Society needs to re-evaluate its expectations to make room for identity.
Travonnie Mackey is an associate partner and leader at Edgility, where she fiercely advocates for equitable access and works to close wage and opportunity gaps in the workplace. Through her journey of understanding how her identity and location have impacted her opportunities in life as a child, a teacher, a mother, and a leader, she has followed her passion for challenging existing systems and creating space for marginalized groups to be seen, heard, and valued.
Today’s workplace is plagued with archaic systems that unintentionally perpetuate inequitable values and limit who has access to jobs and opportunities. To pioneer a path towards modern, progressive, and expansive value systems, we must reflect on our expectations and re-evaluate how we measure competency.
In order to achieve a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, we need to stop gatekeeping opportunities and ensure that they are equally available to everybody. Challenge old behaviors and fight for change and inclusion!
🏆 Travonnie loves to win: losing is not fun.
01:22👧🏽 Growing up in a small, kind, loving town where nobody looked like her: what moving to a better neighborhood to find a success really means.
03:34🦸🏽♀️ Being a daughter of an entrepreneur mom: her mom’s work ethic and what real leadership skills are.
08:15🤰🏽 Third pillar of her identity: being a teacher and becoming a mom brought some changes into her life.
11:22⚖️ Stumbling into coaching and finding her purpose: balancing work and being a present mom.
13:56🙃 Entrepreneurship is activism: backwards plan the big picture and execute it.
16:44👩🏽💼 From vision to implementation: exposed to risks and business from an early age - everything is business.
18:30🤩 There's no roadmap for running a business with all identities in mind: Travonnine and Ron help businesses to rebuild systems so marginalized groups can thrive.
23:23⚠️ Executive search has not been built with equity in mind - based on the history of how power and privilege has been built in this country.
26:40🤔 Re-examining your values and why we are defaulted on pedigree: you get hired because of your connection or your competency.
28:44✨ Being experts on a lived experience: equitable talent system creation begins with inner work - systems for liberation and love.
32:17🤓 Your identity shapes who you are and what your experiences will be - everyone should have access with the right competencies.
35:26🎯 Let’s design performance management system that will work for everyone: explicit and clear expectations - different cultures have different values.
38:18🆚 Expectations and intent versus impact: dealing with white leaders and making them comfortable.
42:21‼️ Organizations should be honest about what resources support they're giving.
45:17😞 Travonnie’s identity as a mom and a worker: we weed people out with expectations of grind culture because no one has figured out what the bar for success looks like.
48:08🌸 DEI in real life: getting explicit about expectations and unpacking the values that allow a diverse workforce to thrive.
52:10🤯 Decisions based on connections vs. assessment of competency and skills.
52:52👉🏽 Advantages and disadvantages: equity leadership competency and tension around interviews and hiring processes.
53:51😉 Would you still make it to the top if the system is the same for everyone?
56:20🤷🏽♀️ Blaming people for results: knowing only a handful of people in an identity groups makes our brain create stereotypes.
59:00💎 Be intentional about your impact: everyone deserves access!
01:03:26Links:
Episode 5
