What You Need to do to Promote Inclusion at Work

At some point in our lives, we will all need an ally.  Women and men need to be allies for each other and work towards gender diversity and inclusion.

An ally is someone who is willing to take action in support of another person, in order to remove external barriers that impede that person from contributing their skills and talents in the workplace or community.

Being an ally takes courage because it might mean speaking out against comments or jokes that are racist, homophobic, sexist, etc.

If the people making those jokes are people like you and you’ve known them for years,  it might mean they stop inviting you places, and start to exclude you. It also means that even if the person is another woman, you need to step up and speak up.

It might mean recommending a talented male employee for a promotion, who keeps getting passed over because they are disabled, and people making the decisions don't think he can do the job because of his disability and don't bother finding out.

It might mean even reporting another woman to a manager at a higher level, because they refuse to stop harassing another employee based in their gender, age, race/ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

It might mean that if no one else steps up, the bully will single you out, and hopefully you'll have an ally who will stand up for you.

It might mean that by stepping up as an ally, you've helped your company turn a profit, because you've helped create a workplace where everyone has an opportunity to excel, and where customers across the whole diversity spectrum love to do business.

It also means that you have to support the people who support you, no matter how different they are from you.

-Simma Lieberman, "The Inclusionist"
Career Coach
www.simmalieberman.com