Inclusion and Belonging

Three Ways to Develop Trust at Work

Emmanuelle looks around the room at the sales team. She’s new at the company and still learning about the relationship dynamics between her coworkers. Tensions are running high as it was just announced that the team didn’t make their sales goal for the second month in a row. Not that she’s surprised. This past month, […]

How Digital Natives Will Shape the Future of Work

I recently dove deep into the future for a series called *Work: Reimagined, analyzing the trends shaping the future of work and determining five qualities that will be imperative for successful future leaders. But it turns out I left something out. I didn’t factor in how our future leaders will be Digital Natives—born after the widespread […]

Why Attracting and Retaining Diverse Talent is a Strategic Priority

To tackle longstanding workplace discrimination, many future-focused organizations are adding diversity officers to their leadership teams. Why? Because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission didn’t solve the ethnic, racial and gender imbalances prominent in the U.S. workforce, and the issues aren’t going away on their own. For example, check out the following statistics about the dismal […]

Introvert or Extrovert? There’s a Third Option

“Sensitive fake extrovert.” That’s how Jade Lenier classifies herself. As a performer and public speaker, you’d take her for an extrovert, but in truth, says Lenier, “my extroverted outsides don’t match my introverted insides. Because I do love being around people, but I become overstimulated and overwhelmed by them and must retreat to my own corner of […]

Paradox of Leadership: How Do You Cultivate Diversity of Thought AND Hold People Accountable?

I recently had the honor of speaking with three other exceptional speakers in LA at the gorgeous Terranea resort. Since our four sessions were running concurrently, we couldn’t see each other present, so I made a point of meeting each one of them before the presentations started. As one of the speakers was prepping his […]

Watch Your Mouth: Decoding the Language of Unconscious Bias at Work

Oh Boy, Here She Goes Again  How many times have you been in a mixed gender group and the leader says something like: “Ok, you guys. It’s time to get down to work.” “Oh, man, this is going to be a challenge.” “Oh brother, I can’t believe this just happened in that meeting.” Man, guys, […]

Seven Practical Tips For Increasing Empathy

We have something in common with rats that may surprise you. Those scurrying little (sometimes large) rodents ruling garbage cans across the world are actually capable of empathy, just like humans. Many species display empathy in some form or another, but primates—especially us humans—have a more sophisticated capacity for empathy due to our large working […]

Diversity Officers Must Have These Four Qualities

Google, known for having its finger on the pulse of the future, has an employee base that is only 2% black and 3% Hispanic. Apple, also known for building our future, has an employee base that is 70% male. These indisputable stats show that ethnic, racial and gender imbalances are prominent in the U.S., despite […]

What We Want Our Future Leaders To Know

What will make a future leader successful? I explored this in my piece, *Portrait of a Future Leader, published as part of Upwork’s Work: Reimagined series on Medium. Really getting down to the nitty-gritty of how major workforce trends will affect leaders was exciting. But I don’t know everything. What will make a future leader successful? I […]

Can Eliminating Workplace Bias Be as Simple as Interrupting It?

Despite continued diversity efforts from the United States Government and organizations around the country, minorities are still largely underrepresented in the United States workforce. When looking at the statistics presented by “well meaning” companies, the picture is painfully clear. For example, Google reports that 6.4% of their employees are Hispanic and just 4.4.% are Black. […]