In a new Training Unleashed Podcast, Evan Hackel and Leslie Short explored a very practical way to assure that your company will become dramatically more successful . . .

When you focus on Diversity and Inclusion, you will become better attuned to the clients you serve in the marketplace and as a result, far more successful.

Your organization will enjoy many other benefits too, as you will learn in our article today.

Leslie is President, CEO and Founder of The Cavu Group, an innovative firm that offers highly impactful workshops and consulting services to help organizations expand beyond their current cultures by embracing diversity and inclusion. The company’s core belief, found on its home page, is, “Diversity is no longer an option. Inclusion is not only having a seat at the table, it’s having a valued voice at the table.”

Leslie is also author of the new book Expand Beyond Your Current Culture: Diversity & Inclusion for CEOs & Leadership.

We know you will want to watch this podcast, which will transform your organization and your leadership. We are pleased to give you a preview with the following edited excerpts.

Evan and Leslie Discuss Diversity and Inclusion

Evan: Today we’re going to have a great show. We’re going to talk about something I’m deeply passionate about: why diversity, equity and inclusion really improve and grow a business. And we have a great guest. She is Leslie Short, President, CEO and Founder of The Cavu Group and author of the book, Expand Beyond Your Current Culture: Diversity & Inclusion for CEOs & Leadership. She is a diversity and inclusion pioneer and specialist.

Leslie, my first question is about the company you founded, The Cavu Group. Why did you come up with that name?

Leslie: I’m happy to be here! Cavu is an aviation term that stands for “Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited.” It means your visibility is unlimited. And when we think about diversity, equity and inclusion, our visibility should be unlimited.

Evan: Well, I do like that. I think you and I agree that diversity and inclusion are not only about doing what is right (although it is right). It’s about building a stronger and better business. Why do diversity, equity and inclusion help people build more successful businesses?

Leslie: If you build diversity and inclusion into the foundation of your business, then you don’t have to think constantly about adding it on and figuring it out. You’re not thinking about who your consumer is or who the people are that are working with you.

How do I get that diversity of thought, of culture, of being? When you have people sitting in a room where they can share their different cultures and thoughts and beings and education and all the other things that come along with them, that only makes you a stronger option for a consumer that’s looking to invest back into a company. And when I say invest as a customer, that means every time I go to buy something I know I’m buying from a company that understands maybe just a small piece of who I am.

Evan: Well, I think what you’re saying is really important because diversity of thought is hugely important to a business. And companies that do not allow alternate points of view because the right people are literally absent, that’s a shortcoming and they’re not going to reach the whole market.

Let’s take this into culture. How do you create culture with an organization that not only wants diversity, equity and inclusion to be visible, but to really become the organizational culture?

Leslie: Well, one, you have to recognize what diversity is to you, right? So many people think it’s Black and White, while diversity is gender, race, LGBTQ, plus disability, and veterans.

Evan: And age.

Leslie: And age! I like to say, “What’s in their bag?”

That means, what are they bringing to the table in their skill set and in their understanding of cultural things? And when you build that and you recognize that each person brings something, that helps you build a company culture. Company culture also means you’re giving people equity. That is pay equity, access to tools to learn, to think, to continue education, to be promoted and understand the systems you have put in place.

Evan: Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about leadership. What advice do you have for a leader? And I’m going to pose a question on behalf of the audience. I’ve been a leader for years. I consider myself a good leader, but I’ve never used the filter of diversity, equity and inclusion in my leadership. What do I do now? How do I shift? What are the key tidbits, the key suggestions that you would give to a leader to become effective?

Leslie: As a leader, you have to understand who you are, who you are as a person. It’s not about having the title “leader,” but about who you are as a person, what you bring to your leadership, what you offer. Are you someone that’s an active listener that has empathy?

Then more than anything, you have to look at people for who they are. Why were they hired? What’s the skill set they’re bringing? And then beyond that, who are they?

And then when you’re doing that, the way that you are looking at diversity, equity and inclusion will be automatic because you’re seeing a full being and not what you think they should be to fit into the hole that you need filled.

Evan: So what I’m hearing you say is as a leader, you have to have tremendous empathy. And that you need to look at the teams that you’re building and consider the diversity of people, personalities, all of these things to have effective teams. And those are really the two keys.

