The finance and energy industries are not known for diversity.  Despite their best efforts, gender equality remains stagnant inside many of these organizations.  Meet two allies that are speaking up and leveraging their voices to do something about it – Stephen Figueroa and Bobbi Rebell.

Bobbi spreads the word of diverse voices on her podcast, the Financial Grownup.  Through her own experience in the media covering financial news, she learned the power of advocacy and leveraging your voice.  She believes that self-advocacy requires us to see beyond our knowledge today, and be willing to see ourselves as experts in our own right.  Through her own experiences challenging women to speak up especially when they are not the expert, and to say “yes” more, she amplifies their voices through her podcast.  She shares some key pearls of wisdom, asking herself, “what would a man do?” in various situations to take on more risks and say “yes” to things she might not normally do (that she wants to do).  Bobbi challenges traditional gender norms and models positive behavior for rising women leaders.

As a senior leader, Stephen has given talks on “what is a male ally?” and recognizes that his own path to being an ally has been imperfect.  Through recognizing that he was, in fact, part of the problem facing women today, he stepped into the conversation and became an advocate for change.  His journey of learning how to be an ally and embracing his own vulnerability is one we can all learn from.  He offers tangible tips for listeners to examine themselves as leaders to change behavior if they are part of the problem, address microaggressions in the moment with peers, and network beyond those that just look and think like you.

Follow Bobbi’s Financial Grownup podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rookie-startup-mistakes-dream-teams-author-contently/id1330774272?i=1000414016023&mt=2  

and online at http://www.bobbirebell.com/.

Learn more about ACES and Stephen at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aces-excellence-in-energy/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-figueroa-2241b131/. 

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We post daily about leadership, equality, and career development on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekratz/.