i've been confronted by many people who say, like, i don't see color. As we think about creating cultures of inclusion, we actually have to look for uniqueness and difference. I woke up a white girl. That's just how i came into the world. I have perspective. I have privilege, unearned. And understanding it helps me to support them in feeling more safe when we're together,. So that's where we move into becoming an ally and an upstander."
Susan MacKenty Brady: Arrive and Thrive
Susan MacKenty Brady is the Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women and Leadership at Simmons University and the first Chief Executive Officer of The Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership. As a relationship expert, leadership wellbeing coach, author, and speaker, Susan educates leaders and executives globally on fostering self-awareness for optimal leadership.
Susan advises executive teams on how to work together effectively and create inclusion and gender parity in organizations. She is the coauthor, along with Janet Foutty and Lynn Perry Wooten, of The Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership*.
In this conversation, Susan and I discuss the reality that while we may intend well on inclusion, real change starts with us first. We explore how implicit bias assessments can be useful in discovering where they bias is that we don’t see in ourselves. Plus, we examine some of the key actions we can take on relationship building and repair in order to get better.
Key Points
Most of us intend well, but we often miss the opportunity to move from being an ally (alignment) to being an upstander (taking action in the moment).
Utilizing an assessment can help us understand where our implicit biases diverge from our conscious thoughts.
Curiosity and relationship-building isn’t just for the moment — it’s the before, during, and after of conversations to discover how we get better.
When we make a misstep, move quickly and purposefully to repair the relationship.
Resources Mentioned
Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership* by Susan MacKenty Brady, Janet Foutty, and Lynn Perry Wooten
The Inclusive Leader's Playbook by Susan MacKenty Brady, Elisa van Dam, and Loe Lee
Project Implicit: Implicit Association Tests
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
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How to Reduce Bias in Feedback, with Therese Huston (episode 510)
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