Author: Lorrie Coffey

  • Sexual Harassment: A Cultural Change

    Sexual Harassment: A Cultural Change

    Sexual harassment is not pervasive due to a need to change the law, but instead the need to change cultural values within an organization. This was the message I heard recently at an HR conference. In all the years that I have conducted sexual harassment training and helped organizations to implement policies, procedures, and conduct investigations, I’d never thought about it that way. But it makes sense.

    Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made sexual discrimination, including sexual harassment, illegal. So why over fifty years later is sexual harassment making waves in the headlines? We’ve all heard the stories of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill Cosby, and the list goes on. How were they allowed to conduct themselves in such a manner for so long without repercussion?

    A former co-worker recently shared a story with me about a manager where she worked making unwanted advances towards a younger seasonal employee. While the employee did not report this behavior to management, she did complain to another employee who was compelled to report it. The result? She was terminated and told that because the position was seasonal, she just wasn’t needed any longer. An investigation into the complaint was never conducted.

    The company in question has a sexual harassment policy in place, they have a very detailed investigation process. But in this case, those tools were useless because the company’s cultural values didn’t match what their policy stated. Many of the women whose stories we’ve heard in the headlines had similar experiences. They tried to report the behavior and were told it was no big deal or to just let it go.

    So how do we change the cultural values toward sexual harassment in the workplace?

    Changing the company culture includes:

    • Taking each and every complaint seriously, conducting a thorough investigation, and taking action to cease the behavior. If employees understand that such behavior won’t be tolerated, they’re much less likely to act in such a manner in the workplace.
    • Providing sexual harassment training to all employees within your organization, creating an open-door culture where employees feel safe bringing forth such complaints, and where they know that their complaints will be taken seriously. If employees know that they will be taken seriously, they are more likely to file a report. If your organization gets a reputation for ignoring complaints, employees won’t speak up and many will eventually leave the organization.
    • Training leadership on how to respond to such complaints, how to conduct investigations, and how to help move the company culture in the right direction by modeling the appropriate behaviors. Many managers admit that they don’t know how to respond to such complaints and receiving such complaints makes them uncomfortable, so instead of addressing it, they ignore it.
    • Reviewing company policies on workplace relationships and determining what is appropriate for your organization. Where does your organization draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate workplace relationships?

    By taking complaints of sexual harassment seriously, utilizing the tools your organization already has in place, and providing training to your staff, you can begin to move your organization’s cultural values in the right direction.

    To read more about sexual harassment in the workplace, check out these posts:

    #MeToo and the Onslaught of Sexual Harassment Training Requests

    3 Ways to Make your Workplace Harassment Training Successful

  • Increase the Value of your Organization’s Biggest Asset

    Increase the Value of your Organization’s Biggest Asset

    “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson

    As another school year comes to a close, my boys have already started getting that end of year fever. To them the end of the school year means a break from learning. To me it means a summer filled with opportunities to teach them things they can’t experience in a classroom. With that comes the opportunity to encourage them to challenge themselves and set personal goals for what they want to accomplish during the summer (besides sleeping in).

    Performance reviews are a great opportunity for leadership to sit down with employees and not only review their past performance, but to also help employee set personal learning goals for their future as well. While employees are an organization’s best asset, those assets are only worth what an organization puts into them. The more an organization encourages employees to seek out continuous learning opportunities and the more resources an organization provides for employees to do so, the more valuable the employees become to the organization.

    There are countless ways for an organization to provide continuous learning opportunities. Regardless of the size of your organization, there are ways to help your employees grow in their careers. Some options include:

    • Tuition Reimbursement Programs
    • In-House Training Programs
    • Webinars & Conferences
    • Lunch and Learn Sessions
    • Vendor Presentations (these are often provided for free)
    • Mentor/Shadowing Programs
    • Monthly Informative Newsletters

    Providing training opportunities to employees not only helps them to increase their knowledge, it helps them feel more connected to the organization. Leaders can encourage employees in their efforts through continuous feedback and review of the goals set during the performance review process.

    Are you increasing the value of your organization’s biggest asset through continuous learning?

  • Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

    Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

    As we continue to explore authenticity, I think it’s important to focus on how to actually be an authentic leader. One of the best ways to learn is to pay close attention to the authentic leaders you know in real life and those who are doing the work publicly and sharing their experiences. We always look for research and subject matter experts to inform our work, so here are ten authentic leadership quotes we often reference:

    10) “Authentic Leaders are not afraid to show emotion and vulnerability as they share in the challenges with their team. Developing a solid foundation of trust with open and honest communication is critical to authentic leadership.”Farshad Asl, The “No Excuses” Mindset: A Life of Purpose, Passion, and Clarity

    9) “Authentic leadership is the full expression of “me” for the benefit of “we”.” – Henna Inam, Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead

    8) “Authentic leadership is revealed in the alignment of what you think, what you say, and what you do.” –Michael Holland, Founder & President, Bishop House

    7) “Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Lance Secretan, The Secretan Center, Inc.

    6) “Authenticity and knowing who you are is fundamental to being an effective and long-standing leader.” -Ann Fudge

    5) “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.”Stephen Covey

    4) “It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.”Zig Ziglar

    3) “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” – Andy Stanley

    2) “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

    1) “A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – John C. Maxwell

    To read more about Authentic Leadership, visit my blog post Authenticity and Authentic Leadership.

  • Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    Continuous Learning.. Are You Cheating Yourself?

    I was recently presented with the opportunity to start hosting a monthly event that brings HR professionals together to discuss issues we are facing and to learn from each other’s experiences. I volunteered for the opportunity without hesitation, knowing that my co-workers would both be excited for me in my new endeavor and support me in any way needed.

    Continuous Learning. We believe continual learning is a key driver in creating passion and productivity in life and in work. To that end, we invest in the personal development of our people because we know that people are a company and community’s greatest asset (People First). We work with clients who believe in continuous learning and take steps towards continual self-improvement in order to maximize their passion and productivity.

    At Horizon Point, continuous learning is in the forefront of everything we do. We learn through meeting with new clients and assessing their HR needs, researching HR issues to help better assist our clients, and sharing articles and books that help us become more authentic leaders. We are encouraged to attend conferences, workshops, and networking events that feed our passion for HR and we are given the flexibility in our schedules to do so. We also pull from each other’s strengths, taking the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise.

    While we strive for continuous learning within our organization, we also strive to provide continuous learning opportunities for our clients by helping them strengthen their HR foundations, providing leadership development training, assisting with talent management, and assessing and addressing employee engagement issues. Through these learning opportunities, organizations are able to strengthen their leadership teams, improve employee morale and retention rates, and ensure that they are meeting the needs of their employees and their organization through sound HR policies and procedures. We share our expertise at workshops and conferences, through The Point Blog, and through our monthly Workplace Innovation and CDF newsletters.

    “If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.” – Napoleon Hill

    Are you cheating yourself?

    Join The Point Blog: Sound Advice for Career and Leadership Development mailing list here.

  • Authenticity and Authentic Leadership

    Authenticity and Authentic Leadership

    I just read an article about authenticity and authentic leadership that is going to stick with me. The big takeaway:

    “See, authentic leadership is all about self-awareness, positivity, solid ethics, measured transparency and personal development; far more nuanced than just being ‘real’.”

    – The Difference Between Authenticity and Authentic Leadership by Morgan Browning, President and COO, Emergenetics International

    To read the full article click here.