Leadership Excellence - June 2022

JUNE 2022 • Vol. 39 • No. 06 (ISSN 2562-0711)

OVERCOMING THE FATIGUE OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION - Farzana Nayani,

Farzana Nayani - Consulting & Training

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Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture

The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership

The Critical Role Of Accountability In DEI

Ph.D., 3D Group

Kantola Training Solutions

- Dale S. Rose,

- Natasha Nicholson,

- Robert Sheen, Trusaic

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How Stewardship Creates Both Impact And Belonging In The Workplace - David R. York,

York Howell & Guymon

INDEX

Leadership Excellence JUNE 2022

Vol.39 No.06 (ISSN 2562-0711)

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Overcoming The Fatigue Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Ideas for action to foster sustainable DEI efforts

On the Cover

- Farzana Nayani,

Farzana Nayani - Consulting & Training

Articles Sponsored

13 Elevate Your Organization with Oracle ME, the Employee Experience Solution Your Workforce Needs

- Nancy Estell Zoder, Vice President, Product Strategy, Oracle

23 Evaluating Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men

Three overall recommendations for decision-makers - Stefanie Mockler, Leadership Consultant and Coach, Vantage Leadership Consulting and Melissa Vazquez-Hornik,

Research and Data Science Lead, Vantage Leadership Consulting

32 Leading Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion At A Global Renal Care Provider

Here’s what I’ve learned about celebrating employees’ differences - Mignon Early, VP, DE&I, Fresenius Medical Care

North America (FMCNA)

44 3 Questions Leaders Need To Ask About Change

What do I do when they won’t get on board?

- Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner, President, Turner Change Management

47 Building Belonging In The Workplace

How can we blend work and life so that companies and employees pursue potential together?

- Dan Bruder, CEO and Co-Founder, Blendification

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TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

HR.com Professional Education Team

Top Picks

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INDEX

Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture Overcoming assumptions about inclusion to improve team effectiveness - Dale S. Rose, Ph.D., President, 3D Group

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership The impact of leadership on DEI - Natasha Nicholson,

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Senior Content Manager, Kantola Training Solutions

The Critical Role Of Accountability In DEI Organizations looking to make meaningful progress toward DEI goals must prioritize accountability - Robert Sheen, CEO and Founder, Trusaic

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How Stewardship Creates Both Impact And Belonging In The Workplace Steward businesses, at their core, are all about two essential elements of stewardship - David R. York, Attorney, CPA, and Managing Partner, York Howell & Guymon

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Editor, Leadership Excellence

Publisher, HR.com

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Leadership Excellence

How Leaders Can Work to Advance Their Organizations’ DEIB Initiatives There has been much discussion over the last few years about the need for diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) in how companies operate. However, being diverse, equitable, and inclusive is not enough. Organizations fail to retain employees from underrepresented groups because they don’t feel like they belong. Creating a sense of belonging in the workplace results in high employee performance. As organizations explore ways to become more diverse and inclusive, what skills might help them be more successful?

In the June edition of Leadership Excellence, we have included a few articles that explore the most practical solutions to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace.

In her article, Overcoming The Fatigue Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion, Farzana Nayani shares a number of ideas to overcome the feeling of DEI fatigue and ways to keep many important efforts at the forefront of your organization.

As organizations continue to look inward into their own practices, we must ask ourselves how we are evaluating the potential for leadership roles. Are there behavioral differences that bias us based on gender? How can we set women up for success given the ongoing gender inequities? Stefanie Mockler and Melissa Vazquez-Hornik’s article, Evaluating

Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men, includes answers to all these questions and more.

Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture by Dale S. Rose highlights what inclusion is all about and how leaders who follow the inclusive leadership path will win in the long run.

The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership by Natasha Nicholson talks about what makes leaders inclusive, how they behave, why they are so important, and what you can do to cultivate this kind of leadership.

In brief, the core understanding of current trends and nuances within DEI can help you shape your leadership strategies for the future. And now is the time to plan ahead!

We hope you enjoy reading all the articles and find some helpful tips and takeaways from this issue of Leadership Excellence. Do let us know your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback on our articles.

Happy Reading!

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(ISSN 2562-0711)

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COVER ARTICLE

Overcoming The Fatigue Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Ideas for action to foster sustainable DEI efforts

By Farzana Nayani, Farzana Nayani - Consulting & Training Unfortunately, as the world is opening up and organizations are still navigating a path forward through recovery and transition, the workaround diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) also have no clear end in sight. How can HR leaders keep up the energy and interest in these efforts, when the issues are never-ending?

“We are in unprecedented times.” This phrase has been used over and over to describe what we have collectively gone through with the impacts that the coronavirus has had on our personal and professional lives. Leaders of organizations everywhere are reeling from the past 2 years of transitioning to remote and hybrid work, disruption to their supply chain, production and distribution, gains and losses in the business, and the consequences of the Great Resignation. Additionally, we have seen how global racial reckoning has swept across the nation and around the world, with a greater call for justice and equity for all historically excluded and underrepresented groups. The only thing truly certain for leaders is the uncertainty itself.

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Many organizational DEI efforts began after the tragic murder of George Floyd, and although some started before, they benefited from awareness at a regional and global level. Now, over 2 years later, organizations are struggling to keep up the positive momentum around social impact, equity, and belonging, in addition to running their business. Just as individuals are experiencing fatigue from constant transitions at work, organizations may be stalling in DEI efforts when they really need to grow them. Is this something you or your organization is experiencing? If so, you are not alone.

The coming months are pivotal in solidifying efforts toward long-term and sustainable diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. People are tired, and the current events have been relentless in showcasing how tragic incidents and political battles are an affront to social and racial equity. This all is overwhelming and affects employee morale. What can HR leaders do?

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Overcoming The Fatigue Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion

For leaders, here are a number of ideas for you on how to overcome the feeling of DEI fatigue and ways to keep these important efforts at the forefront of your organization.

Put some actions to a timeline. Share commitments to DEI and associated actions with a clear idea of milestones and dates. This practice will help with your own company’s strategic planning, while also providing direction to others. This helps keep expectations feasible, and initiatives on track. This can allay any concern ranging from “not enough work is being done” to “this takes too much effort”.

In my consulting work, I usually recommend that organizations create a visual roadmap that demonstrates projected DEI actions and activities for the year.

Recognize progress. Note efforts made, successes, and areas of opportunity to grow. It is important to acknowledge accomplishments, while at the same time appreciating that DEI is an ongoing

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work in progress. Think about how to utilize employee recognition and performance programs to offer appreciation and reward to those whose involvement has created an impact. I have witnessed company-wide recognition events that are extremely effective in honoring employees who have been outstanding contributors to DEI efforts.

Do not overburden identities that are already marginalized. Support employee initiatives like employee resource groups (ERGs), but don’t burden those of underrepresented identities to be the ones to solely be leading the work. Listen and observe, and receive input on plans you already have in place. ERGs at organizations are an extremely effective way to support communities of belonging for individuals of particularly underrepresented groups. In my advising work to ERGs at organizations, HR and company leaders must navigate the delicate balance between tapping ERGs for insights vs. putting the responsibility and labor on ERG members and leaders to carry out the plan.

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Overcoming The Fatigue Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion

the opportunity to implement ideas that have been formulating for some time.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion - but these recommended actions will help foster a sustainable approach to the effort. All of these initiatives impact the workplace environment and are key factors in creating an organizational culture that is responsive to its employees. This is crucial for cultivating a sense of belonging that can in turn impact employee retention and enhance morale.

What do you think of these suggested strategies?

Stay in touch. Keep communication lines open, with all levels of the organization. Choose appropriate channels for messaging and be sure to review the language used in your correspondence, for appropriate voice and vocabulary. Company-wide emails or all-staff meetings that recap DEI efforts and invite participation are a great way to increase engagement. I advise organizations to consider the audience as well as the tone that is being set by the company-wide messages. Is a somber mood more appropriate than a joyous one? In many instances - especially in these current times - it may be less appropriate to “celebrate” DEI activities and instead reignite trust through demonstrating accountability, responsibility, and action towards objectives for the organization.

Be responsive, not reactive. As tragic incidents come up in the news, use each opportunity as the impetus to put into place long-term policies and processes, versus short-term reactive measures. These events can be catalysts for actions that may have been on the minds of various levels of leadership but needed the right entry point to become a reality for the company. I have frequently facilitated conversations with organizational boards of directors who have been considering how to initiate DEI efforts, and may have been hesitant in the past, but are now ready to. This gives senior executives and HR leaders

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Whatever approach you take at your own organizations, know that you are not alone in facing the challenges of DEI fatigue and potential burnout. The opportunity is here for HR leaders and company leadership to create lasting changes within organizations that will also truly make a difference within broader society.

Farzana Nayani i\(she/hers) is an author, recognized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion specialist, and international keynote speaker.

Farzana’s clients include Fortune 500 corporations, public agencies, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations on DEI strategy, coaching, advising, training, and facilitation. She has been featured in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Her new book, The Power of Employee Resource Groups: How People Create Authentic Change was released in June 2022 and has been a highly-anticipated resource for organizations.

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TOP PICK

Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture Overcoming assumptions about inclusion to improve team effectiveness

By Dale S. Rose, Ph.D., 3D Group

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uccessful leaders get the most from their team by creating an inclusive culture. Inclusivity is a cultural norm on the most effective teams that is simple to understand and rarely achieved. It comes down to the basic question “does everyone feel their contributions to the team are valued?” Does everyone have a role to play that helps the team win?