Leslie: Those are the two keys. Yes.

Evan: And diversity and inclusion have a major effect on retention too.

Leslie: Absolutely. There’s a reason people stay and a reason why people leave. And if they can see themselves within the company, if their work is valued, if they express a value voice or value action by what they do every day, they will stay and they will continue to grow and want to grow within the company. That is a huge benefit.

Evan: Do you have one tip to share with our viewers?

Leslie: Yes, I do. Continue to expand beyond your current culture!

A Special Offer from Leslie to Members of the Training Unleashed Community

Many guests on Training Unleashed offer viewers a free book or a complimentary subscription to a newsletter. Those are generous gifts! But we are excited to let you know that Leslie Short is offering you something that is remarkably powerful and transformative . . .

Leslie is offering to spend time talking with you!

Why? Leslie explains, “I do have a book, Expand Beyond Your Current Culture. It gives different tips and stories. But I really want diversity and inclusion to be successful for you and your company. I don’t want to hear that diversity and inclusion are “just buzzwords,” and I don’t want to hear that diversity and inclusion don’t work.

“So let’s have a conversation of how it can work for you.”

How can you schedule a time to talk to Leslie? Email her at [email protected].

Be sure to mention that you are taking advantage of the offer she made for members of the Training Unleashed family.

About Our Guest

Leslie Short is President, CEO and Founder of The Cavu Group, a consulting company that is committed to helping organizations formulate the next generation of understanding unlimited visibility and eliminating unconscious bias by educating and sensitizing senior leadership and all employees.

Leslie brings four decades of experience that includes fostering growth through open conversations, conflict coaching, training and workshops. She firmly believes that issues don’t go away because programs are in place. Solutions require continually evolving and having a channel to listen to and understand people.

Leslie is author of the new book Expand Beyond Your Current Culture: Diversity & Inclusion for CEOs & Leadership.

Our host Evan Hackel recently interviewed Dirk van Reenen, founder of BERGflow, for another great Training Unleashed podcast.

What is BERGflow? If you visit the company’s website, you will see that the company’s mission is “helping service-based companies build better teams.” But when Evan and Dirk started to chat, their discussion took off like a skyrocket. Yes, they were talking about building teams, but before long they were discussing how humans adapt to rapid change, about leadership, recruitment, job satisfaction, performance, and of course, training.

Their conversation was remarkable, deep, and extraordinary. We are pleased to offer you the following excerpts. Be sure to watch the podcast and learn more.

Evan – Today, we’re going to talk about a whole bunch of things. We’re going to talk about recruitment and retention. How do you keep people? How do you keep them excited? How do you get the best from your staff?

Dirk – In 2016, I was the CEO of a large organization with 500 salespeople who were doing over $800 million a year in sales. And I learned something that year that was very significant, and it had to do with the rate of change in the world and the human ability to adapt to change.

Several universities did research and determined that a human being has a static ability to adapt to change. And once the rate of change exceeds that, then the human starts experiencing a higher level of stress, anxiety and feeling lost.

That resonated with me on such a deep level, and I started understanding, this is going to start shattering the business world. Up until that point, leaders could tell their people what to do and leaders could navigate the world for their people.

But after that point, leaders could no longer by themselves navigate the world. They had to start switching to a collaborative team model to be able to navigate the increasingly rapid rate of change. So when I understood that, I resigned from my corporate position, and I started a company that could help businesses navigate building teams in this new kind of environment.

So when we looked at what we were going to be doing regarding teams, we said, “We want to be able to take on large challenges because only if you’re willing to take on big challenges in the world, will you be able to unlock big opportunities. And if you can unlock big opportunity and capitalize on it, then you get a big reward.”

Evan – Can you explain your company’s name? Berg means mountain, and that reflects what you just said about big challenges and big rewards, right?

Dirk – Yes. In the physical world, we said, okay, what represents something big? And for us, it’s a mountain. So that’s where the word “berg” came from in our name, it means mountain.

The flow part of it came from a documentary called “Happy.” If you’ve never seen it, I would highly recommend watching it. It looks at what creates joy and happiness within people. It identifies about five different elements that have to be present. One of them was this thing called flow. And that documentary was actually the first time I’d heard about the state of flow. It stuck with me.

