R

etaining diverse talent is a huge challenge for organisations right now. Staff will not stay in organisations where they must endure death by a thousand paper cuts, as microaggressions are often described.

Microaggressions are statements, actions, or incidents regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of an underrepresented group, such as women and those from ethnically-diverse backgrounds.

Microaggressions can look like the four Ds below. Here’s how to challenge them and, as a result, reduce the instances of them happening in your workplace:

• e double takes – Assuming that a colleague isn’t senior because they are from an underrepresented group “Th is meeting is for grade x only, you must be in the wrong room.”

What would make you question their grade; the meeting invites to the people who should be in the room?

Invisible Women Data Bias In A World Designed For Men

Caroline

Criado

Perez Vintage Publishing 2019

Winner of the 2019 Financial Times; the McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, and Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make decisions. Because so much data fails to take into account gender, it treats men as the default and women as atypical; meaning bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. Caroline Criado Perez investigates this shocking root cause of gender inequality.

• e doubting - Questioning colleagues from underrepresented groups on their education as their level of intelligence surpasses others’ biased expectations of them. ‘You’re really intelligent aren’t you? What university/school did you attend? You’re so articulate.’

Everyone here is intelligent we only recruit the best. If you want to give your colleague a compliment, let’s make it constructive.

• e dismissals - When someone from an underrepresented group shares an experience of pay discrimination, and they receive the response ‘Why are you worrying about a pay rise? Your partner can support you, can’t they?’

You may not have meant to offend, but referencing someone’s partner is not relevant in pay discussions or decisions. Let’s factually assess who has earned a pay rise.

• e domain - Your environment illustrates that certain people succeed there, illustrated by the books on the shelves, the photos of past post holders on the wall and so much more.

We seem to only buy books from certain authors. Are we inadvertently saying that wisdom only comes from one part of the world? How can we change this?

Reducing microaggressions is a step toward enabling leaders to recruit, manage and promote differently resulting in more inclusive, productive, and profitable workplaces.

Jenny Garrett OBE is an award-winning career coach, leadership trainer, speaker and author of Equality vs Equity: Tackling Issues of Race in the Workplace.

Run To Win

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FOR WOMEN

CHANGING THE WORLD

Stephanie Schriock, Christina

Reynolds, Kamala Harris

Dutton 2021

Run to Win is for all women who are looking to lead and comes with impressive endorsements.

“I have long believed that women who dream big, work hard, and get back up after they get knocked down can do anything; Stephanie Schriock is one of those women. I’m so glad her thoughtful guidance is now available for women everywhere.”—Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Undaunted

OVERCOMING DOUBTS AND DOUBTERS

Kara Goldin

Harper Collins 2020

A Wall Street Journal bestselling business book, Undaunted is one woman’s journey past doubts and doubters to become the award-winning CEO of Hint water. After interviewing dozens of business leaders for her podcast, Kara Goldin uncovered the overarching key to their success based on the way they handle and move past obstacles and their own insecurities, which she unpacks in these pages.

The works of P.X. Miranda

By KELLIE MILLER