With Spring finally here, many of us are poking our heads outside and breathing a collective sigh of relief. It’s been a real burden of a winter for many of us across the country and the promise of sunshine and new growth is certainly welcome.
In the spirit of the season, augmented by a series of high profile events, I’ve been giving a lot of thought around the need for organizations to take a moment to think about growth and advancement in the workplace.
Some of you might have been following Ellen Pao’s wrongful termination and sexual discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, powerhouse venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Late last month, the jury handed Ms. Pao a resounding defeat. While I’m not here to debate the merits of the trial, it offered a lot of interesting commentary that I think organizations should take a pause and examine.
This case shined a very large spotlight on an issue that easily can and should be addressed within the workforce. Organizations should examine their workforce inclusion practices, not just for women, but people with disabilities, minorities and LGBT communities.
No organization wants to be involved in workplace litigation, if you’re a small to mid-size business, examining whether you’re giving all employees ample opportunities for advancement is something that can help avoid costly issues. In fact, there are a lot of interesting statistics that show organizations that have greater diversity are even more profitable.
So in the spirit of Spring, take this time to examine your advancement and inclusion practices. Sit down with your leadership and ask yourself, “are we doing enough” ask yourself the tough questions, examine and determine how you want to move forward and unlock the growth potential of your organizations.