Great leaders understand winning is a team effort that depends on a culture of inclusion where everyone contributes, and everyone is valued for their unique contributions. One superstar alone cannot sustain winning for their team without the support and contributions of others. And so while a leader needs to create the conditions for the best talent to rise, they also need to create conditions where lessor talent (newer to the team, early career, employees who are cross-training, etc.) can contribute and can develop in the superstars of the future.

I coached a leader last year, (Tim as a pseudonym), who had 4 leaders reporting to him with varying skill levels, diverse work history, and a range of tenure in the organization. He was struggling to get the group to meet team goals and wanted to figure out how to get them over the hump. At the end of each quarter,

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the person he saw as his top talent (we’ll call her Gina) was always burnt out trying to get to the finish line, as he consistently pushed workload away from the other three and onto her. As a result, Gina would always start the next quarter a little slower and more burnt out. The other team members’ resentment festered at first, then began to grow into apathy as learned helpless set in. What was the point of trying to contribute if Gina was going to get all the plum assignments and all the glory anyway?

Tim’s underutilization of his full team is a common mistake for leaders that is grounded in a reasonable logic: I want to win so I should rely on my best chance (Gina) to get me over the finish line. Unfortunately for Tim and the team, they consistently fell just short of quarterly goals using this approach.

The underlying problem is Tim was working from a few flawed assumptions that prevented an inclusive culture. Even if they did “win” by hitting their quarterly goal, it was perceived by everyone on the team as a win by Gina, not a win by the team. If the goals were not met, it couldn’t possibly be Gina’s fault it was extenuating circumstances that caused the loss – after all, if they couldn’t win with Gina at the front how could they win at all?

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Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture

Tim’s case illustrates 3 flawed leader assumptions about inclusion that hold teams back from winning big: The strongest performers should get the most opportunity. Leaders frequently fall into the trap of relying too heavily on one or two individuals to get 80% of their results. A business school teaches the “80-20 Rule” and leaders wrongly assume it applies to talent utilization. Leaders generally have a “go-to” person and they likely don’t realize the implicit biases they use in choosing those individuals. Even more pernicious, many leaders are unaware that others recognize they have favorites and that playing favorites tends to create learned helplessness among other team members. By always having a “go-to” and limiting opportunities for others, leaders prevent their up-and-coming team members from being engaged and trying to improve. Opportunity needs to be shared among the team – if someone who is given an opportunity fails, they need to be held accountable for learning from the failure and improving.

In the case of Tim and his team, the other three team members pointedly shared with me the sentiment of “why should I bother trying harder if Tim always chooses Gina anyway?” And when the team was expanded to a fourth member for a short time, he was told point-blank by his peers to be prepared to sit on the sidelines as “this is Gina’s show.” Who knows if

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this new person wasn’t better than Gina? Tim certainly would never know, unless he created a culture of inclusion where everyone is expected to contribute, and everyone’s contribution is valued. Tim eventually began to see he could also get more out of Gina if she was not always stretched so thin. Over time, the team developed a much more inclusive culture, where Gina was not resented quite as much by other team members and she even had some time to mentor one of the newer members who was early in his career and had struggled in his first few assignments.

The cream rises to the top. Nearly every leader I have coached can quickly rank their team from “best” to “struggling most.” They often assume this reflects the natural state of the world –there are strong performers and weak performers and the leader must know which is which. Social scientists have shown repeatedly that individuals can and do behave differently based on their environment and expectations of others. When leaders send messages to employees that they are “the best” they tend to achieve that expectation, and likewise when someone is struggling their performance often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. While it is true performance varies between individuals, it is also true people are not static. Employees can grow and develop when given the chance after which leaders’ assumptions about individuals are often proven wrong.

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Inclusive Leaders Create And Sustain A Winning Culture

In the coaching case I mentioned, Tim was shocked when he gave an assignment to one of his “lessor performers” and she excelled. She was thrilled by Tim’s unexpected confidence in her, felt a renewed sense of engagement for the work (she had been secretly starting to look for a new team), and took an approach to the project that no one else (including Gina) had even considered. Tim suddenly realized he might have two strong performers, not just one.

My top performers today will be my top performers tomorrow. Short-term thinking is a hard habit to break for most leaders. They are often rewarded more for hitting a quarterly number, but things like building and retaining top talent get overlooked. Leaders often focus so heavily on an individual’s current-day performance they overlook the employee’s potential.

They may not realize how many high potential employees struggle when put into new roles or roles they are not well suited to. Leaders who focus on an employee’s potential in addition to their current-day performance create a strong foundation on the team to support ongoing success. Further, by building an inclusive culture where all team members are valued for their skills and unique contributions, leaders can surface and cultivate the future top talent for the team.

In Tim’s case, he didn’t realize two of his lower-performing team members had exceptional and unique skills that were not needed for the roles they were being asked to fill. By being hidden in Gina’s shadow, these skills would likely never emerge. Further, he didn’t realize that while Gina was burning herself out by being a single point of failure for the team, the other team members were looking elsewhere and imagining what life might be like on other teams where their skills would be valued. When Tim started to learn more about his other team members and involve them more directly in the team’s efforts a transformation occurred where all four team members became highly engaged and highly productive. The team was energized and the results showed. Goals were met, and expectations were exceeded. Tim’s team became a place others wanted to join and executives took notice wondering about the secret to the team’s success.

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A Caveat. I can already hear readers asking “but wait, isn’t inclusion really about accepting people of all backgrounds, regardless of race/sex/national origin?”

Of course, the answer is yes. This is why I mentioned implicit bias early on. The reason the Gina’s of the world may be chosen by leaders is often about some hidden bias – but leaders tend to see the performance side of it. At its core, inclusion is about involving everyone and so focusing solely on one personal characteristic (race, sex, gender identification, region of the country, religion, language, personal style, etc.) will always end up excluding someone. Leaders are best served by including all, regardless of their personal characteristics, and dwelling on any of these characteristics to the exclusion of the other would be unwise.

Final Thoughts All leaders can build an inclusive culture in which the full talent of the team is leveraged for team success. Inclusivity isn’t that complex to understand or create. Inclusive leadership is as simple as seeing the strengths of everyone on the team and actively involving each member. Leaders who follow this path and commit to success driven by full team involvement and a culture where all members contribute will win more in the short term and will sustain their winning ways far into the future.

Dale S. Rose, Ph.D., is the President at 3D Group. He is an expert in leadership development and organizational effectiveness and has authored over a dozen commercial assessments for identifying and developing talent. As an advisor to senior leaders for over 20 years, Dale S. Rose brings deep expertise in organizational and individual effectiveness to his coaching. Dale works primarily with C-suite leaders and boards of directors. He has extensive experience working with leaders navigating role transitions.

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Elevate Your Organization with Oracle ME, the Employee Experience Solution Your Workforce Needs

By Nancy Estell Zoder, Oracle

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ork has changed, and with it, so have employees’ expectations for how work gets done. Now, with The Great Resignation in full swing, organizations must ignite their employee experience to not just attract but retain their talent. Workers hold the reigns on the direction and speed of innovation required to support the future of employee experience. The challenge that organizations are facing is that the future of employee experience is now.

While the past couple of years have been hard for most people, our individual experiences have been unique. We have different family situations, work needs, and personal challenges. For me, I’ve felt disconnected from my team while working from home, and have struggled with my work-life balance.

I’ve spent time evaluating what is important to me, and I’ve looked to my organization for guidance on how I can be most effective in my job. Whether your experience mirrors mine or not, each of us is more productive and satisfied in our jobs when our unique experiences are recognized and respected.

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I can summarize what we’ve learned over the last few years into three key lessons. ●● Every employee is unique with their own needs, goals, and ways of getting things done. ●● Personal priorities are driving decisions about when, how, and why people work. ●● Organizations—and specifically HR—need to deliver a more personalized employee experience if they want to drive productivity and satisfaction.

What Employees Want, and How You Can Give It to Them In the not-too-distant past, a forward-looking employee experience meant ping pong tables and unlimited snacks in the breakroom. Expectations are different today. Workers are not looking for free pizza at lunch or the ability to drop off dry cleaning at work.

Instead, they seek flexibility and guidance to succeed and grow. 88% of employees have re-defined what’s important to them, with work-life balance, mental health, growth, and flexibility as top priorities.

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Elevate Your Organization with Oracle ME, the Employee Experience Solution Your Workforce Needs

Employees are telling us how we can support them in meaningful ways, including: ●● “Make my experience more about me” -- Use everything you know about my circumstances, needs, and aspirations to personalize my tasks and interactions. ●● “Show me the way” -- Guide me through complicated processes based on what is relevant to me. Think ahead about what information I’ll need along the way to support my success. ●● “Keep me connected” -- Help me build better relationships with my leadership and network with my peers.

Reimaging the employee experience to meet the needs of today’s workforce is no longer optional but necessary to retain your talent. Workers with a positive experience have 16 times the engagement level of employees with a negative experience, and they are eight times more likely to want to stay at a company.

Many technology vendors are offering organizations a quick fix to improve their employee experience through independent, top-layer platforms that don’t natively connect to their HCM solution. HR can deliver deeply personalized experiences only through an employee experience solution that operates as a unified solution with the organization’s core HCM—because it is supported by the complete knowledge of the employee’s history, location, role, skills, performance, and relationships, and more.

Additionally, a unified solution owned by HR offers data integrity, security, and agility that cannot be matched by independent, top-layer platforms but are required to manage in the new work environment.

