Impactful Inclusion Toolkit

ACTIVITY 35Be the Calm in the Storm

“Compassion is not a virtue—it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have—it's something we choose to practice.”

—Brené Brown

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Organizations place value on innovation, productivity, and efficiency. It creates a competitive advantage and drives profits. Before individuals start the first day on the job, most must answer this question during the interview process: “Why do you want to work here?” If we've done our homework, we know what the company does, what they plan to do, and how our experience, skills, and competencies can help them meet goals and carry out their mission. This is our value proposition. Once hired, the expectation is to perform at levels high enough to carry out responsibilities and meet or exceed goals. Anything less can bring forth negative consequences—such as poor performance reviews, 90-day performance improvement plans, probation, suspension, or job loss. No one is perfect, and everybody is allowed a bad day or two here and there. It's when we start to have repeated strings of bad days that our value to the organization starts to diminish. I began my career in an era where one was expected to be fully at work as scheduled and get the job done no matter what. If your child was too ill to attend school, the expectation was to make other arrangements and get to work. Impacted by the Rodney King verdict, the Matthew Shepard killing, race riots, and civil unrest? Please don't talk about it in the workplace; ...