Allyship – where do I start?

I have spoken about allyship (A LOT) BUT never really written about allyship.

Dyspraxia says to me not to write articles for public consumption BUT my passion for Allyship tells me to be brave it will help others.

So here goes….

According to Great Place to Work

Allyship in the workplace means using your personal privilege to support colleagues from historically marginalized communities. Allies wield their influence to amplify the voices and elevate the?employee experience?of their underrepresented coworkers.?*

According to me

Its just being a good person and doing the right thing. I was brought up by my mum and want to do her proud by being a nice person and creating opportunity for others.

I think everyone should be using their privilege to support others in the workplace.?Why would you not want to wield your influence to amplify the voices and elevate the experience for others?

I had the honour of being able to speak about allyship recently and I want to share some findings from that talk.

At the start of the talk less than quarter of the people in the room felt they had carried out an act of allyship in the week before the talk.

By the end about 98% were planning to carry out an act of allyship (don’t worry I have that 2% in my vision)

It got me thinking what if I could do that on a larger scale or even influence one other person to “be a good person and do the right things”

So here are five tips when thinking about allyship. ?

1) Ask questions ?All to often we are afraid to ask questions for fear of being seen as ignorant or lacking knowledge.?Asking questions is one way of building this knowledge but remember don’t be upset if someone says no its ok that people don’t want to share experiences.

2) If you ask act - Saying you’re an ally and finding out more is only the start if your going to go to the effort of finding out more make sure you take action.?Imagine someone shares lots of personal information with you only for you to do nothing with it.

3) This is going to be uncomfortable – Pointing out to someone that they have spoken over the same person several times or creating a space for someone’s voice to be heard might feel awkward for you but think how the person in the situation feels.?Create an environment for others to grow.

4) Step back – If your given an opportunity think are you the best person to deliver that opportunity.?Sometimes if you look around there might be someone better for the opportunity that you should give the chance to.

5) Sorry is not always needed – Under represented groups tend to use the word “sorry” more in the work place.?I am not saying stop people from saying sorry in the work place but support others to show its not always needed.

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I could go on and on, but I think its important for people to form their own opinions on allyship.

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My only ask is if something in here has inspired you to carry out a act of allyship please pass on, like, comment or anything to raise awareness.?If I can inspire someone to act then anyone can and together was can make a real change.

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* link to article https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/what-is-allyship-in-the-workplace#:~:text=What%20does%20it%20mean%20to,experience%20of%20their%20underrepresented%20coworkers.