An Employee Experience Built for Me Oracle ME is a complete employee experience platform that allows organizations to deliver tailored experiences that help employees be more productive and successful. As part of Oracle Cloud HCM, Oracle ME delivers personalized employee experiences with targeted communication, recommends relevant tasks with step-by-step contextual guidance, enables stronger connections with managers and

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peers, and provides personal service in the ways employees prefer.

Oracle ME is different from stand-alone productivity and workflow tools because it’s natively built-in Oracle’s end-to-end HCM solution. It uses knowledge from comprehensive workforce data to deliver the right guidance based on an understanding of every individual from their personal details, role, location, goals, activities, interests, and other attributes.

Oracle ME extends across Oracle applications, connects to third-party systems, and functions in the flow of work via email, SMS, browser, and collaboration tools, allowing employees to manage their experience wherever they work.

HR teams can configure Oracle ME without IT support, making it easier to manage changes to employee experiences and reflect their company’s unique needs and culture.

Let’s take a closer look at what you can do with Oracle ME 1. Make it easy for employees to find and complete the most important actions for their career, work, and life with personalized, contextual, step-by-step guidance.

Oracle Journeys provides step-by-step workflow guidance to help workers complete professional and personal activities such as onboarding, exploring career opportunities, transferring to a new role, getting married, having a baby, or other tasks, all in one experience.

Recent investments help workers make informed decisions by surfacing personally relevant instructions, training, and analytics along their guided journey.

For example, a manager completing a promotion journey for an employee in a different country may be guided to review a policy document to ensure the promotion is compliant with local regulations. With Contextual analytics, the manager can determine an appropriate pay increase based on similar roles in that region.

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Elevate Your Organization with Oracle ME, the Employee Experience Solution Your Workforce Needs

2. Extend a better employee experience to every interaction across the enterprise

relevant to, based on simple to complex combinations of workforce data with follow-up action.

Oracle Journeys is open and extensible, delivering experiences beyond HR across all Oracle Cloud applications and third-party solutions. Oracle Process Automation provides low code configuration options to support the automation of workflow to third-party solutions to ensure one single experience for your workers.

For example, you could target those working in a specific city who are within their first two years of employment and have not enrolled in a specific learning course. Specific targeting cuts down on noise and makes communications more relevant, effective, and actionable.

3. Foster continuous engagement between employees and managers by giving every worker a voice and every manager the tools to act People want their leaders to listen to them and take action that improves their well-being.

Oracle Touchpoints helps managers continuously survey and track employee sentiment and take suggested actions, including scheduling check-ins, adding discussion topics to upcoming one-on-ones, providing feedback, or celebrating an employee’s work success or milestones. Notifications can link directly to the recommended task to save managers time and encourage immediate action.

Besides giving feedback, employees can also take an active role in the employee engagement center, which gives them one place to define and organize topics for upcoming one-on-ones, review meeting history and pulse survey trends, and act on suggestions from their manager or HR.

4. Design communications to keep your workforce informed, support change, and reinforce organizational culture.

You can also measure the engagement and easily retarget or set up ongoing communications to drive more action.

5. Nurture connections among employees for greater workplace belonging and development.

Great relationships at work encourage people to stay.

However, with remote and hybrid work arrangements, people struggle to stay engaged with their co-workers and create the type of connections that help them feel like they belong, leading to new opportunities for personal or professional growth.

Oracle Connections is an interactive workforce directory and organization chart that fosters deeper connections among colleagues by making it easier to find and connect with people. This solution helps individuals quickly find colleagues with specific skills, interests, or experiences to easily build their network and relationships.

6. Support your workforce with consistent, intelligent service, accessible wherever they are.

To communicate with workers today, most HR teams rely on corporate communications teams or use third-party tools that don’t connect to their workforce data—both of which add complexity and time.

Employees expect immediate access to information and responsive operational support. However, it’s hard to keep up with service requests, especially with ongoing changes in safety protocols, organizational structures, and remote or hybrid working models.

Oracle HCM Communicate is the first and only solution purpose-built for HR to create, send, and track personalized employee communications. It is connected to your workforce data so you can easily create and send personalized communications directed to the individuals and groups they are most

Oracle HR Help Desk is a service request management solution that makes it easy for all workers to get the answers they need and for HR and Service Centers to easily track cases to closure, without the exposure risk to sensitive data.

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Elevate Your Organization with Oracle ME, the Employee Experience Solution Your Workforce Needs

Beyond service inquiries, Oracle Digital Assistant provides a conversational interface for workers to get immediate answers to questions, and easily complete transactions directly through their voice or text.

The Future of Employee Experience is “ME” Enhancing employee experience will be a priority for 92% of organizations over the next 3 years, compared to just 52% saying it was a priority before the pandemic. This is great news since employees aren’t willing to wait long for change.

Workers expect a modern experience at work like they’re used to in their personal lives—one that is intuitive, contextual, and personalized. An experience like this is powerful because when employees feel seen, heard, supported, and connected, they are engaged, satisfied, creative and productive.

Want to learn more about how you can transition your organization to deliver exceptional employee experience and retain people? Read our new ebook: 2022 could be the year of The Great Retention.

Nancy Estell Zoder is an experienced HCM professional with over 18 years of experience implementing, designing, developing, and defining strategies for Human Capital Management software applications. Her experience includes deep process and technology expertise spanning Strategic Workforce Planning, Global Human Resources, Business Intelligence, Security as well as Compliance including broad industry and country knowledge.

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Unify your workforce Build a culture that brings out the best in your people by giving them the personalized experience they expect. Achieve operational excellence by connecting your business across HR, �nance, payroll, and planning. oracle.com/hcm

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership The impact of leadership on DEI

By Natasha Nicholson, Kantola Training Solutions

I

nclusive leadership can make the difference between organization-wide engagement with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and widespread indifference.

But while there’s a fair amount of talk about inclusive leadership, there’s much less in the way of guidance on how to put it into practice. This makes cultivating and engaging inclusive leaders a sometimes unseen or little mentioned DEI strategy.

When a focus on inclusive leadership is combined with changes to structures and processes, this can be an especially effective way to cultivate and engage leaders.

Most importantly, it can sow the seeds that make DEI an integral part of the leadership ethos, enabling this group to become an especially powerful force.

leadership. This may just be the missing link to building greater diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization.

What is Inclusive Leadership?

Let’s look at what makes leaders inclusive, how they behave, why they are so important and what you can do to cultivate this kind of

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Research indicates that leaders have a differentiating set of characteristics and behaviors.

This starts with how they impart a sense of belonging that makes everyone feel like they are an important part of the organization.

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They know how to actively listen and show their own vulnerability in a way that engenders trust and supports employees to connect and share. They are culturally and emotionally intelligent and use empathy to create strong bonds, supporting others to do the same. They see challenges as opportunities to grow and learn, putting the focus on rewarding and upskilling their workforce.

They make employees feel safe to present their whole selves in the workplace.

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership

leadership is needed to support an inclusive climate in which different team members are valued for what they bring to work practices.” Of vital importance, the study found that “Inclusive leadership is crucial for fostering inclusiveness in diverse teams.”

Inclusive leaders are fair, collaborative, respectful and kind.

They understand the importance of having a sensible work/life balance and they model related behavior that encourages others to do the same. Their presence and the way they conduct themselves can make people feel motivated, inspired and ready to collaborate around a shared purpose.

been ruling the day, and inclusive leaders have an uncanny ability to create a sense of calm, security and trust. At a basic level, people need to feel safe, comfortable and know that their organization cares about them. Without that, their loyalty will be fleeting, and their attention will inevitably turn to opportunities outside of the company, leading companies to have poor retention and be unable to attract new employees.

They celebrate the many facets of diversity in a personal and outward way. According to research featured in Harvard Business Review, inclusive leaders also have “awareness of bias” in that, “They show awareness of personal blind spots as well as flaws in the system and work hard to ensure meritocracy.” In short, inclusive leaders embody diversity, equity,and inclusion in both thought and practice.

Why is Inclusive Leadership so Important?

So why is inclusive leadership so important to companies? One answer relevant to present times: change and uncertainty have

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Inclusive leadership helps create a healthy and supportive workplace culture that is nimble, flexible and able to withstand whatever challenges come speeding its way. Inclusive leadership enables employees to not just survive through change, but to thrive in it.

The Impact of Leadership on DEI These types of leaders are among an organization’s strongest assets.

A study aimed at examining the impact of inclusive leadership found that “greater team diversity does not automatically yield an inclusive climate. Inclusive

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Inevitably, the reverse is also true.

A lack of inclusive leadership can upend efforts to create a more inclusive culture. A Glassdoor survey indicated that 50% of people think their organizations are not doing enough to increase workforce diversity. Looking at why so many organizations are missing the mark on DEI, Kelly Lockwood Primus with the Forbes Human Resources Council had this to say: The answer, in a word, is leadership.

We know this because our CDI’s [Cultural Dynamics in the Workplace] research identified three barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) success, all of which can be attributed to leaders. They are: 1. Leaders who are undermining DEI initiatives 2. Detrimental attitudes of the leadership majority 3. Not elevating DEI to a business initiative Inclusion starts with changing the mindsets of leaders and addressing the barriers they often create. Without this first step, organizations won’t be successful at moving the needle.

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership

Cultivating Inclusive Leadership and Creating Buy-in There are some specific strategies that organizations can put in place to cultivate inclusive leaders and ensure that all leaders have the skills and knowledge they need to help create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive organization. In addition to putting a focus on education and training, many of these strategies are rooted in tweaking existing organizational structures and processes.

