Exclusion Archives - Fierce

4 Ways to Boost Diversity in the Workplace to #BalanceforBetter

Fierce — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Women want to be heard, cultural roadblocks be damned.

We saw this after the November 2018 midterm elections when 117 women — a historic record — were elected or appointed to Congress. We saw this with the launch of the Time’s Up Movement, aimed at addressing inequality and injustices in the entertainment industry.

We saw it with the continued focus on the #MeToo Movement and the Women’s March over the past year.

We also saw women making significant strides beyond social activism: last year alone, there were 1,821 net new women-owned businesses launched every single day, with women of color founding 64 percent of those new businesses.

That’s a HUGE accomplishment.

To say I am proud to be a female president at a women-owned organization would be an understatement.

I am also proud of the many women who inspire me regularly. There are so many I could shout-out, and I am going to highlight a few:

My mom — without you, I would not be the woman I am and thank you for encouraging me day in and day out.
Our Founder, Susan Scott, who has believed in me and our collective vision for building a better world, one conversation at a time.
To Chris Douglas and Kim Bohr, for years of building together.
Gloria Feldt, your work with Take the Lead has a bold mission that I am behind.
Bonnie St. John, I love your tenacity and your work with women and diversity in the workplace to truly build new paths forward.
Juliet Funt, your mission to help people, and women, build more white space in their lives is so needed.

There are so many more that I would love to share, and I’ll do that more in the next few days.

In honor of International Women’s Day, and to celebrate this year’s theme of #BalanceforBetter, I’m challenging all business leaders to take a deeper look at how they can continue the momentum we’ve had and make a strong commitment to diversity in the workplace.

For encouragement, check out these statistics on balance in the workplace from Randstad US:

78 percent of employees say a workplace where people are treated equally, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, or religion, is highly important to them.
56 percent of female workers and 52 percent of male workers say they believe their employers could be doing more to promote gender equality and diversity.
80 percent of women say they would switch employers if they felt another company had greater gender equality.

We took some large steps in 2018, but as you can see from this data, there’s still room to grow and improve so that employees can proudly say their organization is #BalanceforBetter.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

A great first start to cultivating a more diverse organization is by creating a space where every single employee feels that their voice matters.

Below are four ways you can foster more diverse voices within your company, and begin to bolster a stronger, balanced workforce:

1. Invite more than your usual team members to meetings

No one person has all the answers in your organization, and you can most likely predict your team members’ views on topics.

Because of this, it is incredibly important to include more than the typical individuals you regularly invite to meetings. Imagine the unique, diverse ideas that could come from employees you don’t normally think to ask to share their thoughts.

It’s important to remember that these people most likely won’t be the ones with the most direct experience with whatever your meeting is focusing on — they could be from completely different teams and departments, as well as various levels of seniority.

Their perspectives are useful because they will be coming from a place contrasting to what you expect.

Also think about including those who will be affected by any decisions that may come out of the meeting and those who have perspectives you don’t usually think about hearing such as customers, outside experts, and decision makers.

The more unexpected people you bring to the table, the more likely you will champion creative outcomes you never would have reached if you stuck with the status quo.

By going outside the usual suspects in meetings, you’re showing everyone at your organization that their opinions and ideas matter and you are open to hearing them.

2. Encourage every team member to share their thoughts and emotions

We don’t know what people are thinking unless they tell us. Even if they do, there is no guarantee they’re telling us what they really think.

This is why it is especially vital you embolden your team members to tell you their perspectives, especially if they differ from what you see or the direction you are leaning.

There’s no better way to convince people you care about their opinions than by asking for it and then truly, presently listening to what they have to say.

Also, be sure that you hear from every single team member during all variations of conversations.

If someone says, “I don’t know” when you ask them their opinions, or “I have nothing to add,” challenge them by asking what they would add or say if they did know or had something to add.

When you aren’t sure what someone’s comments mean or what they’ve said is incomplete, encourage them to describe further so you fully understand and hear their point of view.

The key here is showing that you want to hear and understand what they have to say and that their voice matters.

3. Check your bias at the door

The metaphorical phrase, “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” has endured as long as it has for a reason. It speaks the truth and it resonates with people.

In this sense, it is incredibly imperative to remember that employees shouldn’t be judged by the generation they represent, the religion they practice or don’t practice, the gender they identify as, or the socioeconomic status they were raised in.

What organizations can do is ensure employees become skilled at culling insights from people of all backgrounds and encourage employees to interrogate their own conscious or unconscious perceptions of reality.

