Supporting LGBTQ Leaders in the Workplace

welcome to WBC faster together the LinkedIn live series of Women Business collaborative I'm Gwen young the CEO of WBC WBC is an unprecedented Alliance of over 85 organizations focused on women and business and hundreds of Business Leaders building a movement to achieve equal position pay and power for all women in business we do this through collaboration advocacy action and accountability and we are mobile izing thousands to create momentum and accelerate the pace of change we live our commitment to Dei and members of our leadership from our staff our board of directors and our WBC Champions include more than 35% people of color and every one of our action inies has Dei goals for 2025 and 2030 so please check the chat for the action inies through which we aim to accelerate change and of course we want you to join our movement at WBC collaborative.org each week in this series we offer different ways to Advocate change and accelerate impact by presenting data research and best practices by lifting up the power of women's voices for Change and allies and by showcasing leaders companies and organizations that are committed to allyship inclusivity and driving corporate purpose so as we come to the end of pride month and we wrap up our celebrations it's critical that we continue to advocate for leaders who identify as lgbtq Plus in the the workplace and Beyond the celebrations and commitment we make during pride month year we want to continue to be inclusive and Advocate and work for all leaders in business so supporting lgbtq plus leaders in the workplace including a deep recognition of their unique lived experiences of lgbtq leaders of colors is essential for fostering an inclusive and a diverse organizational culture and driving business performance so I'm joined today by two incredible leaders from the WBC community Ain ahola EVP and general councel at aami Technologies and Susie silver director of client services at the diversity movement and together we're going to explore the effective strategies for empowering lgbtq leaders addressing the unique challenges they face in creating environments where they and their colleagues can Thrive and drive positive change so Aon Susie welcome thank you thanks for having me wonderful so why don't we set the stage for the audience right what are the challenges or opportunities that lgbtq leaders face in the workplace and how can organizations address the challenges to create a more inclusive environment for all Ain I I don't mind uh jumping off I'll start and and please interrupt me as well as we're having a conversation you know speaking from a lot of the challenges of the community I am part of the lgbtq plus Community as well so wanted to say happy pride of course to to everybody out there you know there's there are a lot of different things from feeling like you can bring your whole self into a space and know not only feel but know that you are seen safe heard amplification is actually a big challenge um advancement of lgbtq plus individuals there's a lot of I love that you said data and research I am in it all the time you know there's um a a large issue with opportunity and that amplification and advancement for lgbtq plus individuals for multiple reasons which we can dive into but I'll give the broad sense as well you know access to um great health care uh inclusive policies which I'm happy to give really specific examples in in a little bit as as we dive further because I also love that action component to everything uh we really want to understand more about the community so we understand as organizations and leaders how to show up and so a few of those challenges really go you know lack of mentorship and sponsorship you know inclusive language that's not used and should be used within conversations organizational documents uh and then of course policy things like that so while it's a bit broad I wanted to start there I'll pass the mic to Aaron and happy to Circle back to specifics in those yeah well Susie pretty much nailed everything there um uh but I you know I I I I would underscore um the the points in particular about you people feeling comfortable bringing themselves uh their their whole work s to work uh I I think uh for for many you know kind of looking for a community that's supportive is is critical part and as I'm executive sponsor of our employee Resource Group uh at aamay and that's kind of one of the the the core things that that the group brings to the table I think um in addition uh you know one other Susie hit on a little bit but um we have a global organization and I think um it's important to remember uh and keep in mind you know that as much we're all focused largely on on politics and policies and regulations in the US um there's a whole world out there where things vary greatly and so I think we you know we have employees in areas um uh that are that are part of the community that uh you know are under even more threat than I think people feel in the United States I think that's something uh you know there are things employers can do or can't do there's a limit there but I think that's an important thing for organizations to always have in the back of your mind as well yeah that Global context is important I love how you talk about sort of language and policy and then the ultimate thing with the words around it are authenticity like how do you show up how do you know how do you feel but Ain you brought up the sort of out at aamai FR right employee Resource Group can you talk a little bit about not only what that is but how that provides kind of that leadership and driving that ability to talk about show up and and drive policy throughout the company globally yeah sure so um I I think as a lot of bigger companies do uh Akai has you know a number of employee resource groups that are kind of affinity type organizations um and uh you know membership varies uh by organization they're broadly open to uh both members of a community uh and allies and I think that that has real advantages and there are there are challenges as well with that um but uh the key in my mind for a successful ERG is really having the employee engagement and and employee driven and as an executive sponsor I think probably the worst thing I can do is go in and dictate you know what the group should do or shouldn't do um there to help facilitate and I think critical thing is finding uh finding leaders uh finding a population but that always exists it's really finding uh a a leader of strong leader or two and then a broader leadership team that's kind of willing to spend the time uh willing to create uh uh the environment and for us that is everything from uh you know programming and things around pride month uh that are celebratory educational programs throughout the year speakers occasionally uh and more than anything just a kind of a baseline of a community uh and whether that's in a WebEx chat or Channel or something like that where people can communicate and and uh and and feel like they have people uh that are part of their community that are strong allies that you know can can help them with issues that they you know a lot of things that Susie uh raised too and then and then the last point I'll say and then I'll shut up is to kind of tie into you know how you help the organization move forward and whether that's on some of the policies and inclusive language and