Leading With Empathy & Allyship

Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler in a meaningful conversation on "What Allies Can Do During Black History Month" with Rachel Williams, Head of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity at X, the moonshot factory; Lionel Lee, Head of Diversity Engagement at Zillow Group; and Almaz Negash, Founder & Executive Director at the African Diaspora Network.

In this episode, these guests shine a light on:

• What Black History Month means and what they look for from allies 
• How Black History Month does and should extend far beyond February
• How Black history should be part of American history in school
• Why a reflection on policies and KPIs within communities and workplaces is important

Our Leading With Empathy & Allyship host Melinda Briana Epler is a TED speaker and Founder & CEO of Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst). Melinda works with leaders to build empathy and inclusive leadership skills, and develop diverse, equitable, and inclusive companies.

You can watch the live show on Empovia YouTube Channel here, with live captioning and ASL interpretation: https://youtu.be/4XyEFdeooNs

The live show is made accessible thanks to ASL interpretation by in-kind sponsor Interpreter-Now and live captioning by White Coat Captioning.

This episode of Leading With Empathy & Allyship is sponsored by AppDynamics - builders of the world’s only full-stack Business Observability platform. Join their team to help businesses thrive by turning performance into profit. Learn more at www.appdynamics.com/company/careers 

Find Leading With Empathy & Allyship useful? Subscribe to our podcast and like this episode! 

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit https://changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries There, you’ll also find educational resources and highlights from this episode.

Connect On Social
YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empovia/

Production Team
Creator & Host: Melinda Briana Epler 
Producer: Juliette Roy 
Project Manager: Emilie Maas
Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos 
Data Analyst: Sally Moywaywa 
Director of Marketing: Ariyah April

[Image description: Leading With Empathy & Allyship promo with the Empovia logo and photos of host Melinda Briana Epler, a White woman with red hair and glasses, Rachel Williams, a Black woman with long black hair and glasses, Lionel Lee, a Black man with glasses, and Almaz Negash, a Black woman with short hair and red jacket.]

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler in conversation with Kate Johnson, President of Microsoft US, for a deep dive on how Microsoft is creating changes from within by leading with empathy.

In this episode, Melinda and Kate discuss: 

• Microsoft's ongoing program, Empathy In Action and Accelerate, to build an inclusive workplace 
• Leading with empathy and how to foster vulnerability and courage
• The need for top-down clarity on the company's goals, values and outcomes.
• The importance of processes and data analytics

Kate Johnson is the President of Microsoft US, a $45 billion subsidiary including all of Microsoft's solutions, services, and support revenues across the public and private sector in the United States. Focused on driving transformation within Microsoft's largest commercial organization, Kate leads a 10,000-person field team to pursue Microsoft's mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.⠀

Highlights from this episode:

"Empathy is a superpower. And it's the common denominator for leaders and individual contributors in a successful organization and one that's high-performing, and it's so relevant to Microsoft's mission."

"Just trying to become a great leader or to change something without the focus on the outcome and the ability to see progress can be really hard. And so the mandate for us is no matter who you are in the organization, you see a gap between our aspired culture and lived reality. That's the gap that you're on the hook to try and help close no matter what your responsibilities, no matter what your role is. So I'd say if you're an individual and you want to do this, the first thing is the why. What are you trying to accomplish? And then the second thing is what skills do you need? "

Additional Resources

• “Microsoft’s 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Report: A Commitment to Accelerate Progress Amidst Global Change” by Lindsay-Rae McIntyre on The Official Microsoft Blog: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/10/21/microsofts-2020-diversity-inclusion-report-a-commitment-to-accelerate-progress-amidst-global-change/ 
• Kate Johnson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katejohnsonatms/ 
• "Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: https://justmercy.eji.org/
• Visit the Legacy Museum of African-American History when you can do so safely https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/museum 

[image description: image of Kate Johnson (a White woman on stage, wearing a black leather jacket and black pants, waving to a crowd) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "How To Use Empathy To Create Change In The Workplace." 

Support the show (http://patreon.com/changecatalysts)

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nFormation co-founders Deepa Purushothaman and Rha Goddess join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler to explain how best to support women of color as leaders in the workplace.

Deepa, Rha, and Melinda go deep on:

• The future of work and what managers can do to become real allies for women-of-color (WOC)
• The new mobile app for women of color that nFORMATION is launching to support these communities
• How to address systemic oppression in the workplace and create a safe space for WOC to bring their full selves to work
• How the concept of power might differ for WOC and how it can benefit everyone in the workplace

About Our Guests

Rha Goddess and Deepa Purushothaman were brought together over 5 years ago. Deepa was a “first” Senior Partner at a Big 4. Rha left corporate America and the chemical industry as an “only” two decades ago to focus on helping leaders find their passion, purpose and calling. Deepa has spent years focusing on women’s leadership and inclusion strategies to help women of color navigate corporate structures. Rha has helped hundreds of high impact leaders realize they can work in ways that honor their values and uplift new definitions of power, profitability and success.