Educate leaders about inclusive behavior— Leaders will have varying degrees of experience with diversity, equity and inclusion, depending on their backgrounds and management experience. Just like anyone else, leaders need to uncover their biases, cultivate listening and sharing skills and learn what constitutes inclusive and exclusive behavior. Provide leaders with the training and follow-up they need to understand what is expected of them and why.

Create a system of accountability and reward— Accountability starts with leadership declaring DEI to be a priority that is tied to leader goals and assessments.

Measuring progress can include employee feedback (prioritizing under-represented groups), surveys, focus groups with positive/negative correlations to leadership inclusivity, improved employee engagement, reduction in absenteeism by department and employee retention levels.

Create buy-in by treating DEI as a priority business objective—With so much research on how DEI makes organizations more competitive, like the studies outlined in an article from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it’s not hard to build a case for making DEI a priority business objective. Top leadership must commit to making sure that

Empower leaders with the skills they need to support managers—Middle managers are pivotal in the success of DEI efforts. Leaders must be equipped with special skills and knowledge to support and engage managers throughout the DEI process. Leaders must ensure that managers get the training and support they need to uncover personal biases,

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adjust their own behavior and learn to intervene in micro-aggressions.

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everyone, including leaders, understands that DEI is not just a part of their job, it’s central to how they conduct themselves on a daily basis.

Inclusive leadership is not a destination. It’s a journey that requires humility, curiosity and courage. – Thais Compoint, author of Succeed as an Inclusive Leader

Engaging Leaders in Communication Making leaders a central part of your DEI-related communication efforts is not only an excellent way to create leadership engagement, it is essential to creating better outcomes. Based in part on a template from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), below is a communication model that provides guidance on how to engage leaders in a way that demonstrates their commitment to DEI and creates buy-in throughout the organization.

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership

Communication Model: With a focus on leadership engagement in DEI Steps

Activities

Leadership engagement

Tips for success

Create a connection to your business needs

Connect your DEI efforts to your organization’s strategic plan. Address unique challenges and opportunities specific to your organization.

Include leadership in the creation of the plan.

If they see their ideas incorporated, they are more likely to be your champions rather than your resistors.

Be armed with research that shows how DEI makes organizations more competitive with specific applications to your organization.

Conduct a stakeholder analysis

Identify and analyze the needs, perspectives and concerns of each group that is affected, encompassing all major touchpoints.

Create a special focus on the leadership group and determine how they can affect buy-in from front-line managers and employees.

Tap into what leaders know and understand about stakeholder groups, both differences and similarities.

Set your goals and objectives

Establish measurable goals and objectives with a focus on outcomes, rather than outputs.

Connect goals to departments and individual leaders. Establish checkpoints for assessing progress.

Ask top leaders to clearly articulate the importance of tying DEI goals to personal and departmental goals.

Determine your solutions

Create the tactical execution plan aligned to deliver results against the stated objectives.

With a focus on inclusivity, use your leaders as your voice to communicate about the value of DEI as an integral part of the organization.

Engage leaders in specific tactics, such as providing quotes or participating in an inspiring interview or panel discussion.

Implement and address challenges

Roll out your communications, addressing the needs and perspectives and concerns of each stakeholder group.

Use the skills of your most inclusive leaders to help address points of resistance. Connect with resistors face-on by engaging, listening and explaining.

Check with leaders in advance to see if they are aware of any pockets of resistance. Get a commitment for their help in resolving issues.

Measure and evaluate

Establish your results and determine how well your objectives were met.

Create accountability.

Include leadership in successes and work with them on areas of improvement.

Encourage transparency around aspirational goals and share the results of your DEI efforts.

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The Missing DEI Strategy: Cultivating Inclusive Leadership

Cultivating inclusive leadership and building engagement around key DEI initiatives is one critical way to go from saying that you care about diversity, equity and inclusion to doing something about it. As you take on this work, you may find that inclusive leadership may come easily for some, but it may require more

work for others. Yes, some of the behaviors may be innately part of an individual’s characteristics, but many of them can be learned through thoughtful education, training and practice by engaging in activities that support the leader’s growth and understanding.

The result will be well worth the effort. The power of inclusive leadership can reverberate throughout your entire organization, making it more collaborative, innovative and resilient for a future that’s sure to be full of many new challenges and opportunities.

Natasha Nicholson is the Senior Content Manager at Kantola Training Solutions, an innovative e-Learning company focused on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Harassment Prevention training solutions. She is responsible for thought leadership, content strategy and production. Her background includes more than 20 years as a content leader, communication strategist and editor. Prior to Kantola, she was the Content Director for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and served as Executive Editor for Communication World and Catalyst magazines.

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Evaluating Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men Three overall recommendations for decision-makers

By Stefanie Mockler, Ph.D and Melissa Vazquez-Hornik, Ph.D., Vantage

D

espite making up half of the workforce, compared to men, women continue to be underrepresented in higher-level leadership roles, particularly within corporate contexts. Recent estimates suggest that women occupy approximately 50% of entry-level roles, 30% of senior manager/direct roles, and only 20% of roles at the SVP and above (McKinsey & Co, 2021).

While various barriers contribute to this gender gap in leadership ranks, research suggests that when women break “social norms” by taking on traditionally masculine characteristics (e.g., dominance, assertiveness), they are perceived as having less potential for advancement into higher-level positions (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2004; Heilman, 2001).

While there are various factors that contribute to this lack of representation, we recently explored how organizational decision-makers’ evaluations of potential (i.e., hiring managers, HR, leadership assessors) contributes to women’s likelihood to even be considered for leadership roles.

For instance, in the leadership assessment industry, external consultants work closely with HR, hiring managers, and other talent professionals to evaluate

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a candidate’s fit for a role, as well as their capability of advancing beyond that level in the future (often referred to as an evaluation of their leadership potential). Research suggests that, generally, higher potential leaders tend to exhibit greater levels of assertiveness, independence, self-awareness, optimism, and flexibility versus those who may be ‘well-placed’ at a given level.

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Evaluating Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men

To better understand differences in evaluations of potential to advance within the organization for women and men, we explored our research and assessment database which includes data from hundreds of leadership assessments across industries.

These insights, combined with our knowledge of what helps to minimize bias in evaluations of performance and potential lead us to three overall recommendations for decision-makers who are responsible for evaluating performance, as well as making hiring and promotion decisions.

We posed three core questions:

1. Value and support women who are willing to ‘shake things up’ and challenge the status quo!

●● Do notable differences exist in the profiles of women evaluated as higher potential compared to women evaluated as lower potential? ●● Do notable differences exist in the profiles of women evaluated as higher potential compared to men evaluated as higher potential? ●● And, if differences exist, what are the implications for helping organizations (and their leaders) support women in actualizing potential?

Our analyses led us to several interesting insights.

Compared to women seen as having average or lower potential, women noted as having higher potential endorsed themselves as more likely to: ●● Demonstrate assertiveness in their leadership ●● Closely monitor the progress of activities ●● Provide direct and constructive feedback And, less likely to challenge authority and push against the status quo.

Compared to men seen as having higher potential, women with higher potential are more likely to: ●● Look for more opportunities to be in charge ●● Lead with deep technical knowledge ●● Provide ongoing feedback to guide performance ●● Communicate openly and socialize proactively ●● Engage others in dialogue and discussion ●● Attune to the needs of their audience ●● Focus on execution and achieving results

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Over time, particularly in organizational contexts, women have and continue to receive backlash for what are deemed ‘assertive’ or ‘dominance’ behaviors, such as direct communication, engaging in tough conflict, and being more focused on results than people. These behaviors are viewed as more masculine, and while rewarded for men, are often detractors for women.

This organizational reality has created cultures where women may not feel comfortable directly voicing their opinions, raising concerns, and challenging the status quo – and for good reason, as these behaviors may lead to a backlash.

In our analyses, women who were deemed to have higher potential were more likely to demonstrate assertiveness in their leadership, closely monitor the progress of activities, and provide direct and constructive feedback compared to women with lower potential scores. However, these women were also less likely to challenge authority. Thus, it seems women can lead assertively and maintain their high potential status; however, the direction of their assertiveness matters. In other words, it can be directed down and across, but not ‘up’.

Supporting this, research has shown that women tend to refrain from engaging in organizational politics, as they’ve likely learned (through observation, direct experience, and advice from managers) that doing so may undermine their success.

We suspect this results in ideas, innovations, and valuable feedback leaving “left on the table” as women may feel the need to dilute their perspectives to operate in organizational contexts.

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Evaluating Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men

Moving forward, we encourage decision-makers and leaders to embrace and encourage women who are willing to challenge authority, push past the status quo, and come up with new ways to drive results and evolve our businesses. To do this, organizations must create psychologically safe environments that promote interpersonal risk-taking.

Ask yourself, does your organization encourage women, especially high potentials, to speak up and voice perspectives? If not, where can changes be made?

2. In the hiring and promotion process, use structured interviews, leverage crosscalibration with a panel of interviewers & ensure decisions are based on factors directly relevant to the job/role in question and are objective When making decisions regarding who to hire and promote into leadership roles, it is important to understand what is “mission-critical” for the role. This involves centering on job-relevant characteristics

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and sifting through possible “noise” in the process to confirm talent decisions are dampening biases and stereotypes from emerging. We encourage leaders to ask themselves and each other: ●● “What is most critical for this role in the first 3, 6, and 9 months?” ●● “What are the most important characteristics that will support success in this position moving forward?” ●● “What is happening within the business that will influence this person’s success now and into the future? What does that mean about what attributes this person needs to display and master?”

