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Bringing up Diversity & Inclusion and deal with overall malaise

 I had a very down day today, partially because I woke up abruptly from a dream, and partly because my day started with a very strange leadership meeting. I had brought up DEI in an email the night before, and while we were talking about potential topics for our upcoming leadership offsite, I brought it up again. It was met with a lot of resistance and comments like, "but where do we draw the line," and "I want a list of terms I'm not allowed to use." I'm tired of working on a team that's blind to their biases. I was also shocked by that amygdala hijack that my friend has told me about. In discussing with another friend, she suggested that this is an important conversation that may need to be heard again and again. What I'm learning here is that I may be uncomfortable saying what I'm saying, but I stand behind it, and it's the right thing to bring up. I need to not be afraid. I was also down because one of my staff members is working directly
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Be careful what you say

Well, I promptly forgot about my commitment to write down my daily learnings! I was sick yesterday so my brain wasn't quite working. There was an all employee meeting, and I used the rollout of an unpopular policy as a way to advertise tue need for KM. Unknowingly, this was perceived as appearing disorganized and going against another team in my organization. I think the problem was in the way I said it. I wonder if it was the wrong thing to do, or if the problem is with the person who is upset. On the up side, it did spawn some conversations about KM again, although I'm not confident it will go anywhere. At this point, it feels futile, and I'm not sure I want to continue on this path. For one thing, the career potential isn't high, as it isn't highly valued and doesn't pay all that well. I was also appalled at how a leader in KM reacted to another in the community about AI. There is so much infighting that it's disgusting. That leader completely lost my res
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Leading as coach rather than servant leader

My coach has told me over the years not to take people's monkeys. I could never quite figure out how to do that without throwing problems back at people, and it didn't make me feel good about my role and the value I am bringing. I recently took a co-active fundamentals class where I learned coaching techniques, such as 3 levels of listening and powerful questions, and I've been experimenting bringing some of these techniques into my 1-1's. What I'm learning is that I'm now allowing space for my staff to explore their question and what they really need rather than jumping in with a solution, and I then help them figure out how they will hold themselves accountable for their actions as a result. It's not a lot of extra work for me other than my full attention during our conversation and any requests they have me, and we walk away much more clear about what's needed and are more confident we're solving root rather than surface issues.
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