Together, they have discovered that there is a collective untapped power that WOC have yet to harness and leverage, so they came together to create nFormation, a first of its kind membership community for professional women of color offering brave, safe, new space and career advancement opportunities.

Highlights from this Conversation

“We need companies to do what they're saying they want to do but show up in a totally different way”. - Deepa Purushothaman

“Many women of color don't feel that they can necessarily bring that natural and organic sense of concern into the (working) culture in a way that is valued.” - Rha Goddess

Learn more about Deepa & Rha’s work at https://www.n2formation.com/index.html

Additional Resources

• Join the waitlist to download the Safe Space app https://www.n2formation.com/space.html
• "The Calling: 3 Fundamental Shifts to Stay True, Get Paid, and Do Good” by Rha Goddess https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45046800-the-calling
• Stay tuned for the upcoming release of Deepa’s book, The Inclusion Delusion

[image description: image of Deepa Purushothaman (an Indian woman with long black hair, smiling) and Rha Goddess (a Black woman with curly hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "Want to be inclusive? Support Women Of Color As Leaders In The Workplace."] 

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler in conversation with Kat Gordon, CEO and Founder of the 3% Movement, as Kat talks about the evolution of gender equity in the advertising space. 

Melinda and Kat go deep on:

• Kat’s background as a creative director and what led her to create the 3% Movement
• How she helped move the industry from 3% of female creative directors to 29%
• How to create a culture of belonging in the workplace, and the importance of putting people at the center

Highlights from the Conversation

"Working from home in an absolutely impossible situation where society has failed us and I am nervous that the motherhood penalty is being reinforced with every Zoom call where a child is there, needs something, interrupts or the mother attends to the child at a particular point."

“I think so much of belonging is about having the courage to ask and engage your employees in ongoing conversation about what's working for them, what's making them anxious, what do they need."

Learn more about Kat Gordon and The 3% Movement at https://www.3percentmovement.com/

Additional Resources

• “50 Things to Create a More Anti-Racist Workplace” by The 3% Movement
• “The Elephant on Madison Avenue” by The 3% Movement
• “Permission to Feel” by Mark Brackett
• Leading With Empathy & Allyship Episode 13: "Women Championing Women with Brenda Darden Wilkerson”

[image description: image of Kat Gordon (a White woman with short hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "how to create a culture of belonging at work: put people at the center" and a black and white background with white text]

⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑

Producer: Juliette Roy

Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos

Diversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia Ford

Created by: Melinda Briana Epler

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empovia/

Support the show (http://patreon.com/changecatalysts)

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Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler talks with Andrea G. Tatum, Senior Director of Corporate Equity Engagement at Catalyst Inc., about how to create a supportive working environment. We discuss Catalyst's research and the challenges or emotional tax for women, particularly women of color, from having to be "on guard" at work, which can impact well-being and the ability to thrive in the workplace. 

In this rich conversation, we learn about:

• Andrea's personal experience experiencing racism in the workplace and how that led her to become an advocate for change
• The role of inclusive leaders to develop workplace cultures where people feel valued and enabled to contribute their skills and expertise fully
• The powerful changes that leading with empathy can drive in the workplace

Insights from Andrea include:

"I think everybody has the opportunity always to be a learner. And I had never really thought about empathy as a skill. You're not either born with empathy or not. You can learn it. You can learn to have empathy as a leader, and it's really a superpower and has the ability to drive so much change within the workplace."

"Just like anything else. I can't expect to lose weight if I eat what I want to eat and I don't go to the gym. That's not realistic. So I always think about empathy and inclusive leadership as skills that you actively have to work towards. It's a muscle that you can build over time."

"What really makes emotional tax so unique is that it's not limited to just the workplace. As people of color, this is our experience day in and day out. Everywhere we go, we don't have the luxury of being able to put aside our skin and say, well, today, I'm not a woman of color. I'm not a black woman. "

Additional Resources

• Connect with Andrea and learn more about her work at https://www.andreagtatum.com/
• "Why Empathy is A Superpower in the Future of Work" report by Catalyst: https://www.catalyst.org/research/empathy-superpower-future-of-work/

[image description: image of Andrea G. Tatum  (a Black woman with  short hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "Episode 28: How To Become An Empathic Leader In The Workplace" on a black and white background with red and black text]

⭑⭑ Find this episode helpful? Subscribe to Leading With Empathy & Allyship and like this episode!⭑⭑

Producer: Juliette Roy

Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos

Diversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia Ford

Created by: Melinda Briana Epler

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

Support this series: patreon.com/changecatalysts

YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empovia/

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler with Victor Calise for strategies on how to make disability accommodation the new norm in the working environment. 