Focus then shifts to the ideas, thoughts, and thought processes of the individual, rather than judgments you have because of an unconscious bias you may have.

Building a work environment where diversity of thought is valued begins with the commitment to enter into conversations without making assumptions by interrogating our own personal context.

The goal is to learn rather than to convince.

Curiosity not only encourages innovation and increases the likelihood of well-rounded decisions, it more accurately represents the people present.

4. Practice inclusion without illusion

Don’t just implement inclusion initiatives for the sake of best practices. Do so out of genuine curiosity and interest.

Inspire employees to check in with themselves regarding their approach — if they don’t believe another’s input to be valid or worth hearing, chances are, the other person will be able to pick up on it and see that their thoughts are being brushed under the rug.

Remember that every opinion has value (regardless of organizational level) and listen with an open mind.

An added benefit to inviting diverse perspectives is that on an individual level, we feel appreciated and heard. Knowing that our own perspective is being considered, regardless of the outcome, is a good feeling.

Leaders need to leverage the strengths that vary from person to person as well as our unique contexts, preferences, and life experiences.

Remind contributors to bring all of who they are to the conversation because their unique experience of the world is valid. Every perspective matters.

We need to continue moving in a direction toward a common goal in our organizations, and when everyone feels supported and free to contribute their perspective to this goal, we can get there more efficiently, more effectively, and more successfully.

Who are the women you want to recognize for all that they do for you? I’d love it if you used the hashtags #BalanceforBetter and #leadFierce together to tell me all about them! I can’t wait to read about the strong, influential women in your lives and to give them the credit they deserve.

Tags: #Bias, #Exclusion, #Rigid Thinking

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How to Be Accountable for Your Emotional Wake as a Leader

Fierce — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 07:00:00 +0000

What’s the impact of a Fierce conversation before it’s even happened?

How often do you have a conversation with yourself before a team meeting, an interview, or prior to delivering feedback or confronting a problem?

Consider it an essential part of your prep time, integrated into the normal routine of preparing for a meeting. And depending on the situation or person, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to many. The value of a conversation with someone else begins with the conversation you have with yourself.

Why? Because all conversations are with yourself, and sometimes they involve other people.

Last summer we published a blog post on how to clean up a “messy conversation”. You know the kind, the ones that have an aftermath or an aftertaste that is less than positive. Someone lost their temper, or they retreated into the human tendency to defend, deny, or deflect.

And in the aftermath? Neither you nor your colleague enriched your relationship. Trust wasn’t built. Maybe the actual issue wasn’t entirely identified, or solutions weren’t discussed because somewhere along the way in the conversation, things went awry. Both you and your direct report leave they conversation with a bad taste in your mouth because neither of you said what was really on your mind, or you didn’t say it in a way that made it possible to enrich the relationship.

I’ve got the perfect example of this. A few years ago, I was working for a chemical company and our primary clients were engineers I visited each month. Over the course of my tenure with this organization, I slowly built relationships with each of these individuals. Eventually, I left the company to take a new job opportunity.

A few weeks later, I came to find that I didn’t do a good job of saying goodbye. One of my clients, a building engineer at the Kennedy Center, called me on my cell. He shared that he was upset, and I immediately thought this had to do with a recent order. I explained that I wouldn’t be able to assist him on this front as I was no longer with the company. He paused for a moment and then elaborated, “I’m upset that you didn’t contact me to say you were leaving.” Ouch. This caught me off guard. I didn’t realize the effect my leaving had on these clients, and it opened my eyes to the importance of understanding more of what people are feeling.

I left a positive impression on my customers and the emotional wake that came with not reaching out to share my departure genuinely hurt the relationships I developed with each of these individuals. Since then, I’ve become more mindful especially as I continue to grow in my leadership role here at Fierce.

I consistently ask myself, am I enriching this relationship? And how can I do so with each conversation I’m having?

As a manager, leader, executive, or CEO, you may be wondering where to start. How do I take responsibility for my emotional wake and go into any a difficult conversation with the tools to make it effective and engage my colleague(s) at the same time?

It starts by being real with yourself. You have to be deliberate and intentionally come out from behind yourself (i.e., the context filters you have of the world) and show up to the conversation.

And don’t let that voice in your head tell you that being real with yourself and with others is too scary, too much of a risk. Like Susan Scott says, unreal conversations are incredibly expensive for both organizations and individuals.