Further, ensuring multiple evaluators engage in the process can help mitigate potential biases, create space for challenging others’ perceptions of “effective leadership behavior,” and lead to a more well-rounded assessment of a leader’s capabilities and potential.

We should critique harmful practices that do not align with evidence-based decision-making and celebrate those that do.

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Evaluating Leadership Potential: Shifting Standards For Women And Men

From our perspective, this poses an opportunity to raise the bar for ALL leaders. We believe that the best, most impactful, and inspiring executives have a broad set of tools in their toolboxes. And regardless of gender, should be able to navigate results, relationships, and various cultures in order to achieve strong outcomes and bring people along.

This, from our perspective, is the profile of a truly high-potential leader.

The implication, overall, then is not to lower the bar for high potential women, but rather to raise it for high potential men.

3. Coach leaders to operate with a balanced focus on results & people Overall, our data indicate that women, compared with men, are held to a higher standard to be deemed as “high potential leaders” – in other words, while men can be deemed high potential when they focus on results and getting done, women must display results-focused behaviors and lead with a social, engaging, and accommodating style. Thus, women are expected to be both results-focused and collaborative, direct and socially outgoing, and attuned to others’ needs while able to get things done.

As organizations continue to look inward into their own practices, we must ask ourselves how we are evaluating the potential for leadership roles? Are there behavioral differences that bias us based on gender?

How can we set women up for success, given the ongoing gender inequities?

Decision-makers in organizations have a lot of power to flip the script and make a difference – we hope this piece equips you with some helpful insight and action to drive change and continue to create a future where leaders with diverse backgrounds, genders, and experiences can thrive.

Stefanie Mockler, Ph.D.is a leadership consultant, executive coach, and practice lead for Leadership Development Solutions at Vantage. An advocate for bridging the gender divide in leadership roles, she also shares research and insights through The Female Leader’s Edge.

Melissa Vazquez is the Research and Data Science Lead at Vantage, where she brings an analytical approach to leveraging data, client deliverables, and research projects. Her research focus revolves around team dynamics and leadership effectiveness.

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The Critical Role Of Accountability In DEI Organizations looking to make meaningful progress toward DEI goals must prioritize accountability

By Robert Sheen, Trusaic

A

ll too often, well-intentioned organizations find themselves in a conundrum when it comes to implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Despite dutifully rolling out well-thoughtout DEI policies and procedures, employers are left to wonder why issues around representation and equity in their organizations persist.

In many cases, it comes down to accountability.

Without it, even the most ambitious DEI policies will falter.

The Role of Accountability in DEI The most successful organizations hold the entire company accountable for achieving DEI goals. No single person or team within the organization is responsible for DEI, but rather it’s owned by every team. In the same way, the CFO of an organization is not solely responsible for ensuring financial success for an organization, DEI advancements happen as a result of many moving parts within.

Accountability involves more than just training managers and leaders though. While it’s true that ownership around DEI starts at the top, accountability should also be shared across all leadership members of the organization.

To understand the role of accountability in executing DEI initiatives, take for example a few major corporations that have come into the DEI spotlight in recent years. McDonald’s, Denny’s, and Genentech are

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three organizations coming out of past controversies stronger than ever by making accountability a key component of their DEI initiatives.

McDonald’s Last year, McDonald’s narrowed its global wage gap to 99.85% after solidifying its focus on accountability.

In addition to conducting a global pay equity analysis on an annual basis, the fast-food giant agreed to tie 15% of its executives’ pay bonuses to meeting diversity and inclusion targets. This strategic decision incentivized company leaders to achieve DEI commitments and held them accountable for meeting them.

The company also reinforced the importance of data transparency by pledging to publicly release employee demographics by race, ethnicity, and gender. By doing this, it held itself accountable for delivering the sensitive data publicly. The result? It demonstrated to stakeholders that it was serious about DEI.

Denny’s To create motivation and accountability at both an individual and organizational level, Denny’s established key performance indicators and created measurable goals like diversity benchmarking and supplier diversity targets. The restaurant chain emphasizes a critical point – the end goal of DEI is not a comfortable stopping point, but an ongoing journey. To ensure DEI success, it sets both individual and company-wide accountability goals.

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The Critical Role Of Accountability In DEI

Denny’s also holds itself accountable by partnering with civil rights leaders and organizations focused on racial justice. By engaging in ongoing dialogue with individuals that have real-world experience, the company learns from outside partners’ expertise and constantly re-assesses its approach. Instead of writing a DEI plan that gathers dust on the shelf, this strategy facilitates meaningful conversations that help put goals into action.

To understand your organization’s DEI baseline, you will need to: ●● Conduct a pay equity audit ●● Perform a diversity analysis ●● Execute a talent flow analysis ●● Administer inclusion surveys

Genentech To help resolve long-standing gender representation issues, biotech company, Genentech began incorporating accountability into individual employee performance review processes. To ensure DEI efforts were improving, leaders were asked to explain why their team was lacking female leadership during the review process.

Genentech attributes accountability as one of the primary reasons it was able to increase female representation and equity. It helped increase awareness around the gender representation gap, which led to actionable conversations for correcting the issue.

To Drive Accountability, Put a Measurement System in Place If you want to succeed with DEI initiatives, it’s clear that you need to prioritize accountability, but before setting your DEI goals and holding individuals accountable for achieving them, you need to first know where you stand and that requires implementing a measurement system.

Here’s why When you know what your organization is doing well and where there is room for improvement in regards to DEI, you can take action to work towards making meaningful progress.

For example, from your baseline analysis, you could find that you have a representation issue within your tech department. There are few female employees and the ones you have are in lower-paid positions.

By first understanding this, you can set goals for increasing female representation within your tech department and also ensure there are equal

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advancement opportunities for applicable female employees.

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Simply conducting these analyses will not guarantee DEI success, however. You must measure your progress over time through the application of tools.

These tools will help you regularly measure progress against your goals and as a function of that, help in facilitating accountability.

Employers looking to make meaningful progress on DEI initiatives should explore options that enable them to be successful. Sophisticated solutions, like Trusaic’s pay equity auditing, diversity, and inclusion software solution, PayParitySM, provide you with the tools to conduct a pay equity audit at the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity and include professional services to help your team tie accountability to your goals and initiatives. PayParity can also frame your representation, sense of employee belonging, and compensation equality in a new perspective.

This holistic view provides the details you need to gain critical insights relating to your company’s demographic and compensation data. Ultimately, this can help you set goals around resolving any identified pay disparities or representation issues. And once your goals are set, you can bring in members from your different teams to ensure they are held accountable for meeting goals.

Where to Begin with DEI Meaningful DEI goes far beyond checking the proverbial box. Rather than documenting plans and allowing them to gather dust on the shelf, employers must treat them as living, evolving guidelines and measure their efforts against said plans over time.

Problems will inevitably arise if these steps aren’t taken, even with the most dedicated leaders at the helm.

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The Critical Role Of Accountability In DEI

Building an equitable business culture from the top down is not an easy feat, but it’s well worth the effort.

There is a direct connection between DEI initiatives and strategic benefits. Aside from the obvious moral imperative – which is important to underscore – there is also a strong business case for promoting DEI in the workplace.

To learn more about how to ensure DEI accountability and the benefits of prioritizing the social good, download the research report we sponsored, Creating a Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, conducted

by Harvard Business Review.

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Robert Sheen is the CEO and Founder of Trusaic. Combining a law degree with his extensive background in tax and finance, Robert has built Trusaic into an industry leader in helping organizations successfully manage requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), achieving a 100% compliance rate in filing ACA information with the IRS.

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Leading Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion At A Global Renal Care Provider Here’s what I’ve learned about celebrating employees’ differences

By Mignon Early, Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA)

W

hile there has been much discussion over the last few years about the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in how companies operate, there is still a tangible – and critical – demand for evidence of its effectiveness. In my industry – healthcare – we know and have seen in practice that when we champion DE&I internally our patients benefit. Due to the systemic imbalances in equity rampant throughout the U.S. healthcare system, DE&I must be part of our every action.

No one is more acutely aware of those imbalances than healthcare professionals in the renal (kidney) care space, where minority and marginalized groups are, unfortunately, over-represented in our patient groups. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 2021 Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) report, people of color – especially women of color- are more at risk from CKD and its associated ailments. Given the gravity of the topic, it’s critical that we approach equity with our patients in the same way we do with our employees.

That means asking who is sitting at the table when we develop policies for our employees and patients. Are we ensuring our patients are being heard? As well as countless other, often difficult, questions. Our struggle to continue integrating DE&I into our industry can be

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a guide of sorts for other industries and disciplines.

Based on my experience heading up DE&I at FMCNA, I believe there are three actions that are imperative for organizational leaders to implement.

1. Refresh your company’s leadership principles based on the world we live in today (and its often-unexpected realities) The next evolution of corporate leadership must put DE&I at the forefront – prioritizing the needs of their employees of all backgrounds and helping them to develop and perform to the best of their abilities. This can’t just be talk; it must become part of the company’s – and its leaders’ – core values to ensure every employee has a seat at the table, and that they feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to work, every day. At my organization, we talk about an inclusion dial that helps us measure when employees feel safe and welcomed despite their differences – and celebrated and cherished because of their uniqueness.

Every organization will have its own needs and practices, which employees that make up the fabric of the organization, should drive. Our companies and our policies must evolve to continuously improve and better reflect the world we live in and the people we serve.

