Stop Calling It DEI, Just Be a Good Leader

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Leadership advisor and DEI expert Stacey Gordon returns to Leading Through Crisis to explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion should never be treated as a bolt-on "initiative," and why that mistake is exactly why so many companies have abandoned their DEI programs.

Stacey and host Céline Williams dig into why so many leaders struggle with flexibility and self-awareness, how communication breakdowns between managers and teams happen even when everyone has the best intentions, and why "inclusive leadership" is really just... good leadership.

They also unpack the biases quietly shaping hiring decisions, why leaders rarely get real feedback about how their teams actually experience them, and Stacey's free Leadership Reality Check quiz for anyone ready to find out the gap between how they think they lead and how their team sees them.

This conversation might just challenge how you think about communication, feedback, and what DEI actually means.

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Stacey Gordon is a globally recognized keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and workplace culture strategist who helps organizations build inclusive, high-performing workplaces as they navigate today’s evolving legal, social, and business landscape.

As the founder of Rework Work, Stacey partners with executive leaders, people managers, and HR and legal teams to strengthen talent systems, leadership capability, and workplace culture— relying on a foundation of legally sound, people-first approaches. Her work focuses on debiasing systems, developing inclusive leadership behaviors, and creating cultures of fairness, belonging, and accountability that benefit everyone.

Stacey is a frequent keynote speaker at HR, talent, and leadership conferences worldwide and has served as an adjunct professor at several universities. She is also a trusted voice in the broader business conversation, having provided subject matter expertise to Harvard Business Review, SHRM, Fast Company, Forbes, NPR, and BBC Radio.

She is the author of UNBIAS, a widely used resource for leaders globally, and the creator of the unconscious bias course on LinkedIn Learning, which was the #1 most-watched course on the platform in 2021, has been translated into multiple languages and has reached nearly two million learners worldwide.

You can learn more about Stacey and her work and grab the Leadership Reality Check assessment at reworkwork.com. You can also find her on Substack (https://reworkwork.substack.com/), LinkedIn (Linkedin.com/in/staceygordon), and Instagram (@ReworkWork).

See also CDO Action coalition at https://cdoaction.com.