Inclusion is the key to success

so let me set the scene for you

in march 2019 i’m in a

beautiful resort in wine country

napa valley california i just flew from

london and i feel so excited to be

here i’m at my company’s annual

kickoff event to celebrate our success

with all my colleagues from all around

the world

i feel on top of the world i’m pumped up

to be here

with all my colleagues for three days

and as i sit down in my hotel room

to check where i’m supposed to be next

i find out by accident

that i have not been invited to the

women in business lunch

i feel like a door has been slammed on

my face

i feel excluded i feel rejected

i feel like i did not belong this is

another act from exclusion by my own

boss

who for the last 12 months has been

excluding me from team events and has

been

passing me over for a long overdue

promotion

telling me that i was not ready

yet to be promoted

that act of exclusion from that launch

made me feel more excluded more

disconnected

from my manager than ever before

but feeling excluded at work is not

something that happened

just to me it happened to many of us

but in particular to women and other

minorities

for every 100 men that are hired

and promoted to a manager level position

only 72 women experience the same thing

and it’s not that women don’t negotiate

or don’t ask for promotions

in fact women negotiate and ask for

promotions

even more often than men the hard truth

is that when women negotiate people like

them

less for it i can certainly remember

how many times i was told that i was too

aggressive and too confrontational when

i ask for a promotion

but research continues

women are often hired and promoted

based on past accomplishments whereas

men are more often

higher than promoted based on future

potential

i certainly remember how many times i

had

have been told i was not ready yet for a

promotion

so i find out three ways

that you can invite everyone to your

table

so that they can bring everything to the

table

i use the act acronym

a articulate your why and set goals

c change your mindset

nt take real action

in 2019 as i joined a new

company i realized that we only had

one black colleague in our entire team

he was very quiet he was very

shy and always kept to himself

one day our vice president invited him

to join our weekly sales team meeting

to talk about his favorite project the

charity project

as he joined our weekly sales team

meeting

and he started talking about his

favorite project

he literally lightened up he became

more chatty he was making jokes

he had a nice word for everyone every

morning

and the entire team started to bond

together which was

not the case before he even came up with

new ideas for his work

inviting everyone to the table ensured

everybody brought everything to the

table

think about why diversity and inclusion

is important to you and your team

is it because it will make your team

more collaborative

is it because it will make your team

more innovative or

more creative thinking whatever the

reason

make sure you understand why inclusion

and diversity is important to you

and set goals remember

inclusive organizations are twice more

likely to exceed financial results

but most organizations don’t set goals

for diversity and inclusion

monetary goals drive behavior faster

invite everyone to your table

and they will bring everything to the

table

c change your mindset

in 2019 i experienced

another act of exclusion by my own boss

as we sat down for my annual performance

review

she talked to me about one particular

area

that i needed to improve in order to get

promoted

i needed to be less aggressive

i needed to soften down my tone

and i needed to be less confrontational

in meetings

meanwhile my boss promoted my male

counterparts who interrupted everyone

in meetings who was the most

confrontational

and who was the most outspoken in team

meetings

a study by yale psychologist victoria

brescol

reveal that when male executives

speak more often in meetings they are

regarded

as more competent but when

female executives speak more often in

meetings

they are regarded as less competent and

suffer

lower competency ratings

one leader’s fixed mindset can hinder an

entire stem

collaboration and productivity

think about your own mindset is it

fixed or is it growth orientated

do you avoid challenges are you

threatened by others people’s successes

or do you seek to learn and do you seek

to speak about challenges at work

in 2018 my vice president

invited or hired one openly

gay man to join our team

he was bubbly he was young he was warm

and he was so much fun to be around

in dark contrast with the rest of the

team who was made of more

conservative straight men

as the weeks went on i could hear

offensive jokes targeting our new hire

and offensive comments targeting our new

hire

eventually he resigned i felt furious

especially because it was the second new

hire

to leave the company and the first hire

was an openly bisexual young woman who

experienced a similar treatment

some questions you can ask yourself to

check your own mindsets

include how diverse were you last 10

hires

think about your last 10 promotions

how diverse do you consider them to be

think about whose efforts you

acknowledged in your last

team meetings and think about

who were the last 10 people to leave

your organization

how diverse do you consider them to be

or do you notice any similarity in their

backgrounds

think of yourself as a change agent if

you think of yourself

as a change anger agent and you hold

yourself accountable

you’re gonna be more successful to

create an inclusive team

inviting everyone to your table

will make sure that they bring

everything to the table

t take real action

at one of my last companies the average

age was

32 years old the team was made of

young ambitious high achiever

people one day we hired a new sales

manager

he was in his 50s it was the first time

we had someone who was older than 40

years old joining our team

he started implementing new processes

and new systems

and the team became more productive

and more consistent quarter after

quarter

having someone from a different

background join our company

made everyone more productive and more

open-minded to receiving new ideas

one thing you can do to create a more

inclusive team is to diversify your own

network

how diverse do you consider your own

network to be today

in 2019 as i joined a new company

i realized that the rest of my team from

the marketing team

was all based from san francisco in

california

they were all in their in their mid 20s

and there

were all with no kids in contrast

i was based in london uk i was a mom

of a two-year-old toddler

and a baby and i was the only one

whose english was her second language

in our team meetings i could feel that

the atmosphere was very hostile towards

me

i could feel that i was the old one out

i felt like my voice was not being heard

and i was

not invited to the important meetings i

felt constantly rejected

and i always felt like i was the odd one

out who did not belong to the team

one area that you can improve on

to make sure your team feels included is

unconscious bias training

unconscious bias training can help

create a more inclusive team

if it has the right context the right

content

and is delivered to the right audience

invite

everyone to your table and they

will bring everything to the table

so in march 2019 i

flew back to london after that company

annual kickoff event in california napa

valley

and as i returned to london and i sat

down with my

mentor for our weekly catch-up i noticed

he had a big smile on his face

so after i asked him what was going on

he announced to me that i had been

invited

to join our company’s achievers club

with our ceo at the reed skeleton

in california i felt

so grateful to have been invited to that

prestigious event with our ceo

i felt like i was part of the team i

felt that the team

was my family and i felt like nothing

could stop us from achieving our goals

together

that year i delivered everything i had

and i brought everything i had to the

table

and i was the most productive i had ever

been at that company

inviting everyone to the table made sure

everyone brought everything to the table

so we talked about the acronym

a articulate your why and set goals

c change your mindset and t

take real action but if we go back to

the way we used to do things and we

don’t change anything

we’ve wasted our time so today

i want to ask you one simple question

what will you do to invite everyone to

your table