Being an ally means you are always ready to support the other members of your organization. It does not mean you have to be an active team member of different groups in your organization. It is a kind of pledge to help and support people around you at the workplace.
An inclusive workplace is challenging to find and hard to build. However, if you are concerned about making your workplace inclusive, you can begin the real change being an ally. An active ally utilizes their credibility and power to develop diverse and inclusive workplace for others where everybody can thrive. Making an inclusive and diverse workplace where everybody thrives is our responsibility.
We all want to help others in a way we can. When it comes to the workplace, being an ally is the best way to help those around you. How can you determine whether you are an ally?
1 – Have you ever sponsored someone in the workplace?
An ally always takes the opportunity to sponsor others by supporting them. Here are the activities to help you understand what is sponsor all about at the workplace:
- You should talk about others’ expertise (particularly underrepresented groups), in the meetings and performance discussion.
- Provide recommendations for the learning opportunities
- Share and discuss colleagues’ goals with the influences in the organization
- Be vocal and shoutout the achievements of the colleagues
2 – Have you ever advocated for anyone with the hidden potential?
When an ally takes the role of advocate for someone, that ally utilizes their credibility and influence to bring people from the underrepresented group into higher business circles.
- Introduce your colleagues from the underrepresented group to influence people network
- Ask the people from the group to be co-presenter in any conference with you
- Recommend the other individuals from the group you think has potential as a keynote speaker in any of the meetings or conference of your organization
3 – Have you ever confronted lousy behavior at work?
Are you a bystander or an upstander? An upstander is the one who sees wrongdoing and acts to combat that wrongdoing.
- Speak up whenever you witness any wrongdoing at the workplace
- Shut down the off-topic questions in a meeting that generally asked to test the presenter
- Combat the situations where anybody in your organization is being bullied or harassed
Being an ally means being supportive of those around you. There would be plenty of occasions in the workplace when you can become a good person, not for yourselves, but for other people.
