You probably have a few friends of Asian Descent.  Have they ever shared with you their Chinese or Korean names?  Probably not.  Have you ever wondered why?  Maybe it's a matter of personal choice.  Maybe it's deeply rooted in unbelievable levels of discrimination faced by Asian professionals in the workplace.  This episode of Voices Worth Listening to Answers three questions: What does this discrimination look like?  Why is it largely ignored? What can organizations do to create a more equitable and inclusive workplace not only for employees of Asian descent but for anyone who may fall into the category of the other? 

The stories in this episode are raw and unfiltered and help answer three key questions: (1) How should organizations think about privilege-related diversity when it comes to recruiting and promoting people? (2) What questions will allow them to determine if privilege or lack there of has shaped a candidate positively? and most fundamentally, (3) Why should organizations care about privilege as an important source of diversity - are there benefits of having privilege related diversity among your key decision makers? 

This episode answers two key questions: (1) What explains the deficit of diversity in leadership teams? and (2) How can organizations change this reality?  To answer these questions, we must explore the relationship between grit, lived experience, diversity, homeostasis - a complex form of inertia that plagues too many management teams, and the perceived risk of difference held by too many leaders.  To offer some perspective, I have a special guest, Dr. Nancy Wallis, who will share her leadership journey with us and how she recently had to grapple with how difficult it is for some leadership teams to introduce diversity.  This episode concludes with three key recommendations to help organizations bring more diversity into their leadership teams. 

This month’s episode explores the link between diversity and organizational performance.  The research is clear - diversity drives profitability and organizational outcomes - but almost 50% of executives remain unconvinced.  Why?  This episode suggests (1) ways to define diversity so that organizations can hire individuals who will be well poised to make performance generating contributions and (2) how to create work environments that support those with diverse lived experiences to bring more of themselves to their organizations. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion remain lofty goals for organizations.  If they remain, as aspirational rhetoric, they are of little use or value.  They only matter if they are operationalized.  But operationalizing DEI is difficult because it requires facilitating access, a willingness to take action, and holding people accountable.  Discrimination exists in all organizations.  And its not a secret who are the most egregious actors; in fact many are open about their views because they have long standing power. Real change only happens when leaders can hold power to account.  This is the subject of this episode of  Voices Worth Listening To.

This podcast is the second part of a two-part series exploring some of the challenges women face related to diversity, inclusion and equity.   Over the course of my career, I have heard many passing comments and full-throated opinions about the challenges women face in the workplace. Many of them have been less than empathetic.  I have heard so many people use examples of very successful women as proof that women don't actually face many challenges at work, but what I am struck by are the assumptions so many people make about those challenges.  This episode takes those assumptions and puts them to a very successful woman who has had tremendous success in highly male-dominated environments and answers the question: "What does the journey successful professional women face actually look like?" The podcast features Dr. Nicole Haggerty from Western University and the Richard Ivey School of Business. 

During this episode, I share my personal journey to understand, come to terms with, and finally stand by and up for women who face bias in the workplace. In 2020, professional women still struggle to be recognized and valued in the workplace.  They silence their voices not because of weakness or fear, but because many highly successful professional women work in traditionally male-dominated contexts, where there is little actual interest in the challenges women face in the workplace when it comes to diversity and inclusion.  The stories in this episode intend to give voice to some compelling and jaw-dropping stories about women facing real issues related to equity at work.   

Marginalization is frightening.  You feel like you have no power.  You feel like justice is not something you are likely to receive.  It feels like people think you are less.  The consequence?  Marginalization robs you of your voice and your sense that you matter.  From my perspective, marginalization is a key driver of the protests across the globe since the murder of George Floyd.  This pivotal event caused a reawakening among all people that racism, bias, and segregation are alive and well in modern society, and that various categories of people continue to be marginalized even in 2020.  Today there is a call to change - mostly by protestors in the streets - but that call can only be answered by organizations. This episode of Voices Worth Listening To shares a compelling story of marginalization that demonstrates how individuals within organizations, no matter their seniority, can recognize marginalization and work to remedy its nefarious consequences. 

Why is it that individuals who are different struggle to find their voice in organizations?  What is the role of voice in our own well being and the wellbeing of the organizations in which you live and work? Voices are what allow us to create civil society.  Voices are what allow us to create successful organizations. Voices are what allow us to create effective government.  The problem, of course, with all of those things, is we have broken governments - broken civil societies - and broken organizations.  Is there a systemic silencing of voices that often occurs within various organizational contexts?  How can you and your organization begin to listen to less dominant and more marginalized voice?