So the team at byrne.dean are naturally promoting National Inclusion Week because we spend the majority of our time talking about inclusion - so if we have a chance to sing it from the rooftops, then we will! This week the team have been talking about connections, about difference, about productivity and creating an environment where people can thrive.
But here's the thing - what if allowing our team members "to fly" actually meant just that - flying out the building and onto success elsewhere? Attrition is not usually something people talk about when they praise inclusive leaders.
I was in Toronto last week and New York this week working with leaders to focus on practical ways to get the best out of their team - yes indeed, inclusion is not just for one week and it's not just a national thing! We were talking about the promotion process and how it seems to be the sole indicator of positive recognition in many organisations. Then it struck me. If we really value our people, invest our time and energy, if we engage in finding out the things that drive people, if we care like we say we care, then we will be enabling people to thrive and it can only mean enhanced performance on an individual and a corporate level. But what does that mean? Well our talent might leave us - it may have nowhere else to go (because you are still there) and it might need to find a platform to grow elsewhere. So is all that effort misplaced?
To quote a Nigerian gentleman in one of my Toronto sessions (who had talked about his feelings of exclusion throughout his career) .... "but our job as leaders is to leave the place better than we found it. And that can mean developing people so they can leave."
Oh and then he said ..."after all they might come back!"
I'd go back to a leader who had set me up for success, wouldn't you? And even if I didn't - I think I'd shout great stuff about them!
So during National Inclusion Week please slow down, just for a moment, and think, how could you make someone fly?
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