From allyship to action: Empowering leaders of colour

A recap of our first event in Melbourne in partnership with Deloitte

In August, we held our second event of the year in collaboration with Deloitte. From allyship to action: Empowering leaders of colour which focused on what it means to be an active ally and exploring the difference between sponsorship and mentorship to enable success for First Nations and racially and culturally diverse talent.

This event was held at the Deloitte Melbourne office and we were fortunate to have Paul Rehder (He/Him) - Chief Growth Officer, Deloitte,  Tharani Jegatheeswaran (She/Her) - Partner, Sydney Consulting Leader at Deloitte Australia, Katie Wyatt (She/Her) - Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity, BHP and Frances Feenstra (She/Her) - Associate Director, People Measure join our esteemed panel. The event was opened by Komala Murugiah (She/Her) and Warren James (He/Him) from Deloitte and the discussion for the evening was moderated by Adi Rai (He/Him) , a CiC member and Manager at EY.

The panel discussion highlighted the importance of sponsors who were willing to put their political and social capital on the line to advocate for their sponsee, being listened to and providing space to draw others into the conversation. Other takeaways include:

💡 Change makers actively look for bias and do something about it
💡 People don’t resist and fight change; they resist loss. Let’s acknowledge it and have real conversations about how we better share opportunities that enable everyone to have a fair chance to thrive
💡 If you have power, you likely have privilege. It’s time to turn back, share, and help someone else up the ladder—your rewards will outweigh your investment
💡 Talent is normally distributed in the population—maybe it’s time to consider updating your definition of talent to align with the times
💡 Sponsorship is less about intentionally finding someone to sponsor you directly, it's more about finding people who share your values and are willing to advocate for you.