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Leading Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion At A Global Renal Care Provider

we regularly leverage employee engagement surveys and, from one, found that 71% of our employees reported feeling a sense of belonging at work. While that’s a substantial number, I felt we still had work to do. Digging into the surveys, I saw that our employee resource groups (ERGs) play a large role in achieving belonging. These groups refer to employees who meet based on shared common interests and over the past year we have established ten new ERGs with an increased focus on ethnic diversity to help foster a feeling of belonging.

2. Recognize and acknowledge unconscious bias and prepare to battle it It is undeniable that we all carry our own biases – known and unconscious. In the healthcare field, institutional and implicit biases can dangerously bleed into larger issues, such as medical racism and widening gaps in health equity. In our workplace, equitable care for our patients is a major focus. We’ve also seen that our employee DE&I initiatives can positively affect our patients. Belonging is a way of being, and once ingrained into a workplace’s culture, all stakeholders benefit.

So, while hosting internal workshops for leaders and their teams is one step in the right direction, it’s important to remember this is ultimately a journey with many steps. Proactivity and reflection are key to combatting bias. And importantly, change takes commitment and time.

3. Trust data and leverage it to refine your DE&I strategy and objectives As healthcare practitioners, we analyze data constantly as we determine treatment plans to help patients and their families make the best decisions.

Leaders should do the same to identify the strategies that work well for their workforce and eliminate anything that doesn’t.

These actions reinforce what I believe is a core DE&I strategy: if you lead with inclusion and belonging, the focus on diversity and equity will soon follow.

Employees will have the tools and sense of belonging to encourage a positive working environment, which in turn, can spread to other business partners, customers, and clients.

Mignon Early is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) at Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) – the nation’s leading dialysis and renal care provider. In this role, Early is the head of the department and is focused on supporting the advancement of FMCNA’s key DE&I objectives in alignment with the company’s global Inclusion and Diversity work so that all its employees feel safe, welcome, cherished, and celebrated. Mignon is supported by FMCNA’s DE&I Council, a diverse group of employees who provides regular input on our continued efforts to build a more trusting and inclusive culture.

Mignon also leads the DE&I Executive Committee, comprised of FMCNA employees from various teams and backgrounds who help lead and execute projects supporting its corporate goals.

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Best-in-Class Education For All Your Learning And Training Needs HR.com prepares HR leaders to be strategic business leaders by curating and delivering best-in-class products and services so you don’t have to waste time seeking out content on your own. We leverage technology and experience to provide you with customized solutions to best meet your professional development needs at every stage of your career.

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Learn practical coaching skills and tools you can put to work in your organization right away with the first part of the Shift Corporate Coach Program™ on HR.com! This 2-part program provides business leaders with the right coaching toolset for ultimate coaching success through an independent online learning program and live virtual coaching clinics and circles.

Gain respect, understanding, and improved personal and professional relationships. Build an essential foundation of respect and understanding in the workplace to gain respectful leadership skills and ultimately improve productivity, efficiency, and employee retention.

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Learners will understand the difference between motivation and inspiration and how inspiration—not motivation—is the heart of great leadership. Inspiration in the workplace is about destiny, mastery, purpose, and love. Learners will master how to ignite the Spark of inspiration within, inspiring yourself first, so that you grow your Flame, using the CASTLE® Principles that inspire others, carrying your Torch to inspire the world.

Earn Great Respect, Build Strong Leadership

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This on demand course can help give your workforce tools it needs to be more engaged, increase their wellness, avoid conflict, and decrease employee turnover.

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The courses in the certificate program introduce key concepts and practices that all successful business people should be familiar with, thereby serving as a general introduction to topics like leadership, management, communication, work-life balance, networking, negotiation, and body language.

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At HR.com, we are committed to educating and inspiring HR professionals and helping them build meaningful and impactful careers. With products and resources rooted in education, research, and leveraging cutting-edge technology, we help at every career stage - and over 1.92 million HR pros agree! (How could that many people be wrong?) By delivering best-in-class learning products, 250+ annual webcasts and 30+ world-class events, and innovative and thought-provoking research through the HR Research Institute, HR.com strives to inspire and strengthen workforces to change the world. HR.com also offers the most comprehensive HR certification exam preparation and guarantees a passing score on all SHRM and HRCI certification exams. Technology and experience drive our customized solutions that will help you become the best and most successful version of yourself.

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How Stewardship Creates Both Impact And Belonging In The Workplace Steward businesses, at their core, are all about two essential elements of stewardship

By David R. York, York Howell & Guymon

T

he Capurso Winery is a fifth-generation family vineyard on the outskirts of Verona, Italy. Founded in 1896, it sits on forty pristine acres nestled amid rolling green hills, not far from where Romeo and Juliet (allegedly) fell in love. When visiting the winery in 2019, I had the opportunity to tour the grounds and talk with the daughter of the owner who operates the winery while raising the sixth generation on the property. Marveling at the scenery as well as the longevity of these family vineyards, I asked her, “What is the secret of a five-generation business?”

She looked at me, thought for a moment, and said, “It is one word.” My mind raced through all the possible catchwords she might toss out: family, vision, commitment, profit, wine (alcohol). She said, “The secret is passion.” She then defined passion to me in a way that revolutionized how I saw both business and life: “It is a beautiful work, but it is also very hard. You have to both lookup and see the beauty, and then look down and do the work.”

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As you look at enduring businesses, two essential characteristics begin to emerge: investment and transcendence. Put another way, organizations that thrive in the long run are invariably filled with women and men who are fully invested in something bigger than themselves. They don’t see themselves as disengaged employees driven by profits but as deeply engaged stewards drawn by purpose. For them, the why and the who of these businesses always come before the what or the how of those businesses. At the Capurso Winery, you see these two essential building blocks of stewardship on full display. For them, the transcendent element is beauty and that beauty drives deep engagement and hard work.

By keeping the two in balance, the Capursos have successfully operated their vineyard for more than 120 years.

Businesses with a mindset and mentality of stewardship will likely become the most impactful and enduring organizations in the future. Steward businesses, at their core, are all about two essential elements of stewardship: Purpose and people.

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How Stewardship Creates Both Impact And Belonging In The Workplace

well as the potential for very solid cash flow. However, it was going to require expending a large amount of time and effort in a location geographically remote from their current operations. I asked them a single question to help them clarify their thinking: “Can you do this new proposed project with excellence?”

Clear Purpose Most of the non-steward world operates within an “if/then” mindset. In other words, if I do X, then Y will happen, or if I do A, then the world/others will do B. This mindset renders life mechanical, transactional, and outcome-based. In contrast, businesses that operate with a stewardship mentality have a clear knowledge of who they are, what they value, and what they believe and operate with a “because/ therefore” view of the world. This unique perspective makes life infinitely more relational, intentional, and transcendent. “Because” (that value or perspective that is transcendent) leads to “therefore” (deep personal investment).

Transcendence is the driver and the stewards within the business are the agents, investing their energies in something bigger than themselves. The expectations are on the self, not on the outcome: Because we value X as a business, I, therefore, expect myself to do Y. A because/therefore orientation also makes decision-making easier. A few years ago I worked with a very successful family office that had recently sold a major asset that had been the focus of decades of hard work and effort. It was an asset that carried with it tremendous name-brand recognition and value in the marketplace. As they prepared to launch into the next phase of their business, they ended up settling on three values that they felt had marked their brand in the past and that they wanted to continue to mark it moving forward: Loyalty, integrity, and excellence.

Later in the day, they started to debate the merits of a particular investment they had been contemplating for months. The project had substantial upside as

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“No,” the CEO of the family office immediately responded. “It’s decided, then. We aren’t going to do the project.” While they could have made significant profits, they realized that they couldn’t execute the project with the excellence they wanted their brand to represent. When viewed through the lens of their three transcendent values, their decision-making became clear, straightforward, and simple. By not investing in this project, they were able to keep their energy and resources available for those projects and opportunities that checked off all three of their essential values.

Cohesive People Within a business, cohesion is the sense of being a united whole with shared connection and commonality. Cohesive businesses have employees who feel they are an important part of the group, they forge bonds more easily, and they treat others with respect. The difference between simply having a job with co-workers and having intention with a sense of cohesion is the addition of purpose. Once you have that clear sense of purpose, you can use that purpose to build deep and meaningful cohesion, which leads to higher retention, more engaged employees, and greater impact.

One of the most important things to understand about cohesion, and why steward businesses focus on both purpose and people, is that there are actually two types of cohesion: social cohesion and task cohesion.

Social cohesion is the emotional connection a group feels on a relational level—their sense of friendship, closeness, and caring. People in groups with high social cohesion enjoy spending time together and feel a strong attachment to one another. Task cohesion, on the other hand, is the connection a group feels when they work together on a shared purpose or common challenge. Task cohesion has to do with a group’s commitment to completing a specific goal or objective.

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How Stewardship Creates Both Impact And Belonging In The Workplace

From a social standpoint, cohesion can be developed by taking a step back from the myriad differences that divide us and finding shared values, experiences, or associations. Identifying areas where we can agree, or positive experiences we can share, can help develop social cohesion within a group. While social cohesion can be a powerful force, it is not without its potential negative side effects, which can include a desire for conformity (so that you appear to be an integrated member of the group), groupthink, and over-socializing—which can hamper a group that desires to be productive in addition to sociable. Social cohesion also tends to be easy for extroverts but may be more difficult for introverted individuals, which can further limit its effectiveness. Finally, in a diverse world with people from different backgrounds and experiences, social cohesion can be difficult to achieve.

