5 Things / Gratitude

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Full transparency: my small firm has been impacted by client budget cuts and priority shifts. This has meant our own budget cuts, priority shifts, and a heartbreaking layoff. I’ve had hard conversations with folks on my team over the past 18 months.

Yet, as I write this, I’m flying to a client event and can’t help but feel such a strong sense of gratitude. Gratitude that organizations are trusting me to deliver a message that will give their employees the tools they need to contribute towards psychological safety on their team, create meaningful connections, and show up just a little more authentically.

It’s a gift that I’m being trusted to deliver this message, especially since I spent years feeling inauthentic in my work.

Thank you for your trust in me, in this little firm I’m building with a fabulous team and a spirit of “better late than never!” and “let’s do this together!” Please respond if I can help you in any way.

Here Are This Week's Good Vibes:

1. USCIS Now Offers Gender X

   • United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced an X gender option on naturalization forms, a crucial step for gender-nonconforming immigrants. This aligns with the US passport policy and global trends, like Pakistan and Mexico's inclusion of third-gender options. This is a big stride towards recognizing diverse gender identities and dismantling barriers to accessing immigration benefits, fostering a more equitable and accessible pathway to citizenship for all.

2. Shift from Autism Awareness to Acceptance

   • President Biden shifts from "Autism Awareness" to "Autism Acceptance" in this year’s proclamation. This reflects a broader movement advocated by autistic self-advocates to foster a society that accommodates and includes autistic individuals, moving away from fear-based awareness campaigns. While some organizations will still use "awareness," the shift highlights a growing understanding that acceptance is crucial for true inclusion and creating welcoming communities.

3. Innovative Trans Employment Project

   • California pioneered the nation's inaugural large-scale initiative to combat the disproportionately high unemployment rates among transgender folks, especially trans people of color. As an incentive to owners and managers to hire trans staff, the first 60 hours of a new hire's wages will be paid for through a $150,000 grant from the California Workforce Development Board. To qualify, owners or managers must attend a seminar on the issues that trans people face at work and how to support trans staff. I absolutely love this initiative because it removes significant barriers to employment and even paves the way for broader societal acceptance.

4. First Watch Employees Get Caregiver Benefits

   • The brunch restaurant First Watch introduced groundbreaking childcare and elder care benefits, partnering with Bright Horizons to offer discounted rates for employees. This move addresses the industry-wide issue of caretaking responsibilities hindering upward mobility, especially for women. The initiative is a rarity in the industry! The benefits are available for all employees, both part-time and full-time, regardless of their position within the company. This approach ensures that all hourly employees (who are disproportionately women and BIPOC) have more options to address the challenges of balancing work and family obligations.

5. First Arab Woman Graduates from NASA

   • Emirati Nora AlMatrooshi's journey became the first Arab woman to graduate from NASA's astronaut training. NASA even set her up with a custom hijab within the spacesuit. I appreciate that this shows the agency's commitment to accommodating diverse backgrounds in space exploration. AlMatrooshi is a great possibility model, showing that women of all backgrounds can belong in space.

This Week’s Call to Action:

Book recommendation time! Check out The Boldly Inclusive Leader by my friend Minette Norman. There are some great stories in this book that illustrate the principles of inclusive leadership. Minette has seen A LOT!

5 Things / Least Interesting

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Recently, I had a wonderful guest on 5 Things in 15 Minutes named Celia Daniels, a brilliant South Asian trans woman who runs a consulting firm in California. As she was introducing herself, she mentioned that she happens to love music, has an awesome 25-year-old daughter, and went on to share other passions. She described her trans identity as one small part of her whole self, and perhaps, a least interesting part. The older I get, the more I feel similarly about my lesbian identity.

Trans women were banned by the International Chess Federation this week. Come on now. Really? It’s increasingly common for us LGBTQ and other marginalized folks to be reduced by the media, politicians, and apparently chess federations, to the least interesting part of ourselves. That’s exactly why all of us should keep telling our stories. To keep sharing our mundane, passions, struggles, and joys. That’s where we find our common humanity.

One of the questions I often ask my guest before we hit “record” on 5 in 15 is, “What did you do this weekend?" I find that I can learn so much about a person by what they share. With stories, we can find connection points. And with connection points, we can solve anything.

Here Are This Week's Good Vibes:

1. The Trans Handy Ma’am

   • I’m late to the game on this, but this week I learned about Mercury Stardust, aka the Trans Handy Ma’am. Mercury provides minor DIY / fix-it advice and tips across social media and has gained a massive following (2mil on TikTok). Mercury says, “All of them [advice askers] have someone in their life that they wish they could ask help from, but they can’t.” Their videos are authentic, joyful, and incredibly helpful! Check them out – totally good vibes.

2. Inclusive Tours at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

   • The Peggy Guggenheim Collection's "Double Meaning" program offers inclusive tours for blind, partially sighted, and sighted visitors. The Venice Museum provides tactile reproductions of artworks along with descriptive sheets in Braille and high-legibility characters. This initiative allows visually impaired visitors to experience art independently. This is so cool because art should be accessible to everyone, including the 1 billion people around the world with visual impairment.

3. Hiring Refugees Is Good for People, Good for Business, Says Stickley CEO

   • Historic furniture manufacturer Stickley has been actively hiring refugees to address the shortage of skilled labor in the American furniture industry. Over the past 40 years, refugees have come to constitute nearly 50% of the company's 1,600-person workforce in Manlius, NY, comprising 23 nationalities. Stickley's CEO, Aminy Audi, views this initiative as a humanitarian effort that enriches both the refugees' lives and the company's work culture. Hiring refugees is so smart, and something I’ve written about extensively with Chobani. By tapping into the refugee population, Stickley is modeling the potential for other industries to embrace diversity and contribute to the American dream.

4. Companies Offering To Pay For Abortion Travel See Uptick In Recruitment

   • Corporations that offer abortion-related travel reimbursement for employees in states with limited access due to new abortion bans see improved recruitment. And also, they can lead to backlash from male employees. The study analyzed data from Indeed and Glassdoor, highlighting an almost 8% increase in interest in job postings by companies offering such benefits. However, Glassdoor ratings for senior management and company culture dropped, primarily among employees in male-dominated roles. This matters: there’s no doubt that extending reproductive benefits is found to likely enhance an organization's financial performance and attract a more diverse workforce.

5. Popcorn Stand at Lincoln Financial Field to Be Staffed by People With Autism

   • The Philadelphia Eagles is collaborating with "Popcorn for the People" to build a popcorn concession stand at the Lincoln Financial Field that will employ adults with autism and intellectual disabilities. A U.S. Department of Labor report states that around 85% of individuals on the autism spectrum are unemployed, which is the highest among any disability group. What I love is that the partnership will not only provide jobs for the disabled community but potentially serve as a model for similar initiatives across sports.

Call to Action:

Podcast recommendation! I’m enjoying Fixable, hosted by my sheroes, spouses, and leadership experts Anne Morris and Frances Frei. This is an advice show and the calls are great!