How Being An Ally Can Help You Create An Inclusive Workplace

Interview with Karen Catlin a leadership coach, and an advocate for inclusive tech workplaces.

As the year comes to a close, you’re probably getting ready to attend a holiday party, maybe your company’s. And maybe you’re concerned about what to talk about with your teammates and boss. Diversity and inclusion may be hot buttons to stay clear of, especially with people scrutinizing practices and scoffing at the benefits.

But you know it’s important…so what can you talk about? How can you set your team and company up to see a change next year?

Allyship.

Wondering what it is and how to be a better ally? Well in today’s episode, we’ll cover what allyship is and how it can help you build a more inclusive company.

To help us out, I’ve invited Karen Catlin, co-author of Present! A Techie’s Guide To Public Speaking, a leadership coach, and an advocate for inclusive tech workplaces. You may recall seeing Karen in a few episodes from last year on mentorship.

I invited Karen back on to the show to talk about the work she has been doing coaching allies.

Given Karen’s rich career in tech spanning 25 years, she has a lot of experience to draw from, and it has inspired her to help others become better allies and create inclusive workplaces.

As you watch today’s episode, you’ll learn the following:

• What an ally is and what allyship is
• How people can develop an awareness for allyship
• Why you don’t need to be a leader to be an ally in your company
• Why men care about being an ally
• How to spot or approach an ally to work for

“Women can lean in all they want and all they can, but until we start changing our workplaces so that things that have always been done a certain way change, the women aren’t going to be successful. We really need to start looking at our workplaces and changing our workplaces.”

Karen Catlin — Advocate for Inclusive Workplaces

Listen to the episode on iTunes!

You can listen to this episode of Build on iTunes.

Want to get in touch and learn more from Karen?

• Reach out to Karen Catlin on her website
• Follow Karen on Twitter and follow Better Allies on Twitter to get more simple tips
• Sign up here to be notified when her new book is out, and receive 5 simple actions each week to create a more inclusive workplace

Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.