74. How Employees Can Fix the Broken Rung

What Rules!?: A career podcast for women of color

Multicultural women are often “double onlys” in the workplace, meaning they are the only woman AND person of color in the room. This burden is mainly due to the “broken rung.”

In our special three-part series, we've been tackling how managers, employees and organizations can fix the “broken rung,” the biggest obstacle that prevents women from climbing the corporate ladder. Even worse, it disproportionately affects women of color.

In this second episode, we talk directly to multicultural women employees, like yourself, and how you can own your narrative to address the broken rung. While many of us are told to “call out the bias,” we offer real-life situations that can come up at work and how to be strategic when handling them as a woman of color. Alisa, Merary and Courtney share their personal experiences with bias and provide steps to deal with it.

Remember, you don’t have to do it alone! We’re here to help with this series and with our upcoming What Rules!? Leadership Conference, specifically developed for multicultural women and their managers, on 10/25/23. Learn more at whatrulespodcast.com.

Listen to parts one and three of our Broken Rung series, where we cover how managers and organizations can fix the broken rung. Episodes linked below.

Episode Highlights:

• What is the broken rung?
• Being an “only” and “double only”
• Turning your weakness into a strength
• Embracing your differences
• How to be strategic when addressing biases in the workplace
• Turning to allies for advice and support
• Accepting help from others
• Reinforcing the good instead of being critical
• How to get noticed at work

Research Mentioned:

2022 Women in the Workplace by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org

“Women of Color Get Less Support at Work. Here’s How Managers Can Change That.” by Harvard Business Review

Episode Mentioned:

Ep 73: 3 Moves to Improve Your Next Meeting with Monique Lanaux

Listen to the rest of our Broken Rung series:

Ep 72: How Managers Can Fix the Broken Rung

Ep 76: How Organizations Can Fix the Broken Rung

Register Now!

The What Rules!? Leadership Conference is on 10/25/23. Learn more and register at Eventbrite.

Connect with us on social media: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Alisa Manjarrez: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Courtney Copelin: Instagram and LinkedIn

More from Dr. Merary Simeon: Instagram and LinkedIn

Learn more at www.whatrulespodcast.com.