“I tried so hard in my career not to think of myself as the first woman to do something. And maybe that was just because of the times that I got into the business. In those days, we, meaning the women, tried to be men.”

“One of the things that I’ve learned is that I lost myself a little bit in trying to be, what I thought, was what the audience wanted. A real sense of authority, and the authority was male. At some point that changed, what became important was authenticity.” 

“You never know when the best day of your life is going to come. And if you think ‘this is the best of it, it’s never going to get better’, you’re probably wrong. It can get better, and it probably will. You will have many best days of your life.”

“There is a misalignment between what leaders say, the positions they take and the employees’ lived experiences and observations of how work is actually getting done. This misalignment is problematic in ways leaders don’t anticipate.”

“It’s important leaders are clear on their stance on important issues. However, they also have to intentionally connect to their employees. When organizations connect with employees in a way that creates personal fulfillment, they raise employee connection to the organization to 55%.”

“Our leaders are the bridge, the connectors between the organization’s responses at the highest levels and the individual employees’ need for social impact that is personally fulfilling, which in today’s market is no longer a nice to have but more of a must-have.”

“By asking about, respecting and demonstrating understanding of employee preferences on management and communication styles, leaders send a message to employees that they are respected, seen and included on their teams.” 

“One of the most important ways of creating fulfillment for employees around responses to social and political issues is the way in which the response, be it an action or statement, is communicated.”

“Making progress on DEI is an organization-wide effort, but it doesn’t always feel that way in reality.”

“Managers have an incredible impact on how employees experience DEI, which means they hold a lot of power.”

“Managers need to shift from being supporters of DEI initiatives, to owners of DEI outcomes.”

“What we need managers to do in their new role is dig deeper than themselves and take ownership for systemic bias. This means challenging the status quo and ‘the way it’s always been done’ in order to break down the barriers that have been in place for many years.” 

“By owning DEI outcomes, managers are making a commitment to making fair and equitable decisions.”

“If managers are ethical and transparent in their decision making there are tremendous benefits for employees and the business.”

“The number of skills required by an average role has been increasing, on average by almost 7% each year.”

“Based on past job postings we estimate that 29% of skills needed in 2018 will no longer be needed by 2022.”

“The ideal measurement for quality of hire is the same as it is everywhere else: get the right inputs from the right people.”

“In terms of principles of measurement, leaders need to strive for more observation and less opinion, not being entirely dependent on hiring managers. There should  also be a repeatable and consistent framework, so leaders can truly compare and measure this year-over-year, hire-over-hire.”

“If you’re hoping to truly assess the quality of a new hire, you can't do it in the beginning of onboarding. You want to measure the quality of the hire, not the quality of someone on the learning curve. The truth is, onboarding can last a really long time.”

“When we talk about reengineering the hiring process, what we’re really talking about is assessment—identifying indicators of quality, and then onboarding, capturing and building momentum to ensure the quality you assess during the hiring process, and the potential that you’re investing in, hits the ground running.”