Kanina Blanchard

As this Advisor explores, the best communicators and leaders combine the art and science of asking good questions of others and themselves. Whether to build better relationships, create an open and safe team culture, innovate, or get to the root cause of an issue, it takes courage and humility to ask pertinent, insightful, challenging questions. Doing so is also key to inspiring trust and getting others to engage and share their ideas.

Consider that uncomfortable workplace moment that comes a second or two after a colleague or a client says something that feels wrong. We’re not talking about blatantly discriminatory comments that leave you no choice but to speak up. We’re talking about comments potentially driven by an undercurrent of intolerance or bias. Something like, “Being a person of colour will likely help him get that job” or “With her looks, she’ll go far.” We all hear comments of this nature, at least once in a while.

Looking back on careers that now span almost four decades, we share a good many stories about being women working through what has been an incredibly dynamic period in history. We remember when colleagues were explicitly bypassed for senior roles based solely on their gender.