those sorts of things uh that you know Susie uh was talking about before I think there's a lot of things that organizations can do to help out there it's kind of the perfect segue to Susie because you you know you alluded to it to but you worked with companies across industry and functions on their policy and practices like what's working well right like where can companies really there you know continue work learn from other companies what can they improve on like what is working yeah that you know what's positive what I'm finding and what we're finding there are more conversations exactly to that question what can we do how can we continue to improve we're not checking a box here we understand this is a journey and even in that Journey we're gonna maybe mess up well you probably will we're human right and how to how to continue so you know first and foremost just to Echo what Aeron was saying employee resource groups are working they work whether it is in more an affinity type of group where it creates that safe space all the way through Aon what you were sharing that business pull through and how the groups can really have impact on the organization it's working because people are being listened to and back to my earlier points people are being valued they're being Amplified and that creates that engagement it creates that safety it creates then that retention honestly I can be here this is a safe place I'm heard and valued and we're going to take action on the things that we're sharing so those employee groups are really important important and they serve multiple different re uh you know services to people and sometimes they're called different things but that those are working what I also wanted to mention and I think in conversation before we went live you know some are some groups are are in a place that they're not sure what their identity is anymore you know maybe they were established in one capacity and maybe it was a few years and things have operated well but then maybe something's a little stagnant the reason I bring this up and I'll get to some other um specifics of what's working in just a moment is that people are not alone if you're part of a group that's in that space or you're in an organization trying to figure it out really go back to that mission that vision of what the group is and what it's how it serves people in the organization and also the business that will help reinvigorate so it's a lot of support we're giving and just wanted to bring it up in case somebody out there is feeling like that now other things that are working art this it might seem small to some but what I can say is if we think something is small let's change language because it's gigantic to somebody else and so things like sweeping organizational documents to not say he him and she her it says employee or it says teammate or it says any organizational language um policies you know and and offerings of benefits where maybe it's the department that's in charge of uh benefits that is in just acknowledgement of we're in continual contact with our provider and we are working on gender affirming care or access to um um Family Support where yes there's some changes that's systemic that's hard sometimes for organizations to change but what they can do is communicate about the action around it that is working down to rewriting this is one of my favorite ones to talk about um for example this is hypers specific bereavement policies bereavement policies are often defined with language that says immediately immediate family is defined as and it might say mother or father or child or whatever a lot of us in our community and outside of our community have chosen family and there have been so many people unfortunately denied time off for loss in their life because of the way those policies are written so that I know that's hypers specific but anytime I have an opportunity I talk about that one and mentorship and I and I'll pause after this I have plenty more but uh mentorship and sponsorship programming and really having where it is of course intentional and genuine and connection not forgetting that those programs are really successful when there's structure around them when expectations are clear it's mutually beneficial especially in that mentorship space and how do we Empower more sponsors to really amplify and lift up and to carry forward our community when we're not even in the room and th that has proven not only benefit to business of course retention is part of business that safety and also not a shy to talk about that's also marketing for your organization because people are going to talk about it and because these things are important to people not only in our community outside of the community and so people are looking for all these things we listed um as signals to inclusive work environments even if that's not your identity marker so hopefully those were a few good examples I'll I'll uh take a pause I'm G to give Aon a chance to react to that and kind of bring in I think you know I it triggered two things for me and and Susie which was allyship right and kind of what that looks like and then two the sort of you brought up that that global company angle on it right because it is you know it is it is important to make those connections as a company and to do those connections in a global way and in global context where it really makes sense and creates that inclusivity sure yeah no it's a great Point Susie um and I like some of the specific examples there uh with one uh note on that just we Gwen mentioned best practice IES before one cool thing that our ERG came up with uh uh was crowdsourcing for documents so basically got all the you know kind of relevant policies and things and work with the HR team and group of people went through to just you know highlight and suggest things where we may want to think about it so um you know I think there are ways to attack things that may seem like you know kind of a mountain of work for for an HR team and they kind of are um on the uh allyship uh piece I I mean I think it's it's it's critical uh and um as I said before having allies part of an organization part of an ERG I think is um helpful and that and that it really um you know kind of provides in my mind at least a bit more of a you know kind of we're all in this together we're all we're all part of an organization um I want to learn more I wantan to I I want to kind of understand uh where you're coming from and vice versa um I think uh you know as an ally particularly if if you're in a leadership role I think the critical part Susie mentioned U mentorship you know advocacy I think there are a lot of things um that senior leaders and organizations can do uh uh to really uh help people there um you know one minor thing I do uh with uh RGS is um it's hard to it's hard at times to get people to uh volunteer for a leadership role time but also do I you know do I have the support of an organization uh I will send a note as a senior leader our organization to their manager and sometimes their manager's manager proactively copy them and say I can't thank you enough as a manager for you know giving your employee kind of the the bandwidth and the freedom to kind of engage in this super helpful for the for for the company it's super helpful for their career because of X Y and Z uh and it's just those kind of little things which takes two minutes to shoot an email uh I