This Episode: Tap Into Your Allyship Power – with Julie Kratz
Lucinda is joined by allyship expert Julie Kratz, who discusses her research on why people with power often disengage from conversations about diversity and inclusion, feeling either “threatened” or “irrelevant.”
Together they explore her latest book, which outlines a “use fear as fuel” strategy and introduces a framework for building allyship programs for greater allyship power. Julie stresses that everyone has power and a social responsibility to champion inclusion, arguing that strong allyship is less about transactional “doing” and more about building meaningful relationships that lead to personal fulfilment, better team dynamics, and positive organisational change
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Many people in positions of power, particularly white men, do not believe conversations about diversity and inclusion are meant to include them, often fuelled by fears of status loss, irrelevance, or the belief that allyship offers “all risk, no reward.”
- Everyone has power, and the first step to becoming an effective ally is to build a strong “allyship why” rooted in the understanding that humans are a social species whose survival and happiness depend on collaboration and helping one another.
- Effective allyship involves moving beyond individual action to creating systemic change, which includes building highly customised allyship programs that focus on key behaviours like modeling and storytelling to make inclusive practices contagious.
- Organisations need to focus on building inclusive policies (e.g., caregiving leave, pay equity) and objective hiring and promotion processes to minimise bias, as people are often judged on potential (if they resemble current leadership) or actual performance (if they are different).
BEST MOMENTS
“The first step that I offer is really building your allyship why. Like why do you want to be helpful to other people?”
“Power’s not bad, it’s what you do with it that matters. And so don’t you want to be on the good side of history, like don’t you want to be the one that’s standing up to social issues, even if it doesn’t impact you?”
“The more you are, look, and act like the C-suite leader, that again is predominantly white male, the more you have proxy to power.”
“Modelling plus storytelling. So I can model the behaviour, and you could be like, ‘Yeah, that’s great for Julie, but that doesn’t really work for me and my style.’ But what if I told you a story in addition to that, that you could kind of see yourself in?”
Valuable Resources
The HR Uprising Podcast | Apple | Spotify | YouTube
The HR Uprising LinkedIn Group
How to Prioritise Self-Care (The HR Uprising)
How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
HR Uprising Mastermind – https://hruprising.com/mastermind/
If you liked this episode, try these
- Podcast Episode 243: Addressing Workplace Toxicity with Anna Eliatamby
- Podcast Episode 190: Demonstrating Allyship with Julie Kratz
Find out more about Actus solutions:
Appraisal Info-book: Rethinking Performance Appraisals
Performance Management Software
About The Guest, Julie Kratz
Julie Kratz is a highly-acclaimed TEDx speaker and inclusive leadership trainer who led teams and produced results in corporate America. After experiencing many career “pivot points” of her own, she started her own speaking business with the goal of helping leaders be more inclusive. Promoting diversity, inclusion, and allyship in the workplace, Julie helps organizations foster more inclusive environments. She is a frequent keynote speaker, podcast host, and executive coach. She holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, is a Certified Master Coach, and is a certified unconscious bias trainer.
Connect with Julie…
Her LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekratz/
The Next Pivot Point Website – https://www.nextpivotpoint.com/
About The Host
Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles. Lucinda, for over 10 years as CEO of Actus Software has worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. Certainly, it was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community. In order to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.
“If you look up, you rise up”
How To Be A Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
Contact Method
- Join the HR Uprising LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13714397/
- Email: Lucinda@advancechange.co.uk
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucindacarney/
- X / Twitter: @lucindacarney
- Instagram: @hruprising
- Facebook: @hruprising
- YouTube: Channel
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