Flow is that state where you are doing something and nothing else matters, time ceases to exist, and you’re fully immersed in what you’re doing. And the documentary actually presented research that flow had to be present in your life if you wanted to experience higher levels of happiness. So for us at the company, it wasn’t just about taking on big challenges, it was also being able to do work where you could experience flow, and that’s where the name BERGflow came from.

Evan – There’s been a seismic shift in the way we do business. The top-down authoritarian style is no longer effective. And you know, we’re in an environment where workers have never had more power than they have right now. It requires companies to be excellent in how they work with their team and staff to retain people. This is as hot a topic as there is right now. What are the keys to building a culture that retains great people?

Dirk – Well, I think the first thing to recognize is that there has been a really big shift. People who work for companies have said, “Hey, enough, if you can’t care about me as a human being, you know what? I’ll go find somewhere else to work.”

And I heard a prediction a few weeks ago that more than 30 percent of the workforce is going to change jobs in the next year. That is a massive number,

Evan – I’ll just share with you that for years and years, Gallup has done research that has shown somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of employees, if they could, would change jobs. So when you say 30 percent are going to shift? I totally get it because I think there’s pent-up demand of people that have wanted to but have been afraid to and haven’t had the opportunities to change. Now, they see those opportunities.

Dirk – Virtual work has completely changed opportunities for people. So today, people are saying, “Why do I work? Where I work? Why do I do the kind of work I do? If I could do something else, what would that look like?”

It’s essentially a buyer’s market today. Companies are scrambling to try to find good talent. The talent has the power in their hands. So the question that they have is, OK, if I have the control, where am I going to work?

Companies that understand the shift are gaining massive ground on the companies that don’t understand what’s happening right now.

I heard a John Maxwell podcast not too long ago, where he was [saying]  . . It’s not about leadership anymore, it’s about collaborative teams. When we started in 2016, we knew that the key for companies to survive the future was that there would be no leaders that were smart enough to navigate all the changes, make all the decisions, or train their people

Suddenly, it had to be about finding the right people and teaching teams how to start working together and supporting each other. And I think one of the biggest changes in the workplace today is companies that are building that kind of environment and culture where it’s not about you showing up and doing your job, it’s about being part of a team. And part of that means that you are looking out for your coworkers, for your peers.

Evan – You’ve talked about the importance of getting to know people as people right now. By the same token, we’ve got training around that, sexual harassment training in particular, where there are very clear boundaries. You need to be careful that someone doesn’t feel like they’re misreading your intention. If you understand what I’m saying.

So I guess my question is, how do we connect with people and learn about their lives yet at the same time, respect a certain degree of privacy and boundary?

Dirk – Yeah, and this is a this is a really good question, because there’s definitely a clash between human resource type regulations and what it looks like to really get to know a person, right? There’s that there’s that clash within the workplace. And I think a lot of companies are so afraid of all the rules and regulations that they create a system where people are cogs because they feel like if they go any further than that, they’re going to put themselves at risk.

So the first thing I’d say is always follow EEOC compliance where, you know, within your state, within the U.S. and be compliant in what you do. Now, with that in mind, is there still an element of getting to know people?

On the Value of Training

Evan – Training in many, many companies is undervalued. Management doesn’t take it seriously, yet we know that effective training has a huge impact on companies and can massively improve sales margins. Operational efficiency can create people who really understand the brand. So you get brand stewards, and people who can deal with people with different personalities. A lot of times the training department doesn’t have the voice at upper management, or it doesn’t have the voice themselves to advocate. What advice do you give to people in training to help them as their team is part of the bigger team?

Dirk – And again, the short answer is, look, if you don’t have the right people in the right positions, it is going to be really hard to train them. If we understand more about the human beings that are in those positions, we can adjust the training to their preferred learning style, to their level of cognitive agility, how fast they’re processing.

A Special Offer for You from Dirk van Reenan

Dirk would like to invite fans of Training Unleashed podcasts to have a complimentary call and consultation. To take advantage of this offer, visit BERGflow.com, contact Dirk and his team, and request your free consultation. Be sure to mention Training Unleashed.

