94: Advancing the equity & inclusion agenda in 2023: In conversation with Leela Stake, Global Lead FH4Inclusion, Co-Lead True MOSAIC DE&I Practice

Shownotes: One of the best things about hosting my podcast is that I get to spotlight some incredible people from across the world, especially people from previously underrepresented groups and communities. A couple of weeks back I spoke with @Leela Stake, Global Lead FH4Inclusion, Co-Lead True MOSAIC DE&I Practice. Out side of work she is Vice Chair of the Board of Stanford’s Haas Centre for Public Service. In the course of our conversation we spoke about her influences, childhood, her identity as a multiracial woman, role models, her current role, the intersectionality between sustainability & equity & inclusion, her journey to leadership, leadership in general, what orgs can do to create equity inspired designs to building inclusive organisations, being an eternal optimist and many other things…….Hearing people’s stories of lived experiences and resilience (it is a word I don’t like anymore) is humbling, and revealing. The stories we hear teach us, that it may be tough but we all have the power to define who we want to be, rise, reach for the stars and pave the way for those who follow in our wake. Want to hear more, head to the podcast 👇🏾👇🏾“So to me this is a key year as we are in 2023, and we think about some of the headwinds or economic uncertainties that we may be facing. This is a time to really hold leaders accountable for what they said that they would do and make sure that we're not either stalling progress or moving backwards.We have to make sure we stay really united and lock arms with the people that we're working with. It's just tremendously important that women leaders support other women leaders, that people from under-resourced communities support each other and lift each other up. So that continues to be, I think, just so important to me personally and so important to moving this work forward.” Leela StakeMemorable Passages from the podcast:👉🏾 It's so nice to be with you, Sudha. Thank so much for having me..👉🏾 Oh, there's so many. Well, I am currently a global lead for FH for Inclusion at Fleishman Hillard and Co-lead of True Mosaic, which is our global diversity, equity and inclusion practice. I'm also a multiracial woman, I am a parent of two amazing teenagers who are 13 and 15 years old. And happily married to the love of my life.👉🏾 So those are a few of the influences in my life. As I think about influences, I really have to look into my past. Both of my parents, I'm a minister's daughter, a Unitarian minister's daughter, so my dad grew up in a small town in Kansas. My mother was an immigrant to the United States from India. And I had an amazing older brother growing up. So in our family of four, all three of those people influenced me very profoundly. 👉🏾 Yeah, it's incredibly important to me. I think that sometimes you can't know where you're going in the world, until you know very deeply where you've come from. So it's something that I think about a lot in terms of my identity. I think, it was maybe more common now to be multiracial, but growing up maybe it was less common.👉🏾 And I think that there are both superpowers that come from it and also challenges. In one way, I feel like I could go to almost anywhere in the world and feel like I fit in. I have kind of olive-tanned skin and so there's many places I would go and people would wonder if I was from that place.👉🏾 And there's something really beautiful and amazing about that. On...