The second way to build cohesion is through task cohesion, which relates to the commitment to achieve a purpose or goal in a collective manner.

Task cohesion can be found in sports teams, military platoons, purposed businesses, visionary nonprofit organizations, and even within certain highly intentional families and groups of friends. There are two potential benefits to focusing on task cohesion in addition to, or even in place of, social cohesion.

First, task cohesion typically results in higher performance than social cohesion. Researchers who have studied high-performing sports teams found

that teams with a stronger sense of cohesion tended to significantly outperform those with lower levels of cohesion. Beyond achieving better performance, highly cohesive, task-oriented groups interact more with each other, develop more supportive and communicative climates, are friendlier and more cooperative, and have a greater belief that their personal and group goals are being met than low-cohesion groups.

Second, task cohesion can overcome many of the differences that can stymie groups attempting to rely on social cohesion. Instead of straining mightily to find similarities within a diverse group, which can become especially trying in larger numbers, focusing on a meaningful task can naturally bring groups to a high state of cohesion. For example, strong task cohesion is often found in the military, where individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds, lifestyles, beliefs, and perspectives find that working together, especially in perilous situations, brings a sense of cohesion that can last a lifetime.

Businesses that employ a stewardship mentality can reap several powerful benefits. By clearly articulating their transcendent purpose, they can both bring simplicity to decision-making and attract like-minded employees. In addition, that purpose can be used to create enhanced commonality and cohesion within their people, allowing those businesses to get the complimentary benefits of both unity and diversity.

David R. York is the author of the forthcoming book, The Gift of Lift: Harnessing the Power of Stewardship to Elevate the World. David is an attorney, CPA, and managing partner of York Howell & Guymon, named an Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Company. He works with closely held business owners and ultra-high net worth clients in the areas of tax and estate planning. He has co-authored two nonfiction books (Entrusted: Building a Legacy That Lasts and Riveted: 44 Values that Change the World), given a Ted Talk, and is a frequent national speaker.

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Ensure that each person in your HR department has a standard and consistent understanding of policies, procedures, and regulations.

HR Professionals lead employee engagement and development programs saving the company money through lower turnover and greater productivity and engagement.

Place your HR team in a certification program as a rewarding team building achievement.

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TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

By HR.com Professional Education Team so you can tick off the box, “Training done,” is pointless. So, as the manager, your job isn’t just to make sure some training is going on; your job is to keep a close enough eye on it that you can be confident that it’s helping to improve performance. In fact, what you are really aiming for is a learning culture where learning is genuinely encouraged, supported, and designed to fit each employee’s needs. You also want an environment where people coach each other, look up how to do things on YouTube, read articles, and take a moment to reflect on lessons learned after a project.

A

ttention HR folks! This article is meant for you to share with managers in your organization who want to become the best leaders they can be.

One of the main factors affecting job performance is whether or not the employee knows how to do the job. We all know that an employee comes into the job

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already knowing how to do a lot, and there are several things they’ll learn on the job on their own. However, that isn’t enough to optimize performance. You’ll get better performance if you invest in effective training.

We need to toss in the word “effective” because sending someone off to a course just

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There’s one more important element to this: people. (Yes, in management-related matters the issue of people seems to come up often.) Most people want to learn, so providing a workplace where learning is a priority is an important part of your employee value proposition. Remember, an investment in training is an investment in retaining your best workers.

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TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

Three Broad Categories of Training ●● Training to improve productivity. Productivity training includes things like technical skills, listening skills, and product knowledge. ●● Training in compliance.

Compliance training ensures employees know the laws and regulations relevant to their work so that they don’t inadvertently break any laws. For example, there are laws about how you dispose of chemicals and how you handle personal data. ●● Legally required training.

This is training a person must have to be allowed to do the job. For example, someone will need appropriate training (and licensing) to drive a truck.

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The larger the company, the more likely compliance and legally required training are effectively handled by HR or some other department. They will often ensure that the organization is up-to-date on the relevant regulations, that appropriate training is given, and that records are kept. In a smaller organization, the onus may be less on HR and more on you. In an ideal world, all you needed to know about compliance would have been covered when you were onboarded to your managerial role. If it wasn’t explained to you, now is the time to find out. When we say now we mean right now.

Put down this book and send an email to HR asking for a meeting to go over all the details of the training required for each job in your department.

Learning Strategy Once you are confident you are on top of required legal and compliance training, you can turn your mind toward training —or more generally learning—to improve productivity. Since this is important to your team’s success, you had better have a strategy.

A strategy is built from: ●● Understanding what your team needs to learn (we call this “learning needs analysis”) ●● Figuring out what learning programs will meet these needs ●● Securing any necessary budget ●● Planning how and when the learning programs will be carried out ●● Following through on implementing the plan

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TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

The strategy can probably be noted down in just a few pages; it’s not the length of the plan that matters, it’s that you’ve put quality thought into creating it.

Learning Needs Analysis Identifying the right learning programs for your team should be a collaborative process based on team needs and will depend on the training structure in your organization. The life of a manager in a company with an established Learning & Development (aka L&D) department is very different from the life of a manager in a company with just one HR pro. However, in all cases, the right training for your team will depend on: ●● What they do and how they do it ●● What they need to learn ●● How long they have to learn it ●● Best practices designed to enhance retention You will probably have a pretty good sense of those four points and if you collaborate with HR or your L&D function, then you will be able to clearly define learning priorities for each employee.

Finding or Developing Learning Programs While you can take a pass at developing training yourself, if you truly want it to be successful and help drive team goals, it is highly recommended that you work with a professional: either a consultant or an expert within your own

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organization. This person should be someone who can help deliver the compliant, branded, engaging learning content you need. (Help is on the way!) It should be noted that HR/Leadership may have some specific training available from their division. If you have a Learning and Development (L&D) division, you can work with them to create or buy the learning resources you desire.

(Aren’t you lucky?!) Smaller companies may not have an L&D division established, but will likely have someone on point who is specifically assigned to handle training development and implementation. Work with this person to help you craft or buy meaningful learning programs for your team.

So, now your biggest task is to clearly communicate your team’s needs to the point person for training. Think about what your team members need to be able to do better or more consistently.

Communicating clearly is also critical to ensuring that you get the end results you want. Your training professional is not a mind reader and cannot be clear on what you need unless you clarify it. Don’t worry, this won’t be hard.

They’ll ask for the information they need. You just need to make time for them. They will want you to: ●● Articulate your desired end goals clearly ●● Clarify how work performance should change

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●● Explain how you will evaluate outcomes Remember too that your HR or L&D pro will be an expert in learning, but not in the particular topic you want to teach. You’ll have to put them in touch with experts on the subject. (Maybe that’s you!?) There are amazing learning resources available in the world. If you are very clear about what you need, then your L&D specialist will be in a good position to buy, adapt, or create exactly what you need. Focus on what your team needs to change, and let your L&D specialist focus on how to get there.

Feedback Will Ensure Continuous Improvement As learning programs are being developed or piloted you will need to provide early feedback to your learning specialist. Your feedback will allow them to adjust course as needed before getting too far in the process. Be sure that your feedback is clear and honest! Do not agree to or create training that is off-topic or otherwise “missing the mark” on what your team must be able to learn or do.

There is a pot of gold at the end of all this work. For starters, a well-trained team will be remarkably more productive.

From your team’s perspective, the opportunity to learn and grow is something they will value.

Strengthening and expanding their knowledge can boost your team members towards their career goals.

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TRAINING TO WIN: How Much is a Trained Employee Worth?

Learning programs will demonstrate that you care about their development, which can help create greater loyalty to the company and your team.

What is Your Responsibility for Training to Improve Productivity?

You are the individual who is most responsible for helping your employees develop their skills. Yes, HR cares a lot about this. Yes, your manager will also care. However, you know your employees better than anyone else. Furthermore, your performance depends on their performance. It is very much in your interest to have a team that is continuously learning.

You should be constantly on the lookout for any opportunity to help and encourage your employees to learn. Sometimes it is formal training, sometimes it’s working with a peer, and sometimes it’s direct help from you.

One of the most important parts of this responsibility is that you have to carve out time for employees to participate in learning programs. If you cannot make this happen, then there is no point having a learning strategy at all.

Learning Agility and the Growth Mindset A person who is learning agile has more lessons, more tools, and more solutions to draw on when faced with new business

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challenges. You can see how this is different from just sending people to a bunch of courses.

You want your employees to be enthusiastic learners. You want them to actively seek out opportunities to learn. That enthusiasm will flow from your own attitudes. If your team sees that you support learning, if you applaud people who try out new things, and if you show that you are constantly learning yourself, then you’ll build a team culture that naturally has learning agility.

Important research on an attitude called “The Growth Mindset” underlies the concept of learning agility. The research is discussed in Stanford professor Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dweck explains that some people have a “fixed mindset” when it comes to skills. They might think “I’m good at math” or “I’m bad at public speaking” and see that as a fixed trait. If it’s fixed, then there is not much point in trying to get better.

With a growth mindset, people believe they can always get better.

The research shows that a growth mindset leads to better results.

A fixed mindset discourages people who need improvement in a skill from trying to get better (“Oh, I’m just no good at giving presentations so why bother; get someone else to do it”). Strangely, it can also prevent people who excel at a skill from getting better as fast as they should. One reason this occurs is that they don’t feel they need to try hard.

