The Latest Insights from Leading NOW

Kelly Primus

CEO | Leading NOW | Kelly Primus is a dynamic change maker and expert on Cultural Dynamics in the Workplace, Inclusion, and Leadership Development who understands firsthand the challenges women leaders and underrepresented talent face in their careers. Before becoming CEO of Leading NOW, Kelly was President of its Leading Women division, and prior to that held a successful corporate career where she was often the only woman executive at the table, fueling her passion for Women’s Leadership Development and Inclusion. Kelly’s desire to transform and help organizations change behaviors & company culture to be inclusive for all, make her a sought-after thought leader & speaker on Inclusive Leadership Development, The Missing 33%™, and a myriad of DEI topics. She enjoys sharing her knowledge on how those areas intersect with her expertise as a business person through her blog posts and appearing on business and leadership podcasts.

Posts by Kelly Primus

What To Do When A Fear Of Innovation Holds Your Organization Back

Earlier in my career, I was caught off guard when I was asked during a job interview, "How do you innovate?" It was a question I couldn’t answer, and it became a defining moment that has stuck with me throughout my career. Today, as Leading NOW's CEO, it’s a question I often ask our clients when advising them on how to create a culture of inclusion and innovation.
5 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Leadership Accountability

Are You Holding Yourself And Your Team Accountable In The Right Way?

Accountability is at the heart of all high-performing teams and successful organizations. Employees at all levels take full ownership and responsibility for their actions, decisions and performance—and for the achievement of business outcomes—without excuses. Healthy cultures that prioritize accountability see better results in productivity, collaboration and engagement, high morale and a greater capacity to thrive. If that doesn't sound like your organization, then as a leader, you have to find out why. It's time to determine how teams can align their tasks with the organization's big picture.
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Leadership Accountability

Top 3 Things About Talent That It's Time For CEOs To Address

Five years ago, I read Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First, a book by corporate governance expert Ram Charam, Dominic Barton of McKinsey & Company and Dennis Carey of Korn Ferry. Immediately, I knew these visionaries were onto something big. They forecasted the need for organizations to deploy talent as a critical function of business, warning CEOs that if they wanted to be successful, they needed to pull the talent initiative into the C-suite. Given where we are today with the war for talent, I'm still amazed at the foresight. CEOs must prioritize people and can no longer leave talent solely in the hands of HR. They need to focus on developing the next generation of leaders if they want their organization to survive, thrive and outperform their competition.
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Talent Development Leadership Diversity & Inclusion CEO Advice

Leaders: Creating Psychological Safety on Hybrid Teams Is Easier Than You Think

Many organizations that have implemented a hybrid work environment are now faced with the challenges (and reality) of how to navigate it. At the top of the list is keeping employees engaged and connected. The big question is, how do you do that if they’re not physically working together, side by side, every day? It’s not as hard as you may think if you consider there is one thing that all employees have in common — a desire to feel psychologically safe at work, whether working remotely, in person or both.
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Psychological Safety

Why the Most Successful Leaders Create a Psychologically Safe Workplace

Creating a culture of inclusion takes work. A lot of work. And like most cultural and behavioral shifts, it starts with leaders understanding how their mindsets, actions, reactions and decisions affect how employees perceive them. As leaders striving to be inclusive, the first thing we must ask ourselves is whether those around us feel psychologically safe enough to share their thoughts and ideas without fear of reprisal. Unfortunately, many times, the answer is no.
5 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Psychological Safety

DEI Churn & Burn Is Real—Here's What You Can Do To Stop It

There is a disturbing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) trend taking place in organizations of all sizes and across all industries as leaders do everything (or so they think) to create a more inclusive culture. Organizations will appoint a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) and then expect that one person (or team) to fix everything without providing them the necessary resources, budget or executive support to be successful. And then they'll wonder why, in 12 to 24 months, the CDO quits. At Leading NOW, we’re calling this the “DEI Churn & Burn.”
5 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Cultural Dynamics

It's Time For CEOs To Deliver On Their DEI Pledges

It’s been a few years since a flurry of CEOs pledged their organizations' commitment to do more in support of DEI. Thousands committed to actions that support a more inclusive workplace for employees, communities and society. Fast-forward to today, and it seems most organizations still haven’t made much progress. Why?
4 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Cultural Dynamics

Winning The War For Talent Is A Battle, But It Doesn't Have To Be

The Great Resignation, the Big Quit, the Talent Shortage—you can call it whatever you want. The reality is that the war for talent is a fierce competition and likely raging in your organization.
6 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Cultural Dynamics

Fond Farewell to 2021. Now, Bring on the New Year!

As we say goodbye to 2021, I’d like to share some of the highlights we’ve had (there have been quite a few, but I promise to keep it short and sweet!), and the people, partners and clients that have helped take us one step closer to achieving “diversity and inclusion for all” goals. It was a busy year in research at Leading NOW’s Center for Diversity & Inclusion (CDI) and the Gender Dynamics Institute (GDI):
3 min read | Kelly Primus
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Leading NOW

Leadership Barriers to DEI and How to Address Them

According to a survey by Glassdoor, more than 50% of people think their companies should be doing more to increase workforce diversity. It all started in 1964, more than 50 years ago, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The act, of course, applies to employers. Yet after all of the civil unrest we experienced in 2020, how many times did you hear a CEO or spokesperson for an organization say that they are committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture? Probably too many to count.
5 min read | Kelly Primus
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Diversity & Inclusion Cultural Dynamics