Ellis Laura Griffith, PhD Global Chief People Officer at ERM, began her CHRO journey with a memorable moment on the first day of her inaugural CHRO role, she was met with an unanticipated Q&A session. Given her background in consulting, Ellis was used to having the answers. However, when asked about her vision and strategy for the HR department, she responded with an authentic vulnerability, admitting, “I honestly don’t know yet.” Let’s explore Ellis’ authentic leadership journey as she shapes the human experience at ERM! How do you align your personal values with ERM’s organizational values, especially in the realm of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB)? At ERM, we help businesses meet today’s sustainability imperatives. We are the world’s largest pure-play sustainability consultancy and have been doing ESG work for over 50 years. Globally, we do this by holding true to three core beliefs: that Together we Challenge, that Expertise is our Superpower and that Impact Ignites us. Beginning with our mission, I feel closely aligned with ERM, not because I am a decarbonization expert, but because I believe that the People Function sustains the workplace and helps people to make their lives and worlds truly better. I believe that what we do in the world of People impacts individual lives, be it through well-being programs, cutting-edge rewards, safe workplaces, promoting engagement, building community… Leveraging expertise to create impact for our people, to challenge the status quo and to make the workplace a better place is part of not only my job, but truly who I am at my core. DEIB is a part of all of this picture. If you could take a marker and draw a circle around ERM’s whole organizational mission and all of its beliefs, we would radiate DEIB from every cell. That means that DEIB is more than a set of programs. It means that together we serve as the guardians of ERM’s corporate culture–we are a group of people who resonate together around a common mission and common set of beliefs, which is belonging at its best. Welcoming people from across geographic or ethnic boundaries, across different knowledge and skill sets, from diverse religions and areas of expertise, from one end of the rainbow to the other is how Diversity shines in an organization. I think we’ll talk more about this later too but fundamentally, DEIB is a part of the tapestry of, not just the way that I live and lead, but also, ERM’s core mission and beliefs. Given your background in Inclusivity, could you describe how you foster an inclusive culture and what strategies have proven most effective? Fostering an inclusive environment begins with fundamentally ensuring that the people who are part of that environment are themselves engaged and inclusive people, on a micro level and a macro level. Let me explain. Smiling at everyone in the hallway, offering help to someone wrangling a pile of papers and a coffee, taking a moment of your time to make a cup of tea for a colleague who you know is struggling today—these are micro-inclusion moments. Within teams, you have both inclusion moments and opportunities for inclusion that you may not have noticed as well. For instance, perhaps some people work best in quiet environments and others work best when they can have open and frequent discussions. How can a team be inclusive of a wide range of needs? By being open to different possibilities, having open discussions. When we have sponsorship relationships along with respectful peer relationships, we create an inclusive team culture. When it comes to a whole company, inclusion starts to look more macro with things, like flexible working and office space, like benefits that are inclusive of neurodivergence and multiple family types, like offering supportive communities that are inclusive of multiple perspectives and people. This is all easy to say, but in reality, from the micro to the macro level, what is hard about inclusion is its authenticity; inclusion is about truth at every level. And that isn’t easy to teach or change in a human being. Embedding learning and discussion on the topic at every available opportunity from onboarding to managerial and leadership learning, using video channels to share lived experiences, even offering virtual reality to build empathy and understanding of micro-aggression and bias can be powerful tools. But I do believe that leadership by example is the most powerful tool in our inclusion toolbox. How do you see the intersection of personal purpose and professional roles influencing the overall success of individuals in your team? ERM is a purpose-driven organization and I believe that contributing to something larger than yourself makes a difference in the employee experience, not just for the People team, but for every person who is a part of the ERM ecosystem. Knowing that our work benefits a greater purpose and has the potential to impact life on our planet for generations to come is incredibly motivational and, of course, that makes it engaging and exciting to come to work every day. The equation for the individual is simple: the more exciting and impactful the work, the more motivated one feels, the better one’s work is, the more successful the individual is. And the equation for the People functions and even for the broader organization is just the same. As a Consulting Firm, our only asset is our people. Ensuring that they are engaged and feeling both the impact that they are having and the career success that comes from that is ultimately what drives our People function. As someone engaged in individual coaching, what core principles do you emphasize and how do you tailor your approach to each person’s unique needs? Checking myself at the door, I set all of my own interests aside. I believe in coaching individuals to identify their own principles, priorities and practices. By principles, I mean what do you believe in? What lives at the core of who you are? What drives you? For so many people