I know for a fact that being real can be challenging. Growing up in Canada, being polite was considered more important than being real. It was just how I was raised. I would avoid saying anything that could be construed as negative to anyone, even though it might’ve been completely valid feedback and something that genuinely needed to be said. Fierce has equipped me with the skills needed to have conversations in a manner where I am able to effectively share feedback, collaborate with my team, and confront when needed in my day to day.

As a leader, there are ways you can be real while still enriching the relationship.

Pay attention to your influence.

What effect do you have after you leave a room, finish a call, exit a meeting? How would your delivery be affected if you thought about the impact before the conversation?

Think of an emotional wake like an earthquake. In the wake of the quake, after the rumbling and friction deep within the earth’s tectonic plates has ceased, there may be after-effects: trembling, buildings crumbling, and perhaps a few smaller quakes. Your words and the conversations that you have deliver a similar effect: an aftertaste, aftermath, or afterglow.

Paying attention to your emotional wake requires that you tune in and take responsibility for it.

When a conversation is real, the change occurs before the conversation has ended. Everyone involved has the conversation. Both you and your colleagues will gain insights into who you are and what you really want, and the unnecessary clutter and filters of your mind will be cleared out so you can see the solution more clearly.

The conversation is the relationship, and your relationships are succeeding or failing one conversation at a time. Taking the time to begin a conversation with yourself prioritizes the relationship that you have with your colleagues.

So how do you go about beginning a conversation by having one with yourself?

Write a stump speech.

In her bestselling book “Fierce Conversations,” Fierce Founder & CEO Susan Scott shares a conversation model that leaders can use to clarify their intentions. Consider this your stump speech, a conversation that is clear and concise and that you could share with anyone who asks.

Answer these questions:

Where are you going?
Why are you going there?
Who is going with you?
How are you going to get there?

Conversations are like a journey. There’s a beginning, an in-the-thick-of-it, and a destination that is more of a pit stop than anything.

Fierce conversations are ongoing, and for this reason it’s important to think about where you’ll take this conversation and how it will impact your future conversations with colleagues.

Have a Mineral Rights conversation with yourself.

At Fierce, we use a conversation model in our coaching program called Mineral Rights. In a Mineral Rights conversation, you lead with questions that get to the heart of an issue and explore what the potential solutions could be.

The beauty of a Mineral Rights conversation is that you can have one with yourself. Yes, they require courage, and they enable us to see the reality of a situation as well as our own truths. And an acknowledgement that our truths are not the same ones that our colleagues or direct reports have.

During your fierce conversation with yourself, explore and discern the following truths to get to the heart of reality and determine where you may have a role in the situation:

Official truth — How things seem on the surface, which more often than not, is just propaganda. For example, saying “Everything is fine,” when there is actually an issue that needs to be resolved.
Ground truth — What’s actually happening. It’s in the ground truths that we often admit to ourselves and others, “Hey, there’s an issue here that we need to address.”

Getting to the ground truth is a reality check that requires you to be completely honest with yourself, and it’s the only way you can properly hold yourself and others accountable.

Enter the conversation prepared to be real…and curious.

As a leader, the last thing you want to do is just talk about transparency. Instead, be transparent. Instead of asking for agreement and being frustrated when you don’t get it, challenge yourself to ask for the truth. And ask for that from your direct report.

Be prepared to be surprised by what you find out.

The conversation may evoke strong emotions in your direct report. By staying curious and continuing to dig into the issue through initial and follow-up questions, you can keep the conversation on track and keep it from escalating.

Make the conversation about the issue and not the person.

It’s easy to jump into blame-placing mode and want to point a finger at the person who you see as responsible for a problem. Yet that kind of reaction is guaranteed to alienate your employees.

This is why it helps to have a Mineral Rights conversation with yourself before your meeting or one-on-one and work through the series of questions that will help you identify the issue. You can then use this model in your conversation with your direct report to keep the focus on first identifying the issue, and second, discussing the solution.

And the afterglow of a Mineral Rights conversation? Your employees are engaged and are held able to identify problems and solutions, and you are building trust between the two of you.

And last but not least, you get the opportunity to be real with yourself and identify where you have contributed to the issue. As a leader, you are holding yourself able.

You can explore more conversation tools to help you navigate difficult conversations in your workplace in our Fierce Conversations programs. And check out our Confrontation program to dive deeper into how to have a successful confrontation conversation.

Tags: #Exclusion, #Infighting, #Miscommunication

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Leaders, Identify Your Weakest Employee Tie

Fierce — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 08:00:00 +0000

When we form a relationship, we form a tie between ourselves and another person. Our relationships generally begin with a point of connection through something we share in common, and these ties gradually strengthen with time if we continue to nurture these relationships.

