When most of the people you currently serve are white, racial equity can feel like work to return to once your community becomes more diverse.

Yet clients of colour should not be responsible for testing whether your business is prepared to serve them well. Developing that capacity begins before they arrive.

In this episode, I use the curb-cut effect to show how designing from the margins can strengthen the experience of your entire community, including those already at the centre. I also examine the gap between understanding racial equity intellectually and developing the practical capability to apply that knowledge through real people, complex decisions and competing needs.

You’ll hear how CARE Leadership connects with the deeper work of REPRESENTED, why racial equity remains central to compassionate and inclusive leadership and how the program has matured across six years, twelve cohorts and more than 100 students.

Enrolment for REPRESENTED Cohort #13 is now open. If you are ready to develop the racial awareness, confidence and practical capability to lead your business through a more informed and compassionate lens, I would love to welcome you.

Cohort #13 begins Thursday 1 October.

Learn more and enrol:
https://anniegichuru.com/represented/

You can add diverse imagery to your website, publish an inclusion statement, offer scholarships and welcome people from all racial backgrounds into your business.

But when a racially harmful incident occurs, what do you do?

In this episode, I examine the difference between communicating inclusive values and having the knowledge and capacity to lead a racially inclusive space. Through the scenario of a racial slur being used during a live group coaching call, we consider what the leader’s response communicates to the person harmed, the wider community and everyone watching to see whether the business’s stated values will hold.

I also apply the CARE Leadership lens of Compassion, Accountability, Relationship and Equity to the decisions a leader must make when racial harm occurs.

This conversation is an invitation to consider whether you are prepared to recognise harm, respond with integrity and remain accountable for what happens next.

I’ll be taking this work further inside my free live workshop, Creating a Culture of Care In Your Business, happening tomorrow, Tuesday 15 September at 10am AEST.

Register for the free live workshop:
https://anniegichuru.com/workshop/

What does it really mean when nobody in your program, community or service has ever told you they felt unsafe?

It could mean everyone had a positive experience. It could also mean the people who felt uncomfortable decided that saying something carried more risk than staying silent.

Speaking honestly is rarely a neutral act when one person holds greater access, influence or authority. Long before someone raises a concern, they are paying attention to how disagreement is received, whose experiences are taken seriously and what happens to people who challenge the status quo.

In this episode, I examine the conditions that can make honesty difficult, even inside businesses led by thoughtful, well-intentioned people. I also reflect on Adam Goodes’ experience of calling out racism in the AFL and consider how the response may have differed if Compassion, Accountability, Relationship and Equity had shaped the leadership surrounding him.

This conversation may challenge what you have assumed about safety, silence and the culture people experience inside your business.

I’ll be continuing this work inside my free live workshop, Creating a Culture of Care In Your Business, on Tuesday 15 September at 10am AEST.

Register for the free live workshop:
https://anniegichuru.com/workshop/