A Reflection
Location
New York
Industry
Non-Profit
Challenge
Direct report self awareness
Action
Coaching/Modeling
Results
White cis-gendered male leading diversity, equity and inclusion culture work
The direct report was a millennial white male. He repeatedly exhibited a lack of awareness of his privilege in collaborative spaces with BIPOC colleagues. He often cut black women off in conversations. He made awkward jokes that were inappropriate in diverse spaces. Most of the diversity, equity and inclusion work in New York was led by BIPOC, particularly black staff.
I coached the direct report to look at his perceptions of white supremacy culture in organizations. Using this information, I was able to support the employee by introducing learnings around white privilege, allyship, and self-awareness in the form of brief articles and videos. The plan helped him improve his facilitation and active listening skills as well as to appropriately share his great sense of humor.
By prioritizing his organizing needs, We were able to model inclusive facilitation and ensure everyone felt heard and seen; to demonstrate that the facilitator isn’t the most important person in the room but the conduit to rich and open conversations around education equity. The direct report practiced his new facilitation skills to organize effectively and developed a focus in policy, allyship and elevating marginalized voices.
He learned to share thoughtful, entertaining policy briefs that the team looked forward to setting the course of their organizing for the week. His openness to feedback allowed us to deconstruct his presentations to identify opportunities lost to be more time efficient and bring his audience in. The direct report was promoted to policy specialist. He now co-facilitates monthly lunch and learns around issues of race and other intersections of identity. He leads two educator committees for unique student populations and allies respectively.