The question posed for leaders is: where is your weakest employee tie?

In other words, who on your team do you feel the least connected to?

Why is this important in the context of business? For starters, strong relationships are the foundation of a strong culture, and strong cultures lead to better business results. Issues such as disengagement, poor performance, and retention are often—at the root—relational in nature. And it’s the quality of our conversations that dictates the quality of these relationships.

A 2015 survey from SHRM reported the top engagement condition for 79% of respondents was their relationship with coworkers.

When our fundamental human need for belonging is unfulfilled and we have weak relationships with our coworkers, we don’t perform our best. In fact, A 2013 Gallup poll revealed 22% of respondents were actively disengaged at work, and 1 in 4 Americans feel ignored by their manager. If leaders neglect relationships with one or more of their teammates, the impact will be felt both individually and organization-wide.

Throughout my years of employment, I have experienced strong ties with my coworkers and I have also experienced the contrasting feeling of “not fitting in.” I’m sure most of us have felt these two ends of the spectrum at some point in our careers. When ties are strong, engagement improves and provides us with a greater sense of inspiration, trust, and loyalty that is directly reflected in our work performance.

As a leader, ask yourself the following questions to create awareness around your own possibly unconscious behaviors:

Am I intimidated by this person? Does this person dredge up my own insecurities in some way?
Am I showing favoritism and excluding certain people from conversations?
Are my biases contributing to this weak tie? How might this be affecting my teammates and colleagues? (Read more on identifying your own biases here).

There are several ways a weak tie can manifest:

The other person is aloof with you.
You’re aloof with them but haven’t pinpointed why.
You have very different contexts or backgrounds that have kept you from connecting through similarities.
They tend to keep to themselves or only talk to certain people within the team.
They’re simply new to the team and you have yet to develop a closer bond.

Our weakest ties are often people we’re in relationship with based on an external factor (such as the fact that we work at the same organization) and have yet to connect with them on a deeper level. We can build relationships with coworkers that transcend the workplace to the point where they are as close to us as friends and family. This may not always be the case of course, and we don’t have to be BFFs with everyone on our team, but there are still steps you can take to strengthen these relationships and create a workplace culture of trust, belonging, respect, and “psychological safety”—holding the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake.

Exploring the cause is a valuable tool for awareness, but action is needed to reverse the impact. Here are some effective ways to strengthen your weakest tie:

Get to know each other on a personal level. The point isn’t to single the person out, but to get to know them the way you may know your other team members. Ask them out to lunch or out to grab a cup of coffee during a walk-and-talk meeting. In addition to having coaching conversations related to their professional growth, ask about what they value and what matters most to them. Listen with curiosity. Ask about how you can support them in achieving their goals.

Find what you have in common. At Fierce, we believe people are more alike than different. We all have points of connection, even if we have to dig a bit deeper to find them. Find a way to engage them in conversation that isn’t directly related to work, and call out points of connection when talking with them about their weekend, their hobbies, and that strange plant on their desk.

Address mokitas. Mokitas, a Papua New Guinean term for what’s otherwise known as the elephant in the room, hinder connection when left unaddressed. If there’s a mokita present, it’s important to address it directly. Perhaps there has been a small conflict without resolution, or maybe you simply got started on the wrong foot when they first joined the team. If you have questions for them related to their perceptions or their interactions with you, ask—get curious, promote candor, and interrogate reality.

Practice ongoing feedback conversations. It’s essential to give and ask for feedback on an ongoing basis. With your weakest tie, you may be giving or requesting feedback far less frequently. This inhibits their growth, and yours. Show your appreciation for the quality work they’re producing and communicate areas where you see room for improvement.

If you think there s a way to strengthen your weakest employee tie without conversation, think again. The conversation is the relationship. Start the conversation today that will help strengthen your weakest tie.

For more on conversations and engagement, download our whitepaper 6 KEY TRENDS THAT INCREASE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY AND ENGAGEMENT.

Tags: #Disengagement, #Exclusion, #Work Relationships

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When Giving Critical Feedback, Focus on Your Nonverbal Cues

Fierce — Fri, 05 May 2017 07:00:00 +0000

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Harvard Business Review and shares tips for focusing on nonverbal cues and body language when having feedback conversations.

One of the most difficult things to do, from novice managers to tenured leaders, is give feedback. Especially when the feedback is critical and not easy to deliver. There is always a balancing act between delivering honest and open feedback and not discouraging the employee, causing them to retreat further inward.

