Can I make a difference?

I grew up going to a small cabin in northern Minnesota. To this day, over 50 years later, I can still remember the horrible whining buzz of even just one mosquito at night after we went to bed. It made it impossible to sleep and not a place I wanted to stay! Each night my grandpa would get out his flashlight and flyswatter and track down every mosquito. He made a huge difference and because of him I felt welcomed at the cabin.

Leaders also have the opportunity, and the accountability, to create a workplace where everyone on their team feels welcomed. That is my simple definition of diversity and inclusion. It doesn’t have to involve a large complicated program but it does require looking in all possible areas of the employee life cycle for those “pesky mosquitoes” that are problematic for your people. We can make a difference by shining a flashlight on how we:

1. Recruit and make selection decisions
2. Orient and onboard our new people
3. Develop and train everyone on our team
4. Provide coaching and feedback
5. Review and evaluate each person
6. Plan and support individual career development
7. Reward and recognize contributions and engagement

One small change in how we lead and support our people can make a huge difference. Where have you built inclusiveness into any of these employee life cycle events?

Todd Thorsgaard