Victor Calise shares his disability journey and how he turned it into a strength, becoming one of the most innovative advocates for disability. In this rich conversation, we learn about:

• The forward-thinking work New York City is doing in collaboration with other cities to build inclusive working environments
• The need for "accommodation" of the disabled community and how COVID-19 has helped accelerate the workplace's transformation
• The impact of outdated regulations on the community 
• How we should not separate disability from the other movement fighting for a more inclusive working environment.

Some of our favorite quotes from the conversation with Victor Calise:

“People with disabilities who didn't have the opportunity to get to work because of their disability didn't allow them to for transportation or immune reasons, whatever that might be, now is the opportunity. It is important because people with disabilities live in poverty and a way to get them up from poverty is through work”.

"The reality is that people with disabilities aren't really disabled. It is our environments that disable us. If we can fix those environments so we can live our lives there is no such thing as disability."

Additional Resources

• Watch Commissioner Calise’s talk from Tech Inclusion New York in 2016 on our YouTube channel
• NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities' Digital Accessibility Guides 
• NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities' Accessible Virtual Meetings Guide 
• Check out #DisabledTwitter to learn more about current issues and follow thought leaders with disabilities
• Empowered Cities Initiative by the National Disability Institute 
• World Enabled by Dr. Victor Pineda 
• Smart Cities Library for resources and innovation in accessibility at

[image description: image of Victor Calise  (a White man with  grey hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (a White woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "Episode 27: how to make disability accommodation and inclusion the new working norm" against a black background with red and white text]

⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑

Producer: Juliette Roy

Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos

Diversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia Ford

Created by: Melinda Briana Epler

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empov

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler with Daralyse Lyons on understanding what it means to be an upstander: an individual who sees wrong and takes action – an important part of allyship. 

We talked about Daralyse Lyons’s upbringing as a biracial child, and what led her to become an advocate and an upstander. In this fascinating conversation, 

We learned about:

• Colorism and the dangerous path of bias based on skin color.
• The difference between an upstander and bystander.
• The important asset of intersectional diversity in the workplace and product development process.
• Leading by example and the inclusive leadership path you can choose to lead in the workplace.

Some of our favorite quotes:

“Once people start to connect with other people in a way that is emotional and real and maybe visceral, it becomes impossible to disengage at that point”

“I don't pretend to know what's best for any person. But I do think that when we start allowing ourselves to be defined by society and by other people's expectations of us, that's a huge problem”

“One thing that people can do if they really want to be allies, is not to superimpose our own definitions on to other people, but to ask them.”

“I think that this idea that we have to kind of rank people, and rank ourselves, is so problematic”

“The bystanders are actually the ones who tend to make up the majority of the social collective, and who tend to be the ones who have the ability to – if they will step into that upstander role – ensure these atrocities don't happen, or at least we could stop them a lot sooner”

Additional resources: 

• Learn more about Daralyse on her website: https://www.daralyselyons.com/
• Demystifying Diversity Podcast https://www.daralyselyons.com/demystifying-diversity
• The Upstander Project at https://upstanderproject.org/
• “Let’s Define Upstander” at Not in Our Town: https://www.niot.org/blog/lets-define-upstander
• “Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Bystanders” at Holocaust.com.au: https://www.holocaust.com.au/the-facts/perpetrators-collaborators-and-bystanders/
• “Dying of whiteness” by Jonathan M. Metzl, How the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland: https://www.dyingofwhiteness.com/

[image description: image of Daralyse Lyons  (Mixed woman with brown curly long hair, smiling) and Melinda Briana Epler (white woman with red hair and glasses, smiling), with the text "Episode 26: Exploring what it means to be an upstander" image shows black background with red and white text]

⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit https://changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn:

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler with Dr. Kevin Simon on the critically important topic of "Understanding The Effects Of Racism On Black Boys & Men."

Dr. Kevin Simon shares his journey to becoming a force for good and his work during COVID-19 in helping Black and Brown kids and their families understand intergenerational trauma and historical trauma - and how the effects can manifest through depression and addiction. 

Melinda and Kevin dive deep into:

• What an ally can do to support Black and Brown communities in the US
• What intergenerational trauma and historical trauma and their impact on mental and physical health 
• How important is to communicate with teenagers in a time of COVID-19 and social justice protests 
• How Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) like trauma are the roots of addiction and depression in teenage years 

"If you're an ally, particularly to Black and Brown boys, particularly to persons of color, you should be trying to promote institutions and environments, policies that would be protective of that community." 