About Our Guest

Dirk van Reenen is founder of BERGflow, a training and education company specializing in working with CEOs, business owners, and entrepreneurs. BERGflow empowers these individuals to think bigger, gain massive clarity, find new purpose and passion, and become alive again through raw adventure!

Before founding BERGflow, Dirk was CEO of a large organization with 500 salespeople who were doing over $800 million a year in sales.

People have been talking about a “leadership crisis” for years. They have consistently pointed out that there are just not enough leaders, that the leaders who do exist lack the skills they need to address current problems, that there are not enough talented young people coming up through the ranks to lead our important organizations, and more.

There are people who worry about this crisis, but one person is doing something about it. He is Scott Drake, founder and Executive Director of a training and leadership development company called JumpCoach. Scott is planning to train a million great leaders, and to do it in the next three years.

In a recent Training Unleashed podcast, Scott talked with host Evan Hackel about this ambitious goal and how he plans to reach it.

To bring you up to speed on Scott’s plans and progress, here are some edited portions of his talk with Training Unleashed’s host Evan Hackel. 

The Current Crisis in Leadership

Evan Hackel: Scott Drake is the founder and executive director at JumpCoach. He is on a mission to train a million new leaders in the next three years. Scott, what is that about? Why does leadership matter?

Scott Drake: My goal is to grow a million leaders in the next three years. That came about because when you talk to executives, they will say one of the biggest problems they see is a lack of leadership in their organizations. And it’s not just top-level leadership, it is front-line leadership

We just haven’t had really effective leadership training. You know, in my journey it took me about 10 years to kind of level up into being a confident, competent leader. That’s a long learning curve!

So the question really is, how do we shortcut that and then, how do we do it on a on a pretty big scale? Because if we can fix leadership problems, we can fix a lot of other problems too. So that’s my goal.

Evan: It’s a very, very ambitious goal. Let’s start with a really basic question. What is a leader?

Scott: I define a leader as someone who can work through others to get things done. There’s a lot of debate and if you go ask a lot of leaders what leadership is, most of them will be scratching their heads. Or they’re going to fall back.

Evan: What do you mean by fall back?

Scott: I came out of computer programing. And if you talk to people with that background, they’re going to think of leadership as being a super version of being a computer programmer. But a leader is someone who can work through others to get things done. It’s different from management, which is more around deciding which tasks you’re going to tackle and how you’re going to do them.

Evan: I think people confuse management with leadership. They’re totally different specialties. And I think a person that doesn’t manage a single person can still be the leader in an organization.

Scott: Yes! A leader can be a nonprofit executive who’s rallying a group of people to help solve a problem. A leader can be the computer programmer who has no authority but has to work through a team to get certain things solved so that a whole project comes together. And it’s not about authority and it’s not about management, it’s not about control, it’s about how do I work through others and be effective in a healthy way to get things done?

Evan: Let’s discuss mindset shift, which I know you have talked about. Because I think it’s an important part of the conversation. What is this shift? Where are people at now regarding leadership and where do they need to shift to?

Scott: Most people are very inwardly focused. They’re focused on, “What am I bringing to the table?” They’re focused on “How do I stand out?” or, “How am I contributing” or, “How can I be valuable?” Right?

A leader has to shift that focus outward and say, “What does this other person want from this work? I know we need to accomplish goals. But what does this person want?”

So it has to become, “What do they want?” not, “What do I want?” You have to be willing to turn that focus off yourself . . . so you’re not in what I call a competency war with your team. You let your team take ownership . . . So that’s a big one, to adopt an outward focus.

Evan: If you had one tip to share with our audience, what would it be?

Scott: An area of leadership can be called moments that matter. Leadership happens when you are working through others, as we have discussed. But when does that happen?

Leadership happens in those moments of interaction between two or more people. And in that interaction, people get what they need, they get clarity, they get direction, they feel good about themselves, they feel good about the relationship with the leader.

But if in those moments people get things they don’t need, like confusion or doubt or if they question their status in your relationship with them, then then you’re really going to struggle as a leader. Leaders are telling people what to do. They’re saying, “Here’s how I would do it.” But often, leaders are giving people things they don’t need or want, so everyone ends up feeling bad about the relationship.

It’s often a simple moment where the boss was trying to be helpful or trying to do something right, but ended up doing something wrong. Leadership is really about mastering those small moments that matter.

