Episode 058: Leading Inclusion with Dr. Gena Cox

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What really matters is, what does it feel like to work in your organization every day and what is your organization doing to the world?” shares Gena Cox, Organizational Psychologist, Speaker, and Author of</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leading Inclusion</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Gena is an executive coach and accomplished speaker with a focus on human centered leadership and helping leaders to create healthy organizations. Today, Gena joins Mike Horne in conversation to talk about inclusion and the importance of going a step beyond representation to really understand the day to day experiences of employees that belong to marginalized groups. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gena shares that she realized a long time ago that the fundamental challenge with inclusion and workplaces is that we live in a very segregated society outside of work. We expect to just all magically understand one another within the work environment, without ever really discussing the challenges and differences that we face coming from different backgrounds. In order to really improve inclusion, there must be a focus not only on representation and hiring people from diverse backgrounds, but also in improving the day to day experience of those employees once they are there. In her book, Gena coined the acronym REDI for respect, equity, diversity and inclusion, and these are the main components of creating a truly inclusive work culture. It is not enough to just choose one thing and put all the focus on that, but really all four elements are what leads to true fundamental change within organizations. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Often the focus of organizations is placed too much on profits and not enough on the human component of recognizing the people who actually are the backbone of the organization’s success. In order to create a truly inclusive work environment where people from all backgrounds feel they can be themselves and feel respected