Why you can’t outsource your values, with Crystal Whiteaker

Today's guest is Crystal Whiteaker, founder of Crystal Lily Creative, an inclusive leadership and brand development consultancy. Crystal is also the author of Brave Leadership is a Choice: An Inclusive Guide to Creating Belonging, and she works with mission-driven founders over meaningful stretches of time – starting with who you are as a leader, then aligning your messaging and your backend systems so the experience you promise is the one people actually get.

With 20 years of experience across creative and process-driven industries, Crystal brings a unique blend of strategy, empathy, and creativity to her work. She helps leaders make aligned, human-focused decisions and build environments rooted in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

In our conversation, we dig into values as more than very snazzy wall art (you know the type I mean). Crystal frames them as a working compass that helps you choose, especially when the choice is hard. She shares her Aligned Values Framework®, the way she helps her clients anchor their decisions in what they stand for before they go hunting for bias and gaps in their operations.

We also talk about the difference between supporting diversity and practising inclusion, and the different ways inclusion shows up day to day. And because none of this is tidy, Crystal offers simple ways for leaders to build tolerance for discomfort, so the work continues even when the climate makes it tempting to step back.

If you care about leading with your values, both in what you say and how you run things, this one will feel like a deep breath and a nudge forward.

So, as always, grab your notebook and a cup of coffee, and listen to Crystal get on her soapbox.

Crystal's Links:

Brave Leadership Roundtable: A community gathering for socially conscious leaders to discuss values-aligned leadership and how we show up in consideration of ourselves, our communities, the people we serve, our messaging, and how we talk about the things that matter to us and our work.

Email Crystal at YouBelong@crystallily.co
Website: Crystal Lily Creative

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