FountainBlue's December 8 When She Speaks program, on the topic of 'Sixth Annual Men Who Opens Doors Awards'. Please join me in thanking our esteemed panelists.
It was inspiring and humbling to honor this year's men-who-open-doors awardees. They represented different backgrounds and experiences but had much in common:
They align in the way they think, speak and act - advocating for women and the under-represented.
They speak eloquently to the business imperatives as well as the social and practical benefits for making proactive choices to empower and engage their people.
They are strategically minded, plan-ful, and persistent in their approach for including and involving others.
Below is a summary of their thoughts and advice for opening doors.
Consider the business benefits for opening doors when you open doors for others:
Help build a pipeline of managers and leaders
Support training and retention objectives
Stimulate innovation agenda
Improve decision-making and problem-solving capabilities by including more diverse perspectives
Strategically plan for 'multiplier effects' when doors are open, with impact far beyond the one action
Increase the likelihood of delivering on product and revenue milestones with more diversity on the team
Adopt the concept of 'opening doors' into your mindset.
Proactively and consistently decide to invite others to the table, creating and bringing chairs where possible, giving up your own chair if necessary.
Be consistent and strategic, including and involving a wide range of people.
Associate opening doors as a growth/abundance mindset, facilitating a culture that *wants* to grow and change, rather than a culture which fears change as a threat.
Our panelists shared some strategies to help their people:
Help people feel more comfortable, and better envision and deliver on greater possibilities - both because it benefits the team and the organization, but also because it benefits themselves personally.
Model the way, open doors, and encourage and support people to pay it forward as well.
Identify, track and report on metrics on the impact of opening doors.
Make sure that even the quiet, reserved voices are heard.
Contemplate the privileges you personally have and how your current successes can help others who are less privileged to also succeed and grow.
Encourage curiosity, humility, courage and openness as you walk through a door opened for you, and help your people deliver once the door is opened for them.
Support and offer, but don't insist that someone walks through a door you can open (for whatever reason and no reason).
Be the ally when your people are in the room, but more importantly, advocate for your people even when they are not in the room.
The bottom line is that men who open doors help make more opportunities for everyone. Let us celebrate this year's honorees, and leverage their wisdom and advice so that we can all better open doors for others.
Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue LLC
Men Who Open Doors:
Marc Farber, Senior Director, Cisco Managed Services, Cisco
Zachary Logan, Head of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Coupa
Colm Lysaght, Vice President Corporate Strategy, Hitachi Vantara
Ravi Ravichandran, Senior Director, ISV Technology Adviser, Salesforce
Nominating executives:
Heather Felts, Director, Cisco Managed Services, Cisco
Kristi Gay, Engineering Training & Education Sr. Manager, Coupa Software
Shveta Miglani, Head of People Strategy and Experience, Micron