The ability to give this feedback successfully starts with the culture of the workplace. If employees are engaged and part of an inclusive environment where their voice is heard, chances are they are more likely to respond well to feedback.

Per Emma Seppala, Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion, using a positive, open, and supportive style of feedback where employees feel safe can lead to incredible outcomes.

“Leaders and managers in particular influence their employee’s well-being more than they even know. A 3,000-person study found that a leader’s behavior and personality even influence their employees’ heart health. It’s no wonder that employees prefer higher happiness at work to higher pay.”

Some of the nonverbal cues that can make or break a manager’s ability to deliver feedback in an effective way include:

1. Facial expression. Humans internally register what another person is feeling by experiencing it in our own bodies, thus when someone smiles, we smile. When someone frowns, we frown. We pick up on these emotions so much that we can tell if someone is smiling even if we cannot see them – so same goes for delivering feedback over the phone.

2. Attention. It is hard to deliver honest feedback and expect behavior change if you are looking at your email inbox, the clock, or something shiny outside. The person you are talking to can easily tell if your mind is wandering and if you are not fully present, and it is not fair to assume that the person you are giving feedback to is fully present.

Read the other four nonverbal cues and the entire article here.

Tags: #Cultural Change, #Disengagement, #Dishonesty, #Exclusion

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Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter

Fierce — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 08:00:00 +0000

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by HBR.org and explains why diverse teams work smarter and more efficiently.

Organizations must stop seeing workplace diversity and inclusion as a box to check off and instead truly understand the business impact that a diverse workplace can have on a business.

“A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean.”

Per David Rock and Heidi Grant, HBR, a few key reasons diverse teams perform better than homogenous team are:

They Focus on Facts.

The idea of diverse perspectives creating innovative ideas is nothing new. Working with colleagues that have different backgrounds and think differently tasks our brains to think of challenges and obstacles in a different light.

With diverse views come constant revisiting of facts that allow teams to remain objective and to continually hold team members accountable for their actions. Differing perspectives can bring to light our own personal biases that we were previously blind to.

They’re More Innovative.

Working with people that share a similar background may feel comforting but it does not breed creativity and innovation. By leaving your comfort zone, team members are forced to use other parts of their brains to creatively problem solve.

Ultimately, diverse teams can only exist and thrive in the right conditions. It needs to be a safe and open environment where inclusion practices allow everyone to feel as if their voice is heard. Without this, a diverse team can never reach its true potential.

Read the full article here.

Tags: #Exclusion, #Generation Gap, #Work Relationships

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Leadership Tips: Be Inclusive to Solve Problems

Fierce — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

The answers are in the room.
– Susan Scott

Last week, I was in Chicago at the Human Capital Institute’s Learning and Leadership Development Conference. A resounding theme from Fortune 500 leaders was the need to engage on a deep level with employees, to include them, when solving the most important issues for the business. They encouraged companies to invite others outside of the usual suspects. There were many examples of how ‘best’ practices ended up not being what worked for their companies, and what really worked was listening to their people.

This mentality of engaging with others to solve problems applies on an organizational level along with the individual. So I ask you: What do you currently have on your plate that would benefit from other perspectives?

From where I sit, the marketing team at Fierce is innovating on some processes we use with our Salesforce system. It is absolutely necessary for the marketing team to get together with the sales team and talk about the problems we want to solve. To be more inclusive, we are creating think tank meetings, and we will be using our team model. In this model, we take the time to truly discuss and understand the diverse perspectives before jumping to the decision. I am excited to see the solutions that come to the table.

This week’s tip is to solve a problem by including others. Ask people for their perspectives on an issue and really get curious. Stop being the expert in the room, and rather, facilitate a conversation.

Besides different people being invited to the conversation, do you have any tips for being more inclusive?

Tags: #Disengagement, #Exclusion, #Inaction

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Leadership Tips: Speak to the Unspoken

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Part of having conversations that go deep is the ability to identify when, in a conversation, there is something that is being unsaid. This is about obeying your instincts.

Some of the time, you may have a physical reaction. Whether it is the hair on the back of your neck or goose bumps on your arm, it is a hint that something is off.

Being aware of what is happening to you both physically and mentally in a conversation is where real richness can lie if you pay attention. That awareness is the first step.

The second step is this week’s Fierce tip. This week, speak to what is being left unspoken in a conversation, even if it is minor, and resist the temptation to skip over it.

Instead, dig deeper with those you are speaking with, get curious, and ask questions. The goal is to surface what is lingering out in the atmosphere, waiting to be called to light.

Tags: #Exclusion, #Miscommunication

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