“Whether we're talking about mental health outcomes, depression, anxiety, suicidality, trauma or substance use, adverse childhood experiences are (ACEs) as are classically labeled. The more aces, you have, the worse your physical outcomes. So, hypertension, diabetes, like you're talking about the worst mental health outcomes. So it is hugely important to try as best as we can to create an environment that can be responsive to what happened in my past, yet at the same time, shift. So that my future will look a little bit different." 

Learn more about Dr Kevin Simon at  https://www.kevinsimonmd.com/

Additional resources: 

• Leading with Empathy & Allyship Episode 2 on Mental Health 
• Leading with Empathy & Allyship Episodes 8 & 14 on Intergenerational Trauma 
• “2020 Presidential Election a Source of Significant Stress for More Americans than 2016 Presidential Race” by Sophie Bethune at American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/10/election-stress 
• “On election day, Bay Area parents and teachers help kids deal with stress of presidential race” by Tatiana Sanchez at San Francisco Chronicle https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/On-Election-Day-parents-and-teachers-help-kids-15695719.php 

⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑ 

Producer: Juliette Roy 

Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa 

Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos 

Diversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia Ford 

Created by: Melinda Briana Epler 

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries 

Support this series: patreon.com/changecatalysts 

YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler in her interview with Muna Hussaini, Chief of Staff to Indee's CTO,  about navigating parenthood during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. 

Muna shares about her own story as an American Muslim; working to build more inclusive workplaces; the impact of Black Lives Matter on her kids and family; the new norm of handling Zoom calls and full- time work with kids; and how teams and companies can show up for parents. Other highlights include:

• The opportunity to redefine success in this tumultuous time
• The fact that it's ok not to do everything, and ways team members can help each other
• The need for companies to walk the talk when they say that their employees are their most important assets

Muna's insights in this discussion include:

"We have an opportunity to redefine what success looks like so that the costs that were incurred by the few are now shared collectively, and I think if we can redefine what that looks like, we win together. "

“People have to know that if they share something that maybe makes them vulnerable, that they have the psychological safety to share, and that they won't be penalized for it. And it can be really hard."

"I have always struggled with this guilt from being away from my kids... and I just think I am going to miss this, you know?”

Listen to Muna’s new podcast, 3 Righteous Mamas, on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3-righteous-mamas/id1536213832

Additional Resources

• Connect with Muna's podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3RighteousMamas
• Learn about iACT, the Interfaith Action of Central Texas: http://interfaithtexas.org/
• Read more about Muslim Space: https://muslimspace.org/

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Leading With Empathy & Allyship is brought to you by:
Producer: Juliette Roy
Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa
Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos
Director of Marketing: Ariyah April
Creator: Melinda Briana Epler

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

Support this series: patreon.com/changecatalysts
YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empovia/

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Join Empovia (formerly Change Catalyst) Founder & CEO Melinda Briana Epler with KR Liu, Head of Brand Accessibility at Google, in conversation about how we can make the working environment more inclusive for people with disabilities. 

We talked about KR Liu’s journey to becoming an advocate based on her own story of struggling in the workplace when dealing with hearing loss.

In this episode, KR Liu describes:

• The importance of speaking up and making the Disabled community part of every department of a company
• Important statistics illustrating the representation of the Disabled community in the workplace as well as the Black Disabled community
• The simple actions you can put in place to help to make the Disabled community more visible

1 in 4 people experience disability at some point in life, be it permanent, temporary or situational disability.

Some of our favorite quotes of our conversation

"Every day I have the power to influence someone's life."

"50% of the people killed by the police are black and have a disability."

"Disability is something we all experience at some point in our lives.”

"If anything, we want people to feel empowered by us on what we have been able to achieve. That's really, really important that people understand the contribution that disabled people have made to society."

Learn more about KR Liu  at https://www.krliu.com/

Additional Resources

• “Crip Camp” on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81001496
• Andrea LaVant’s conversation on CripCamp and ADA30 with former President Barack Obama: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/barack-obamas-surprise-visit-crip-camp-ada-30-1034038/
• “Being Heumann” by Jennifer Heumann: https://www.amazon.com/Being-Heumann-Unrepentant-Disability-Activist/dp/0807019291
• “Disability Visibility Project” by Alice Wong at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/about/

⭑⭑If this is helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like this episode!⭑⭑

Producer: Juliette Roy
Project Manager: Sally Moywaywa
Finance & Operations: Renzo Santos
Diversity & Inclusion Specialist: Antonia Ford
Created by: Melinda Briana Epler

For more about Empovia, and to join us for a live recording, visit changecatalyst.co/allyshipseries

Support this series: patreon.com/changecatalysts
YouTube: youtube.com/@empovia
Twitter: twitter.com/empoviaco
Facebook: facebook.com/empovia
Instagram: instagram.com/empovia/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/empovia/

Support the show