Your client is unknowingly perpetuating systemic inequalities. How can you help them break the cycle?

We all have biases is the starting place. When working with executive coaching clients and covering this topic, understanding their context is the first step. What level of awareness do they have of conscious and unconscious bias? Where do their thoughts stem? What ideologies do they lean into. What is the back story? What is their back story? How do they build their knowledge? Once I have an understanding of where they are at we can begin work. Crafting questions to build awareness, understanding and learning is critical for a coach. Our job is to highlight all things. Sometimes that means being challenging. Often times though people come to greater understanding through a safe place to discuss. That's the coaching space!

Planting Seeds of Awareness: In my experience as an executive coach, I've found that everyone has biases, often unconscious. My approach is to guide clients towards self-awareness without pushing or leading them. I start by creating a that safe, non-judgmental space where they can comfortably explore their beliefs and behaviors. Using open-ended questions and active listening, I encourage them to reflect deeply. By fostering a sense of curiosity and self-discovery, I help clients become aware of how their actions might inadvertently perpetuate systemic inequalities, paving the way for meaningful change.

Your client, a well-meaning leader, is trapped in a cycle of systemic inequality. They want change but don't know where to start. After uncovering their conscious and unconscious biases introduce the power of active listening. Guide your client to sit with their team, not to talk, but to truly hear. Encourage open-ended questions, empathetic ears, and listening to understand. In those authentic moments, transformation happens. Marginalized voices share experiences, revealing how inequality permeates the organization. With each story, your client gains perspective, challenging the status quo. From this foundation of active listening, real change takes root.

Assess needs and set goals: Evaluate your organization's diversity and inclusion status and establish specific objectives for the training. Develop tailored content: Collaborate with experts to create relevant, engaging training materials that address your organization's unique challenges. Encourage participation: Involve employees across all levels in training sessions to foster collective responsibility for promoting diversity and inclusion. Monitor and refine: Gather feedback and track metrics to assess the training's impact and make adjustments as needed for continuous improvement.

We get used to reproduce same patterns. So we must take into account the cycle of change and how to benefit from it. Changing is difficult, and like Lewin model, takes some steps to be consolidated from an idea of what you want to be to the real world.