belonging, organizations and employees thrive.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Take a meaningful step toward increasing belonging at your workplace by starting a conversation with colleagues on your team or at your organization. Download Our Belonging at Work Conversation Guide now.

The post How to Build Belonging at Work appeared first on CCL.