An Interview with Fotis Georgiadis
Research has shown that simply increasing diversity alone is not enough to benefit an organization. Once you have increased diversity through onboarding and attraction processes, you then need to create an inclusive organization so that the diversity can actually develop into a return on investment.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sile Walsh.
Sile specializes in leadership and inclusion. She is experienced coaching senior leaders and middle managers across sectors including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, technology and commerce within Ireland and internationally.
Sile has over ten years of experience working with individuals, teams and organizations supporting change management, leadership development, inclusion and diversity, and organizational development programs.
Sile is committed to being inclusive in her work and supporting people from a wide range of backgrounds to reach their potential; this includes people who experience systemic barriers in society. She is a PhD researcher focusing on the role of coaching psychology in inclusive leadership within private organizations.
Sile has an international client base and speaks on leadership, inclusion, and coaching psychology. Sile guest lectured with University College Cork on both the masters in Organizational Psychology and Personal and Management Coaching.
Sile was voted in the top 10 coaches in Dublin by Influence and Digest and writes for a number of local and international publications and contributes to discussions in the media (radio, papers, TV) in relation to inclusion, leadership, wellbeing and relationships.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
I am from the south of Ireland, and I began working at a very young age in one of Ireland’s top restaurants. It exposed me to two people from very different backgrounds and with different lifestyles and different working backgrounds.
I have been working with leaders for over 10 years now, both in Ireland and internationally, supporting individual leaders and organizations in performance well-being and inclusion.
As a dyslexic, I had a very different school experience from most people, which led me to understand that Talent and skills and the way people view and see the world differ from person to person and that one size doesn’t fit all.
I have brought this lesson into my work, my personal life, and my relationships. Understanding that it’s our differences and the appreciation of those differences that enhance the value that we add to our workplaces, our relationships, and life are fundamental in my approach.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
In the middle of presenting on reflective practice to 45 teachers in County Kerry Ireland, I literally tripped over a table and fell on my face.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
I think I have different lessons at different times for life, but the one that speaks to me the most right now is one by Maya Angelou, “my mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and do so with some passions and compassion, humor and some Style.”
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
I’ve been really lucky that along my professional and personal journey I’ve had many people that support me at different points and in different ways.
Instead of a person, I’m going to talk about a type of support that has been invaluable to me and that I like to offer to others and encourage everyone reading this to attempt. The type of support that was absolutely golden to me and my work was “opportunity.” It was people giving me the opportunity to have experiences that I did not have yet in order to develop my capacity to do a role or fulfill a duty that I hadn’t previously fulfilled. This kind of support can be the difference between being interviewed or not for a promotion at a different date or a person’s ability to see their potential within their everyday lives. There are many people from the age of 11 who offered me opportunities to test my ability and develop myself. These have been irreplaceable moments in my career journey.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I think my company, Ellis advantage is a small all service-based organization that serves bigger organizations to achieve their goals from a people perspective.
What’s different about us is the tailored approach that we take to all of the interventions. We consider the organization’s culture, the motivations of the people in the organization industry that play the innovation that’s available, the priorities and values before we create an Intervention.
We specialize in organizational leadership and inclusion.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
This September, The Psychology of Leadership Development Program, a small group of people, over an 8-week process, will work through the psychology of leadership and each participant’s individual leadership style to support them in more effective leadership interventions. The psychology of leadership will also incorporate fundamentals and inclusive leadership practices.
This past month we also launched a free online leadership development assessment that all leaders can do to assess their next leadership development steps and what will add the most value to their career
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
This is a huge question; there are layers to this, the fundamental layer that effective leadership and more inclusive organizations result in better employee well-being, productivity and experiences, ensuring that the ripple effect of good leadership trickles out into the homes and lives of those of the organization.
There are also other benefits where we donate or support causes that add to social equality. Our small team is proactive in learning about inclusion.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Research has shown that simply increasing diversity alone is not enough to benefit an organization. Once you have increased diversity through onboarding and attraction processes, you then need to create an inclusive organization so that the diversity can actually develop into a return on investment.
The most recent research suggests that inclusive leadership and inclusive organizations support better innovation, psychological safety, increased revenue, and employee attraction and retention.
Further research has indicated that simply diversifying boards can increase the revenue of an organization.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
Inclusive leadership is a type of leadership that fosters the relationship with employees and humanity. By engaging in inclusive leadership, you can develop your ability to support innovation, psychological safety and diverse workforces working together effectively. The number one thing leaders can do to support their employees, driving and supporting a diverse workforce, is to develop inclusive leadership practices that are implemented within the organization on an individual basis and across leadership teams.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
If you’re managing a large team, you need to consider that team’s needs and whether one person over a large team is efficient. One of the ways that I see large teams manage this is to have one overall head and several supervisors or leads who support the individual teams more closely.
One of the things that I think is frequently overlooked when managing a large team is that if you’re managing a large team, tasks cannot be part of your work; your work needs to be people and you need to be trained in the psychology of leadership.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Claude Silver Chief Heart Officer of Vaynermedia
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Free leadership development assessment: https://www.silewalsh.com/leadership-assessment
The Psychology of Leadership development program: https://www.silewalsh.com/psychology-of-leadership
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/silewalsh/
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Sile Walsh of ELIS Advantage: How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
