Tag Archive for: Diversity + Flexibility = Embracing Change

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Action Step -Highlights From the 2018 Annual Conference

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility.  Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

The following are highlights from the many words of wisdom shared by our dynamic and engaging 2018 Annual Conference panelists and speakers:

– Nicole Collier, Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Nestlé: We see this urgency to address diversity and inclusion from the investor community. This needs to be a company-wide discussion where you can talk about differences outside of the workplace.

– Vipula Gandhi, Managing Partner, Eastern US, Gallup Inc.: Experiences matter, and the war for talent is more. Employees are looking and leaving; the world of work is evolving; there are more women and millennials; and when, why, and how we work has changed. Millennials need purpose, want a coach, and care about learning and development versus just having a job.

– Michelle Gold, Partner & Governance Committee Member, Fried Frank (2018 Flex Impact Organization Honoree): We want our associates back for their careers. The key has been communication, and no one size fits all. A person’s job is to speak up, and everyone has to share information.

– Sarah Goldfrank, Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Fannie Mae: We need to walk the walk and not just talk – that isn’t fair to employees. We have to ask what have we done to increase diversity within and beyond the company and hold ourselves accountable.

 

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Getting to Know Our Conference Speakers -Sarah Alexander Goldfrank

We are so excited to have an amazing line-up of prominent leaders and trailblazers speaking at our 2018 Annual Conference Diversity + Flexibility = Embracing Change on Thursday, September 27.  We’ll be introducing these dynamic and engaging speakers throughout the summer and sharing their diversity and flexibility insights here on our blog. We’ve asked our speakers to answer a few questions about themselves, their approach to their career, and their lives. This week’s “Getting To Know Our Conference Speakers” post highlights Sarah Alexander Goldfrank, Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel in the Legal Department at Fannie Mae.

Diversity & Flexibility Alliance: What was the most meaningful piece of leadership advice you received?

Sarah Alexander Goldfrank: From Frances Frei (Harvard Business School), “Leadership, at its core, is about making other people better as a result of your presence—and making sure that the impact lasts in your absence.”

DFA: How do you pay it forward?

SAG: By being an active mentor, sponsor, and cheerleader.

DFA: What can we be doing to create more inclusive organizations?

SAG: It all begins at the individual level – the relationships we foster and develop, the connections we make, the bonds and trust we build, the barriers we breakdown. Those individual, human connections are the foundation of an inclusive organization.

Join us on September 27th to hear Sarah’s panel “Making Change Happen from the Outside-In: The Power of Client Persuasion.” Sarah will join other leading in-house counsel to discuss the importance of diverse teams and inclusive cultures, both internally and externally, and the role they are playing to make change happen from the outside-in with their law firms and other vendors.