The Paradox of Inclusion: How many privileges do you have? Discover your score...

People don't become inclusive overnight, shifting a culture into a new paradigm towards inclusion can be both painful and difficult.

Why?

Because of the challenges of people's privilege, their beliefs, and behaviors. Although I’ve been working on this topic for years and I should be aware of my own biases/privileges, it was surprising discovering that I’ve reached 21 of the most 50 privileges around the world.

And you, what’s your score please click on the link below to discover it (you might find yourself reacting defensively to tell yourself you have privilege, is not about pointing fingers but it's about creating awareness and understanding of why things are not equal at work and what you can do to address that)?

Feeling guilty about having privilege isn't going?to change anything or make the lives of those?with less privileged have access to more resources.?What I want you to focus on is helping you understand?your privilege better,?and how you can utilize it to be an ally to others.

In a society where customers, employees, and investors increasingly see equity and inclusion as not just a nice-to-have but a must-have, allyship by an organization’s senior leaders has become essential.

Change starts with individual leaders’ taking responsibility for their own attitudes and behaviors. Here there are a number of ways to do this, like:

Own your privilege

Being an ally requires recognizing the advantages, opportunities, resources, and power you’ve automatically been accorded for instance as a white man while others have been overtly or subtly denied them. This can be painful because it often means admitting that you haven’t entirely earned your success.

Don't descrete the stories?

If you ask others about their experience at your company?or out in the community,?you need to acknowledge and accept the information?they share as their truth.?Don't make excuses for the negative experiences?they share with you like,?"Oh, I'm sure they didn't mean to offend you?by calling you Jamal instead of Jesse."?If you are asking them to be vulnerable?and trust sharing their experiences with you,?it's your job as an ally to listen?and respect their viewpoint, even if it runs counter?to what you've personally experienced.

Active allyship

Allyship is more than just wearing a pin, posting about Black Lives Matter, or joining a protest and telling your Black colleagues about it.

Just because we know is the right thing to do doesn't mean that is easy, it's lifelong learning, listen, learn and iterate, there is always something different you can do differently.

Following your test, you could start to think about how to transform your own privileges into active allyship in your day-to-day interactions (e.g. if you are English native speaker support non-natives in their own conversations if you’re significantly older than your colleagues take time to share your own experience..)

Allyship is more than just wearing a pin, posting about Black Lives Matter, or joining a protest and telling your Black colleagues about it.

If you’re a senior leader, no matter where your organization is on its DEI journey, you can champion and lend time and energy to designing and implementing antibias, recruitment, and leadership development initiatives that work. I'm here to learn how you have been supporting and elevating your voice within your organization, so don't be shy and share your own experience on this critical topic.

#inclusion #allyship