think go a long way towards people feeling like there's support there and they've got the air cover uh uh to do that even think further about things like performance reviews and making it a little part uh of your of an MBO of an objective for the year um and so I think you know that that applies to allies and non-allies but I think just more broadly people in leadership roles there's a lot of little things you can do uh for people in uh in you know organizations like like an ERG that are uh kind of looking for uh a little bit of uh support in order to kind of really give back and give in and and at the end of the day it helps the organization which is why it's a no-brainer from my perspective no and I love that organizational support piece of it there's an accountability piece which is separate and different and has that sort of data piece of it and that kind of expectation but there's the support like I can do this right because you a lot of people are like to your point earlier Susie how much time do you have in the day right so to speak so well we always and and I just I think there's you know so much more to impact but I want to impack it in sort of that call to action um space because we talk about w at WBC we talk about action for impact we talk a lot about allyship and inclusivity and belonging right so we have all these words but what I really liked just to pull out we've got a lot here of sort of what can companies and organizations do right what are what are some of the the best steps here today in June 2024 sus I'm gonna start with you because I'm have a feeling you've got several things written down yeah I always say if I'm looking this way I'm taking notes or reminding myself because I'm continuously taking notes you know it honestly are some of the things I already mentioned and and being redundant but it's okay to take things one thing at a time and almost create an audit seems like such a Negative scary word but really look at one by one those policies one for language and then two for inclusion so it's almost a tiered approach to your policies your procedures think if it is um an employee group do you have one do you not have one is that a great time in your organization for one what would that look like right thinking about a mentor sponsorship program and again it's a tiered approach um an activity that I often recommend is taking functions of an organization so any department or team you know everybody has different language so if it's marketing or if it's HR if it's you know any of those your suppliers and ask a series of questions like where would exclusion of and you could put an identity marker you know where would exclusion and bias quite frankly occur in this function and just dump it out no judgment no scary just dump it out then who's affected long and short term how do we think about what is needed in resources and expertise to overcome this and then you can create action items for that from that so those are some organizational things and then independently I want to reiterate the point of continuing to learn we all learn differently and please don't feel like we all have to have it figured out that's what our society and culture tells us we're all figuring it out and please do not diminish something that you have been active in or are doing or are stepping up for and feel like it's too small or not enough I can tell you it makes a difference and you may never know but it does and so that individual self-reflection that's continual and then some of those organizational things uh that's uh great I I love the last Point Susie which is you know nobody has it figured out and I think that's really important to to understand I think um you know progress can be slow at times and so but I I think as long as you're moving that's better than not so I think that's a great place to start um I I'll put in a a little plug on the employee Resource Group side I think if you're at an organization that doesn't have them um you know start a conversation if about why uh if you're at an organization organization that does have them uh I think get involved and if particularly if you're in a leadership role in the company um and that doesn't mean to me you need to be CEO I think it's just you know kind of you manage other people and you're you're seen as a leader um you know kind of think about whether there are leadership opportunities in those organizations think about can you be a mentor uh to someone in those organizations I think it's critical uh you know and then the last thing I'll say and it was kind of on the on I think on the flyer uh uh for the event Gwen which is you know Pride's a month-long celebration but uh in this context it's it shouldn't end in a couple days right even though we're all excited about July 4th holiday and everything it's it's you know I think keeping uh issues uh for for the community top of Mind year round for organizations is is critically important and do you mind if I add to that I appreciate you bringing that up Erin and uh I know we're just about at time we and I can't speak for a whole community so when I say we I'm talking about myself but if I have an opportunity right no communities monolith um I'm going to say we in this point we can see it and we can feel it when it becomes radio silent on July 1 and it's devastating and and you it's very hard to build trust from there especially in the organization so if there is ongoing efforts education conversation whatever we've talked about um that's noticed it's appreciated and it does create that sense of belonging and trust and it Fosters that even if it's at a slow pace so I just wanted to say thank you for bringing that up and um you know that's a good challenge for everyone to hold themselves and accountable accountable organizations as well well and you ended it both and we do you know we do have to end this but you ended it on what I think is a really important word which is that trust word right because that goes to kind of the continual learning the employee engagement you know every piece of that is is building that trust which means learning being seen and heard and listening so really glad you brought that up and unfortunately it is all we have time for but thank you both we we at WBC and I know we will continue so I love ending to that kind of like it is not just today it is not just this month and then we look to the fireworks and sort of that next issue so thank you both um and thank you to the audience and for those of you that are not a part of us we invite you to WBC collaborative.org where you can learn more about our initiatives which are really focused on increasing more women in the sea suet and boardroom addressing the under representation of women in specific Industries such as stem but also really looking to get more available capital for women heard the word entrepreneur from Susie earlier and we want to advance a pipeline of women leaders that are going to bring equity and inclusion and diversity to the business landscape so join US Weekly to keep up today on our next guest in our progress for the movement for gender equity and business and the latest issues follow us on social media we are WB collaborative and we're on Instagram Twitter and Linkedin

Channel: WBCollaborative

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Id: t-CI5H8goOo

Length: 21min 43sec (1303 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2024