Equal opportunities do not equal inclusive company culture

"We have truly equal opportunities at our company, those who really want to can reach the top"

How do you think this sounds to someone who is not part of the dominant group in your organization? Take a look at the picture of your management team. Are they mostly copycats, or is diversity already a reality? Look at the picture of your interns? Very often you will see a lot more diversity there, in color, gender, background. Pulling the 'equal opportunity card' as a statement is too easy if you look like everyone at the top of your company. It means you do not see your privilege.

Equal opportunity is the Olympic minimum.

It is absolutely not enough for an inclusive work culture.

Every colleague starts from a different situation, with different thresholds. Opening the dialogue about that with your employees, is an important characteristic of an Inclusive Leader. Don't assume you know what they want, ask. What about you?

How do you make sure that your diverse employees can thrive in an inclusive culture?

Creating an inclusive workplace where diverse talents can thrive is a journey. Your company culture is key. But what is that, really, a culture? Think about your family. It's about setting certain rules to follow, and about the daily behavior of everyone around the table. You work on that every day in a family setting, right? Driving and rewarding good behaviour and correcting bad behaviour.

It's no different in your business. In a truly inclusive company culture, every employee has an active role to play.

I help you make that a reality through my in-house Growth Academy. To fully develop their talent, it is necessary that your employees learn to maintain focus, learn to delegate, work on their visibility in the organization, network and actively engage to help colleagues advance. That's what I learned from all the organizations I worked for over the past 25 years.

I have brought these 4 competencies together in my Inclusion Growth Academy, where your team members push each other forward. The Academy can be booked for small and large groups, online or live, in Dutch, English and French, . Today I start with the new series for the international pharmaceutical company Organon.

Do you want to know more?

Book your 1on1 Strategy Call now directly in my calendar via this link.

See you soon,

Elke

welcome@elkejeurissen.com

+32.476.505454