So yesterday I had the chance to attend a Team Simon Sinek class on this very subject. It was only 2 hours long but I learnt so much it opened my mind and my eyes to aspects that I had not even considered. The one aspect that really hit home was the term 'Covering' where people mask aspects of themselves in order to fit in. As the class was interactive with breakout room and was attended by people for all over the world some of the stories were quite frankly shocking. How people changed their accent, their hair, how they dressed even to distancing themselves from their family to 'fit in' to their place of work or education.
It made me sad that maybe at times I had witnessed some of these behaviours during my career and personal life and that I didn't notice. But it has also inspired me further to seek to understand more about how I can help implement change to address this and help create inclusive environments where these behaviours are no longer required and people can be themselves and more over proud to be themselves.
There were a few books recommended Expand your Borders by David Livermore , The Culture Map by Erin Meyer & The Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam. There was also a 7 point checklist to help in your cultural leadership journey that I will share in a later blog.