Author: Katy Goshtasbi

When I was chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Practice Division I was responsible for appointing chairs to all our committees.  For our Diversity committee, I appointed a brilliant and caring and deeply knowledgeable person.  It just so happened that this person was also a sixty year old, white male.  He came to me asking why I had appointed him instead of a person that represented diversity better.

My answer:  not only did he understand diversity BUT because he was a sixty year old white male, he could connect with those who perhaps needed to allow and accept more diversity within their respective communities and corporate settings.  His eyes got real big and he really understood:  Like attracts like.

Hiring and recruiting is a tricky situation for employers and employees alike.  This is especially true when looking to fill positions such as diversity.

A position like diversity often draws candidates from diverse backgrounds.  Most employers will opt to place someone of color, women, etc- who represent diversity.  That’s fine and works very well.

Stop and ask yourself the real question: what are you hiring for?  Said another way: what are your company’s end goals in hiring for a particular position like diversity-focused ones?  Who will fill those positions best from multiple perspectives?

Much love,

Katy

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There is a very common perspective employers have on diversity and inclusion. While there may be deviations, the general thought is that employers want to do what is best for their employees and for their public image. 

This often includes hiring a person, or a team, devoted to diversity in the workplace. In addition, the employer may also provide some sort of “training and development” on the topic.

Here’s a new perspective for you to consider as you enhance and grow your diversity footprint to increase profits, culture and your organization’s brand:

1. Diversity isn’t an “initiative”. 

We wouldn’t say that fair pay or safety in the workplace is an initiative. So, why is the notion of diversity treated differently and often called an initiative? Diversity doesn’t have a beginning or end. It is ongoing life maintenance.

Diversity is a way of being in any setting, including the workplace. I’ve discovered from working in these settings with clients, that those who really embrace and own this mentality provide exemplary workplaces where employees thrive and profits soar. 

Stop and consider how your workplace views diversity. Is it something that has to be done? Or is it something that is seen as a true means of transforming your workplace, people and culture for the highest good?

2. The easiest and most graceful way to increase diversity, equity and inclusion, thereby reducing implicit bias, is through branding. 

Over fourteen years of consulting has proven this method as a winner. 

As humans, we don’t often embrace others as being different because we fear what is different and gravitate towards sameness. Sameness feels comfortable and safe. If you look and act like me, then I can predict your actions and behaviors. I don’t have to worry about you rocking my boat and making me uncomfortable. I don’t have to worry about saying or doing something that may be counter to your culture and thus, offensive. My job is safe. My world is safe.

The biggest hindrance to employees seeing others’ diversity as a benefit is the employee’s lack of ability to see their own uniqueness. In brand development, the goal is to gently have each employee unearth, understand and apply their own uniqueness. Once they do, a miraculous shift happens: employees look around and, instead of being afraid of others’ differences, begin to understand and welcome these differences. Why? It’s natural to allow others to be who they are and see value in their differences if you yourself feel special and know you also have unique value. 

Stop and consider, how truly unique is: a) your corporate brand and b) your employees’ understanding of their own brands? What measures do you have in place to account for shifts in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

3. There isn’t just one road to creating a diverse and transformative workplace.

The process isn’t cookie cutter. If someone tries to tell you otherwise, seek advice elsewhere. Why? By the very nature of this topic, the process has to be bespoke and tailored to: a) the current employee pool b) the current enterprise goals and c) the forecast of the industry in which you operate. 

For instance:

Law firms: The diversity plan in law firms is very different from that of other types of businesses. The law by nature is based on precedence, allowing lawyers to rely on what’s always been done in the past. The legal environment is also based mostly on the billable hour creating a war against time that generates unenviable amounts of stress. Stress leads to employees saying and doing things that are often against the grain in creating a diverse workforce. This means that a unique methodology and combination of training, development and hiring practices need to be crafted for each and every law firm based on practice areas, number of employees, regionality and staffing/support.

Accounting firms: The seasonality of the accounting industry often means that there are gaps in service around the diversity and inclusion mission. There are often months, even consecutive quarters, where the focus is on meeting filing deadlines. Resources must be consistently available to break employees out of the focused rut that deadlines create. This break will not harm efficiency. To the contrary, the break will increase efficiency by allowing employees to refocus intentionally elsewhere, become energized and return to their substantive work.

Healthcare: The number of external partnerships in the healthcare space often means that external forces may be applied to your company’s internal diversity plans. Partner companies do not always share the same vision and mission when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Knowing this fact and accounting for it internally is key in ensuring that your company stays focused on your own unique mission and plan.

Technology companies: The quest in technology companies is often linked to globalization and penetration of market shares. Data becomes critical. Data and market shares don’t require a focus on diversity….or do they? In my experience, data access and market share penetration cannot happen without employees’ insights and creativity. Creativity only happens when there are diverse voices and experiences and opinions around your company table. 

In summary, employees create and produce within organizations. If employees are all the same, then that organization cannot flourish because there is redundancy of thought and likely, lack of critical and creative thinking. Based on your industry type, viewing diversity from a perspective of a bespoke and tailored process and implementation will not only produce a healthy employee pool, reduce your legal risk and boost culture, but allow for your organization to be a leader in creative and innovative products and services.

Need help with this process? Email me to discuss.

Much love,

Katy

Like this post? Buy Me A Coffee.

Need collaboration and support with your brand, dealing with changes/transitions to grow your brand? Check out my services page.

