How do you make the workplace work for everyone? Acknowledging bias is the first step, but there’s so much more that anyone - leader or not - can do to ensure that all voices are heard and amplified, and that every member of the team can feel safe in and succeed in the workplace.

In this piece, speaker, author, and podcaster Minda Harts shares the ways in which anyone can contribute to building a truly equitable workplace culture. It starts with courageous leadership: not being afraid to start productive conversations around how to make things better when you witness discrimination. It continues with courageous listening, and then being a success partner in someone’s career. By sharing real tools anyone can use to fight workplace inequity, Harts guides us toward creating inclusive environments that have a positive impact on every employee.

Key takeaways:  

• Why courage is essential for leaders who are trying to create an equitable culture in the workplace
• How to become a courageous leader even if you’re not a manager
• The difference between an ally and a success partner
• How everyday actions - such as saying someone’s name in a meeting, recommending their work, or acknowledging a comment rooted in bias - can help make the workplace better for everybody

Minda Harts is the cofounder and CEO of The Memo LLC, a career development platform for women of color, and an adjunct assistant professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is the author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table and Right Within: How to Heal From Racial Trauma in the Workplace and hosts the podcast Secure the Seat. She has been featured on MSNBC's Morning Joe and in Fast Company and speaks at Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Levi's, and Google. In 2020, she was named among BET's Future 40, and in 2018 she was named one of 25 Emerging Innovators by American Express.