The importance of being a careful giant
Welcome to our 11th edition of Drive. I am excited to share with you some of my thoughts around our In Pursuit 2017 event, which welcomed over 250 customers and employees.
As In Pursuit 2017 was an inspirational day that reminded us how much influence each and every one of us can have on making all of our environments – at work and in our private lives – more diverse and inclusive.
Our keynote speaker, John Amaechi OBE, an organisational psychologist and former NBA player, made a strong and compelling case for the need to stamp out behaviours that detract from either diversity or inclusion.
“Inclusion is in the minutiae, in the mundane, in the everyday. It is the small exceptions that are allowed that create the rules,” he said.
So I wanted to highlight this message in my editorial because it is essential to our success as a business.
Enterprise is a great organisation because we recruit the best talent and we are then inclusive of the talent we employ.
What makes us inclusive isn’t me saying that we are, or a company policy document stating this is what we should do, or an industry award for being diverse and inclusive.
Being inclusive is measured in how we interact with one another day to day, in almost 500 branches and office locations in the UK and Ireland, as team members, as managers, as trainees, as mentors and as mentees, as partners, as customers and as suppliers.
Each one of us has a part to play and our behaviours matter to our employees.
Leaders and managers need especially to act carefully and be endlessly mindful of the impact they can have.
“You are giants in your organisations,” said John Amaechi. “This is the thing about being a giant in an organisation. We are the custodians of culture. Everything we do matters. I haven’t shouted for 20 years. That’s what leaders do: they are vigilant because they know that everything they do will have a profound influence on the people around them.”
As a giant, you can’t hide. You have a responsibility for everyday inclusion and your actions matter.
Thanks again to all of you that attended and participated and all our guests from over 100 different organisations that joined us on the day and made this year’s event so special.