Download my Top 5 Action Steps To Easily and Gracefully Master Change

If you read down this far, drop a comment below about whether my post above was helpful or not. I will send you a free gift that I am only giving out to a few people.

Twenty years ago at my last job as a lawyer, I started to notice a scary trend: there were many (too many) people who kept getting promoted when we all knew they were not the brightest nor best suited for the new job they were promoted into.

What gave?

Turns out, these people all shared 2 traits in common linked to their status and prestige:

They were incompetent AND overly confident.

Apparently, overconfidence allows you to attain higher social status because you’re motivated by higher and higher status. This motivation allows you to bypass your legitimate fears around being competent. People in organizations buy your overconfidence without even bothering to size up your competence. And that’s why so often at the top of the corporate/business food chain we run into those who can’t do the work, but can pretend a good game. Frustrating, to say the least, for those who are competent but perhaps not motivated by status and shy at speaking up in order to self-promote.

If you follow my research and content, I am always working on guiding you to be authentically confident based on who YOU are.

I have found that gender plays a huge role in this distinction. Men tend to be more left-brained and analytical when they lead, following their head and the numbers. Women tend to be more right-brained, creative and visionary when they lead, following their intuition and inner sense about people and processes.

As with everything in life, there should be a harmony between being confident and competent. It doesn’t serve the highest good for anyone to be so overly confident and chasing after status that they ignore the competence necessary for a job. On the other hand, it’s of no use to society to be very competent but so afraid to confidently show up, speak up and sell yourself.

So how can you become more confident and gain higher status, prominence and influence? Stop and consider:

• How do you define yourself in your role versus your identity?

• How often do you stop and evaluate your skill set compared to what others see of you?

• Do people get a real good sense of your competence level even if they haven’t been able to sample ALL your work directly? If not, what’s one small step you can take to ensure you’re more visible and seen? Only in this way, will your competence have a chance of being noticed.

• Make a list of what you love about your current career/job. How much of it is about substantive work that requires your competence? How much of your list is about the status and social access your job brings you? Does your list/results make you feel good deep down inside OR do you sometimes feel like you are: a) shortchanging yourself OR b) playing a game of chicken with others where they may discover the “real” you?

Sitting down and getting quiet to answer these questions may seem very uncomfortable. If so, you are on the right track. This short term discomfort will pay off great dividends in the long run. I promise.

Up for coaching? I’m right here for you whenever you are ready to reach out. Or not. You are free and strong and can decide for yourself.

If you do want to connect, I offer only three, free, 1:1 live Degree of Influence brand assessment meetings per month. Sign up here. But only do so if you are serious. I take these meetings seriously and so should you.

If this content doesn’t resonate with you, please consider sharing it with others who may benefit.

Much love,

Katy

Like this post? Buy Me A Coffee.

Need collaboration and support with your brand, dealing with changes/transitions to grow your brand? Check out my services page.

Download my Top 5 Action Steps To Easily and Gracefully Master Change

If you read down this far, drop a comment below about whether my post above was helpful or not. I will send you a free gift that I am only giving out to a few people.

When I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend (or two or three). We used to play together all the time. I remember when my niece was little, she had an imaginary friend who just so happened to be something like 50 years older than her and hung out with her in her bathroom. Did you have an imaginary friend when you were a child?

Does it feel like it’s no longer ok to have an imaginary friend just because you are an adult? Why is it that the power of our imagination seems to only be reserved for younger days?

Don’t you, as an adult, deserve to use your imagination? Better question: don’t you NEED to use your imagination?!?!

Yes, you do…..we all do…

Why?

Your imagination is the doorway to smooth mastery of any changes and transitions that show up in your life. When you use your imagination, you are accessing that amazing part of yourself that is flexible, creative, nimble, fun and exciting. That same part of you is needed to keep you strong and upright when you are having to deal with big(ger) changes, challenges and transitions; switching jobs, practice areas, careers, divorce, death, economic downshifts, etc.

Only then can you access who you are, build a great brand and message your brand to the right audience with ease and grace and authenticity.

What does this mean for you? Stop and consider:

• How often do you deliberately use your imagination? Why or why not?

• How creative do you allow yourself to be?

• Here’s an exercise for you: spend just 5 minutes a day accessing your creative and imaginative self by either a) coloring b) doodling or c) taking an activity you do daily (driving to work, showering, cooking) and deliberately doing it just a little bit differently. How does it feel to do routine tasks differently? Does it freak you out OR are you excited to leave the safety of the mundane and try something new, exercising your imagination and creativity?

Want more?

Check out my Katy G TV episode on this topic.

Download my checklist to manage change and transitions in your life with ease and grace.

If this content does or doesn’t resonate with you, please consider sharing it with others who may benefit.

Much love,

Katy

Mercury is in retrograde if you are reading this between May and June 2022. I know nothing about astrology. All I know is that when Mercury is in retrograde, communication falls apart. As if it was already easy to communicate with ourselves and others! I’ve seen this “problem” in action so much during Mercury in retrograde that I am a believer!

A strange communication “problem” happened when I was sharing my cancer diagnosis with friends early on.

Watch this video for what happened…

Here’s to you communicating like a champ,

Katy

PS:  Need support getting your communication strategy in order if you are facing a change or transition point in your life?  Sign up for a 1:1 brand strategy session with me.  Let’s get this started together.