5 things/ Abundance

This week, one of the attendees at my keynote mentioned how creating seats at tables for others (who have been historically marginalized) can be challenging because of the fear that making room for others means giving up one’s own power – and power is scarce.

So, is power scarce? I used to think so. My parents were immigrants from Ireland, having come to the States in the 1950s. My dad was super racist, likely because he felt his own limited power (as an immigrant) was threatened by other races. 

 As I grew up and later started my own business, I worked hard to overcome that scarcity mindset (and the racism..). I used to be very competitive professionally. But now that I think more abundantly, I realize that when we create room at the table for others, the table gets bigger. Your spot doesn’t shrink. I realize that’s a hard (and kind of metaphysical) concept but I have experienced it to be true. It takes quite a bit of self-work to shift to that perspective, especially if you were raised similarly to me – but then it becomes really fun because the energy in that headspace is much more positive and joyful.

Here are the good vibes I found this week…

In a really fascinating move, Seattle Pride declined to accept Amazon’s $100,000 sponsorship offer (which included a request that Pride be called Seattle Pride Parade Presented by Amazon). This story blows my mind a little and it matters because it’s an example of a small organization standing up to a big corporation that has donated to anti-LGBTQ legislators and allows donations to anti-LGBTQ groups through Amazon Smile. 

Although it’s not official yet, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) here in the U.S. is exploring ways to update its demographic reporting requirements form to include non-binary as a gender option. Currently, companies can add the number of non-binary employees in the Comments section. This matters because adding a third gender option to federal forms further validates the legitimacy of non-binary individuals and can contribute to great wellbeing.

There’s great new research by Amy Edmondson and Henrik Bresman illustrating that teams with high diversity perform better (and are more satisfied) when there's also high psychological safety. Essentially, diversity + psychological safety = higher employee performance and satisfaction. And high diversity + low psychological safety = lower performance. This matters because it provides empirical evidence that can hopefully lead to more manager training, improved communication, and ultimately better outcomes for everyone.

Thinking of revisiting job requirements in order to expand the talent pipeline and ultimately increase diversity at your organization? LinkedIn did just that and provided a little playbook of their pilot for all of our benefit. My favorite part is how they offered prospective applicants access to free LinkedIn Learning courses geared toward helping them develop necessary skills for the role. All applicants who passed the two-part skills assessment received an interview with LinkedIn. This matters because many job postings contain unnecessary requirements which limit women and BIPOC, in particular, from applying. 

Hilton, American Express, and Airbnb are some of the companies providing housing to displaced Ukrainian refugees. Hilton has committed up to one million hotel room nights across Europe. This matters because it shows compassion towards war victims and is an easy way these companies can give back.