Be Sure to Listen to the Complete Conversation Between Evan and Scott on Training Unleashed! 

A Free Offer for Members of the Training Unleashed Audience

Scott invites you to take part in JumpCoach’s Community Edition of the Leadership Accelerator Program – at no charge.

This program offers three lessons that will quickly build your leadership skills. We encourage you to take advantage of this offer from Scott and start your in-depth leadership program today.

About Our Guest Scott Drake and JumpCoach, His Company

JumpCoach was founded by technology executive and consultant Scott Drake. Scott’s journey into leadership was long, painful, and he made every mistake in the book. It took him 10 years to thrive as a leader and not feel like an imposter.

When he became a leader of leaders, he saw next-generation leaders making the same mistakes and having the same struggles. Selfishly, he couldn’t spend 10 years watching new leaders wreck his teams while they figured out how to lead, so he began searching for a faster way to teach leadership. That search turned into a five-year research project and the innovations that are now JumpCoach.

In a recent episode of Training Unleashed, our host Evan Hackel talked with Robin about how she and her company, Live In Their World, have developed this practical new approach to leadership and employee development.

We know you will want to watch the podcast to absorb everything Robin says about her company’s unique approach to leading.

We are pleased to share with you these edited portions of their talk as Evan and Robin discuss a new, deeper way to train employees and unlock their full potential . . . 

Evan: My guest is Robin Rosenberg. She’s the CEO and founder of Live in Their World and she is a psychologist. Let me just start by asking about the name of your company. What does it mean?

Robin: The reason it’s called Live in Their World is because the domain “Walk In My Shoes” was not available! [laughs] Our program, in part, uses virtual reality. It allows people to literally walk in the shoes of people from different demographic groups.

Evan: Scenario-based training is an effective way to train. But you’re really taking that to the next level.

Robin: Correct. VR (virtual reality) is exquisitely good when it’s well done for what we call emotional learning, which is powerful and very different than cognitive learning.

Evan: I’m very intrigued with this. Does this training have to be done in your facility, or can it be done anywhere?

Robin: It can be done anywhere, because of the pandemic.

Evan: Is your training leader-led? Is it done on a learning management system?

Robin: It’s done on our platform. We also provide cognitive learning because emotional learning isn’t enough. I mean, it’s powerful and it’s really motivating. But what we want to do is really train habits.

Evan: So your primary curriculum is around diversity, acceptance and inclusion?

Robin: So you could call it that, although I think what we’re actually about is cultivating respect in the workplace.

Evan: What results do companies see after using your training?

Robin: Part of what they see is a subtle change in behavior.

Evan: Can you give us an example?

Robin: There is something that you probably haven’t ever experienced, but many women have, which is when a man comes over to your workstation, you’re sitting and he’s looking at something on your computer with you, but his crotch is in your face . . . unintentionally, unintentionally.

Evan: And men have a similar situation where a part of the woman’s anatomy is in their faces, which they don’t necessarily want to be looking at.

Robin: A great example. So quite a number of men who did the relevant part of our training have told me that it was a very powerful experience.

Evan: But it is really about being economically good for companies. Diversity of thought creates better products and better businesses. It attracts the right employees. I think the benefits are absolutely huge. And, you know, it’s interesting. Most people who are managers think that there are no issues of discrimination in their companies. There really are issues of course, but that’s not their reality. There are no issues in their minds.

Robin: We all have blind spots.

Evan: If you had one tip to share with our audience, what would that tip be?

Robin: Well, one tip would be to really treat  colleagues and customers and business partners with respect.

About Our Guest

Robin Rosenberg, Ph.D., is CEO and Founder of Live in Their World, a company that uses, in part, virtual reality to address issues of bias and incivility in the workplace and upskill all employees, as well as leaders in particular, for respectful engagement. She is a clinical psychologist, and prior to starting her company, she had executive coaching and psychotherapy practices, wrote college textbooks, and taught psychology classes at Harvard University and Lesley University.

Robin has been interested in virtual reality (VR) for years, and was the lead author of a study to investigate using “VR for good.” She has combined her interest in immersive technologies with her coaching and clinical experiences to foster in employees a deeper understanding of how and why other people may feel slighted or marginalized, and how to approach such interactions differently.