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Note that the growth mindset doesn’t mean everyone can be a superstar. There are innate differences in ability. However, everyone can improve, and they can improve to a surprising extent.

For most of the tasks people need to do in business, you don’t need to be a superstar—you just need to be competent. Now let’s bring this back to your own attitudes.

Do you believe in each of your employees’ potential to learn? Do you think their skill level is fixed or do you think it can get much better? If you believe in them, then it will help them believe in themselves. You’ll be pleased with the results.

This article is an excerpt from HR.com’s book, “HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers,” which is part of the reading material for the course, HR for Non HR Managers. This course was developed to enhance a manager’s partnership with HR, improve team performance and avoid headaches in complying with national, regional, and local labor laws, or as we like to put it, “the stuff that your HR department wishes you knew or wishes you were doing as a manager.”

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3 Questions Leaders Need To Ask About Change What do I do when they won’t get on board?

By Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner, Turner Change Management Very, very few employees in the history of human work have faced a corporate change of the sort that we’ve seen during the past two years. Even now, companies continue to face a constant barrage of change as they attempt to adapt to a business landscape that continues to move beneath their feet.

You would think that as change has become a part of their daily lives, employees would learn to accept it — or maybe even embrace it. But that’s not usually the case, as evidenced by ongoing negotiations between employers and employees worldwide over returning to the office, which is demonstrating that some employees are very resistant to change.

But the words we use matter a great deal, and the very language many leaders use to discuss the topic — “resistance to change” — creates a self-perpetuating cycle that leads to frustration, defensiveness, and organizational paralysis.

How Should Leaders Respond When They Feel Resistance to Change?

It happens all the time. With the best interests of the company and employees at heart, a leader obsesses over a problem, doing the grunt work necessary to find a workable solution —only to find that the solution is

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received with precisely zero enthusiasm, causing the leader to frustratedly ask, “I’m trying to help them! Why are they fighting so hard against this change?”

The question itself is an indication that you’re working with a flawed mindset; simply by asking it, you’re slapping the label of “change-resistant” on your employees. And it is that belief — that people are resistant to change — that is a large part of the problem.

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3 Questions Leaders Need To Ask About Change

Letting yourself ask that question is a problem because it’s based on a false assumption; people actually don't resist change. We know this because people change voluntarily all the time. Once we understand that the people we work with aren’t resisting change in general, it becomes much easier to ask pointed questions about what the specific objections to this change might be, and how the team can move forward productively.

The 3 Questions to Ask When Change Gets Tough ●● First, pause and ask, "Why do I believe they are resistant to change?" The specific actions that we tend to notice include things like negative knee-jerk reactions, predictions that it won’t work, or failure to follow through after being trained for change. But each of these things are perfectly normal, human workplace behaviors.

Interpreting these as a sign of resistance to change may say just as much about your mindset as your team’s. And labeling these behaviors as change resistance can set up the toxic cycle of defensiveness that makes successful change impossible. ●● Once you pause, ask the next question, "Where are these reactions coming from? Why are they reacting this way?" Knee-jerk cynicism may simply be a personality trait. A prediction that the change won’t be as effective as predicted may be an honest attempt to preemptively address an issue the employee sees coming down the line. The crucial behavior for the leader is to work from the assumption that the team wants to succeed as badly as you do, and their behaviors tell you something important about what they’re thinking. ●● Finally, pause a third time and ask, "Do I know something my team doesn't know, or do they know something I don’t know — but need to?”

The first question helps you avoid the mistake of forgetting that your team doesn’t actually have access to the inside of your head, and it’s entirely possible that if they knew everything you knew about the situation, they’d be on board with the change. So tell them!

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Likewise, it’s possible that if you knew everything your team knows, you might have reached a very different decision. After all, you hired them to know things you don’t know and do things you can’t do. The proactive solution to this, of course, is to make sure that employees are consulted about major changes before the day they’re announced. But if you find yourself meeting resistance, it’s wise to pump the brakes and ask yourself if what’s actually happening is that team members with specific and valuable domain knowledge are seeing something you’re not.

By this time next year, we’ll have a pretty good idea of the way many companies handled the return to the office, what approach they used with their employees, and how successfully — or disastrously— it all went.

In the meantime, we can all continue to work toward a default setting that views change as an asset, rather than a liability.

Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner is an educator, speaker, coach, author, certified brain-based coach, and certified management consultant (CMC). She is the author of Launch, Lead, Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance and Succeeding With Organizational Change and president of Turner Change Management. A speaker at national and international conferences on organizational change, change management best practices, readiness, and change fatigue, Dr. Turner has published articles in the International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, the International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, and Web Mobile-Based Applications for Healthcare Management.

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Building Belonging In The Workplace How can we blend work and life so that companies and employees pursue potential together?

By Dan Bruder, Blendification Human beings are a social, collaborative, and cooperative species. At the core of our being is a need to connect, belong, and find meaning. Historically, these primary needs were satisfied through tribes and communities.

As cultures evolved and industrialization spread, the workplace became a setting where relationships developed, and people were emotionally attached to their jobs and companies.

prepare spreadsheets that enable forecasting and budgeting has helped organizations better manage cash flow, CRM systems allow tracking of communication with customers and prospects, and process automation maintains consistency and ensures standardization. Goal setting and productivity software help set objectives, and video conferencing allows people from anywhere to talk and conduct meetings.

Work can provide people with far more than a paycheck. While compensation for effort is a critical component, work also serves as a platform to connect with people from multiple socioeconomic, geographical, political, and cultural backgrounds. The modern workplace is one of our most prolific institutions, creating opportunities to engage, collaborate, and learn from others.

Productivity at the Expense of Connectivity Technology has led to incredible improvements in workplace productivity. The ability to

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Technology has been instrumental in helping companies become more productive. However, the response to Covid-19 and accompanying work-from-home mandates accentuated a substantial negative impact that overreliance on technology has had on people and business.

Technology has tunneled our vision on productivity, blinding us to human attachment. The ability to virtually meet, message through apps and email, and connect to company resources remotely has been a meaningful advancement that was particularly useful during

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a pandemic, but it has come at a human cost.

When non-essential businesses closed their doors, and employees began working remotely, it became clear to many that work served many human needs beyond a paycheck.

This was made evident by a record number of resignations, along with increases in anxiety, depression, and even suicide. While employees have continued working and remained “productive,” human connection and belonging have diminished.

Dispelling the Work-Life Balance Myth The psychologically nourishing effect of the workplace in society is far more crucial than previously appreciated. Most working adults spend about half of their waking time doing work- or work-related activities. Work occupies the largest time block in a person’s life. Consequently, it is important to take advantage of this time to fulfill the basic human needs of connection and belonging.

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Building Belonging In The Workplace

The idea of achieving a perfect work-life balance has become obsolete in the modern age and does not give credit to the benefits the workplace can offer to other aspects of one’s personal life. Blending work and life in a symbiotic and harmonious way is not only more realistic given the numerous technologies and options we have today, but it is necessary for people to reach their potential.

The notion of work-life balance creates an adversarial and competitive relationship between two things that should be complementary. The impact of pitting work and life against one another is that work typically becomes demonized and belittled when it should be embraced as an opportunity to collaborate with people to learn, grow, and pursue

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personal potential. That is not to say one should ignore parts of their personal life to focus only on work. Rather, the message here is that work can actually contribute to your personal life such as friendships, purpose, motivation, and pleasure.

When looking at life and our pursuit of human potential, we should consider work as an integral part of our ability to achieve meaningful outcomes leading to personal fulfillment and internal joy. The concept of work-life balance should be retired and replaced with a work-life blend.

Fostering Connection and Belonging Through Work The role of companies and leaders is much more challenging today than it was just a few

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years ago. The confluence of social and technological changes has amplified the need for leaders to be proactive in creating greater connections and belonging for employees.

This is complicated by social desires for independence and agency. Leaders should endeavor to create an environment of human connection and belonging while still enabling individuality and autonomy.

Businesses that quickly adapt to rapidly changing external impacts will experience a unique combination of company success, employee growth, and personal fulfillment. So, how can we blend work and life so that companies and employees pursue potential together?

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Building Belonging In The Workplace

Intentionally design, develop, and disseminate a meaningful and motivating culture accompanied by clear parameters and guardrails. Begin with developing a company statement of cause and determine the organization’s intention for employees, customers, and the community it serves. Since culture lives at the behavioral and habitual level, clearly define the behaviors and habits that enable the company to realize its potential.

Leverage the documented culture as a guiding light for an agile strategic platform that engages multiple levels and functions in implementing the plan. When done effectively, this creates meaningful connections and enhances the sense of belonging for employees.

Provide a platform for employees to plan their lives following a

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framework that is similar to the company’s. In other words, encourage employees to identify their personal statement of cause and discover their pursuits by developing clear focus, actions, and habits around their relationships, wellness, work, and personal interests.

Implement software that considers the humanity of the workplace just as much as it helps with productivity. Use technology that cultivates connection and meaningful relationships between employees (beyond productivity) enabling employees to pursue their potential through work, thereby helping the company achieve its desired outcomes and purpose.

When business outcomes align with employee pursuits, then work and life becomes blended leading to a greater connection

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between employees, and a greater sense of belonging to meaningful outcomes.

Dan Bruder is the CEO and Co-Founder at Blendification. Dan's commitment to blending work and life to enhance the lives of employees, customers, and communities is highlighted in his TEDx Talk, "The Blendification of Work and Life builds Communities." Prior to Blendification, Dan served in various senior leadership roles in hospitality and resort development along with corporate banking.

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