Women and Intersectionality Bias

The bias that affects pay equality should be a thing of the past, but in a world where such a thing as a gender wealth gap exists it is imperative to understand how women and organizations can dismantle the barriers to pay equity.

This month, as we celebrate the 2022 Black History Month theme, “Black Health and Wellness”, we consider how important frontline workers, medical professionals, and innovations like the COVID-19 vaccine have affected all communities, especially the Black community. We have communal mistrust of the medical establishment – and rightfully so, as Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington shows us – even as many of us are frontline workers, healthcare workers, and medical professionals.

Truth Bomb: The biggest risk to our future “best” self, is the way our current self responds to fear.

Octavia Butler, a Black feminist speculative fiction writer once said, “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.”

You – yes you – have checked A LOT of boxes. Bachelors? Masters? Ph.D? CHECK. Additional professional training? CHECK. Years of experience under your belt? CHECK. Climbing the company ladder? CHECK! But how do you actually feel? The odds are that you’re still miserable, my friend. You might think you’re fine or, at the very least, that someone else has it worse. But here’s the reality: You don’t have to be in the emotional gutter to be miserable!

How Most DEI Efforts Fail (and What to Do About It): PART TWO

Diversity recruiting without full scale organizational transformation is just a bandaid on an open wound. I won’t extend that metaphor too much further – but visualize it for a minute…It’s really gross! That bandaid is NOT up to the task, the injury quickly overwhelms it, and that wound just keeps getting worse.

In my years tending to my own development, and now guiding my clients to more fulfilling careers, I’ve encountered a lot of limiting beliefs. But in the last couple of weeks, I’d swear there’s something in the water. Because I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in all sorts of limiting beliefs, fatalistic resignation, and just plain catastrophizing among my clients, colleagues, and students – like some uninvited guest brought the absolute worst variety pack to our party.

A significant chunk of my work is helping clients unlearn what they think they know about “good work” and “good leadership.” Because so much information out there is either cookie cutter or outdated, or both. And that holdover information – whether it’s explicit or more subtly ingrained – works against creating a career with intentionality and deliberate design.

Let me start with a story. I spent a significant chapter of my career in manufacturing. If you’re not familiar with that world, there’s really just one thing to need to know: a breakdown in the supply chain inevitably turns into delays on the factory floor. And once that happens you’re looking at a cascade of scrambling teams, late deliverables, and financial losses all throughout the company.

Across the board, your middle managers wield direct influence on the productivity, morale, and culture within your teams. They are the group that drives and guides all work towards its final outcome. And more often than not, they make the difference between promising new hires (and company stalwarts) staying or going. But despite this critical role - when it comes to training and development - middle managers are extremely overlooked.

On the current trajectory, it will take about 95 years for Black employees to reach talent parity (or 12 percent representation) across all levels in the private sector. 95 years! That’s far too long to simply wait. Remember, these are people’s lives we’re talking about - not abstract percentages. So there are no two ways about it: Taking a “wait and see” attitude is plainly insulting to diverse candidates who are ready, willing, and able to contribute their brilliance RIGHT NOW. But we have to face facts: recruiting is not enough to address this gap. Recruiting by itself will not produce the culture and the systems that develop, promote, and retain diverse talent.

Let’s recap: Your brand is powerful, whether you pay attention to it or not. No matter what you do, you are always building your personal brand. So whether or not you’ve deliberately crafted your brand and deeply considered how to position yourself - in your company and your field - you definitely have one. And it’s either helping you or it’s hurting you. There’s no in-between.

You know the story: in the quest to become more marketable and more competitive, you go after all the professional development, all the certifications, and every boot camp you can find. You do everything you can to shore up your weaknesses and close up those skill gaps. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? I’ve been there. I’ve put in so many training hours in the past that I lost count! And all in the name of becoming more effective at what I do. But sometimes, all that effort can leave you worse for wear - because what you’re actually doing is working against your strengths.

Everyone loves a good pep talk, right? Sometimes when it feels like you’ve been hitting the same wall over and over, the right words from the right person can make all the difference. But it doesn’t always work, does it? Sometimes, when we are too deep in our challenges - and all the feelings that come with them - that pep just can’t break through. A “you-got-this” can be great, but it isn’t enough. That’s because it raises an important question - and then fails to answer it. The question is “WHY?” Why am I going to get through this? Why am I going to find a solution? Why should I trust that breakthrough is coming? Why am I going to succeed?

If you’ve been fortunate enough to work from home over the last year and a half, you might have mixed feelings about “returning to normal.” Specifically, you might be weighing some serious pros and cons about returning to the office. Working from home might not have been ideal. For folks who had the extra space, setting up a functional home office - with a door you could actually close - might have been a breeze. For others, it was the kitchen table, the couch, or even a closet. Add parenting, homeschooling, pet care, and disinfecting literally everything — and it’s not surprising that some of us are EXCITED to go back to the office. But that’s not universally the case.

First of all, let’s expand your idea of what branding is and who can use it. Take a minute and jot down a few brands that come to mind. That list might include your regular household products, items on your grocery list, or appliances in your home. Try adding more items and you might start thinking about tags on your clothes, or the logo on your phone. But what else is there?

Here’s the problem: we’re already too much like Liv. But perhaps not in the ways you might think, and surely not in the ways you’re going to like. Olivia Pope was superwoman. It was baked right into her character. She reached for the highest ceiling and shattered an untold number of them along the way. Utterly unapologetic, Olivia both embraced power and embodied “success”. She was the epitome of professional “success”. And she was a total mess.