Build Inclusive Cultures

Punk Rock HR is underwritten by Headspace for Work.

As I’ve said before and will say again, there are a lot of problems with corporate America today. The hiring process is extremely broken and the way companies view their employees is hurtful. A lot of work needs to be done in order to build inclusive cultures in place of the hierarchical ones that currently exist.

Madison Butler works with leaders in corporate America to help remedy this problem. She is a human resources professional, a recruiter, a talent acquisition leader, and someone who is very passionate about startups. Madison speaks her mind and is unapologetically herself, no matter the negativity that persists around her.

In our recent conversation, I asked Madison what the work is that needs to be done in corporate America. She explained that a lot of the work includes self-awareness. We have to be self-aware enough to figure out where we are off track.

So, as a leader, first figure out what your own biases are. This will be uncomfortable at first and will require you to have hard conversations with yourself and others.

A lot of companies don’t want to get to that point. They want to only talk about what’s warm and fuzzy. But that’s not the work. Madison says, “the actual work is peeling back these layers and having these uncomfortable conversations to really talk about what is inherently going wrong in your organization and what you need to do to change those things.”

I’m talking about these topics—and more on changing the way HR is done to create inclusive cultures— in my weekly newsletter. I’m also sharing a video to help you think about your week ahead. You can sign up here.