Geronda Wollack-Spiller

Today's post is going to look a little different.....

Employees are struggling. There's an LGBTQ+ employee who is scared their existence could upend their entire life. A Black employee who is stressed, wondering if they or someone they love will make it home. Employees with family members who are immigrants are terrified they won't ever see them again. An employee who just found out their baby won't make it to term is facing an impossible decision. The list goes on.

I'm sharing this not only because I can relate, but because I am hearing it from friends, family, former colleagues, and strangers, how hard it is to just show up at work right now. It sounds something like:

"I'm trying not to keep up with what's going on in the world, but I need to be informed. I'm scared, stressed, and anxious, and I don't know how much longer I can focus. And in this economy, I can't afford to lose my job, so I just keep going. I don't know how much longer I'll last."

PSA: please stop saying "our people are our most important asset" and not:

👉🏾 checking in with your team, individually, and opening a space where they can actually be vulnerable

👉🏾 telling them that the work will be there, and that their well-being matters just as much

👉🏾 paying attention to silence (it's usually louder than anything they're saying out loud)

👉🏾 putting your views and expectations aside for a moment to just be human, and to see them as human too

People across your company are carrying things you can't see, at every level, with different lived experiences and fears.

Show up for them. Stop showing up for results. Stop showing them the door.

Ever feel like the token employee?

The sole representation of workplace diversity on your team.

It's a really strange experience when you realize you're essentially the unicorn on the team, believing you were brought in to check a box, not because anyone actually thought about what it would feel like to be you in that room.

I've been that person.

And what I know now, after over a decade working in inclusion & belonging, is that tokenism isn't just uncomfortable. It's expensive.

When people don't feel like they truly belong, they don't bring their best. They protect themselves. They mask and perform belonging instead of experiencing it. And your team's performance suffers quietly, invisibly, until it's not so quiet anymore.

Real inclusion is about whether people feel safe enough to speak up, disagree, and show up fully, every single day.

That's the difference between a team that looks diverse and a team that actually thrives.

If you're a mid-level leader who wants to build something real, this is the work.

🎥 I got into all of this in my latest video. Link in the comments.

What's your experience been like? Have you ever been the office unicorn, or led one without realizing it?

You can have strong DEI programs, solid engagement scores, and clear values, and still have people who don’t feel like they belong.

It’s something I find myself exploring often with leaders.

Because belonging doesn’t usually show up in big, obvious ways. It tends to live in the small, everyday moments:
👉🏾 Who speaks up (and who holds back)
👉🏾 Who’s included early vs. brought in later
👉🏾 Who feels safe offering a different perspective
👉🏾 Who can set boundaries without second-guessing

Belonging isn’t about getting culture “right” all the time; it’s about creating the conditions where people feel safe enough to be honest, take risks, and grow.

I wrote this article as a way to think through this more intentionally, and to share a simple Belonging Scorecard you can use to put language and insight around what you might already be noticing.

✨ Start with the article to explore the ideas + access the scorecard. Link to article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/belonging-missing-metric-your-people-strategy-geronda-e2ssc/?trackingId=ZNsr%2B7hJS%2FG3rJaB4vhM1Q%3D%3D

If you take a look, I’d genuinely value your perspective:

📢 What’s one signal you pay attention to when you’re trying to understand if people feel a sense of belonging?

Belonging Is the Missing Metric in Your People Strategy Many organizations have very thoughtful DEI statements, engagement surveys, and leadership principles, but often wrestle with a key question: “Do people genuinely feel like they belong here?” When belonging is missing, even the best‑designed programs can fall flat. The misconceptoin about belo...

👩🏾⚖️ 125 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law in 2025 alone. This is not me getting political; this is just me stating the facts.

🗯️ That is not a typo. It is the highest single-year enactment on record, and targeting LGBTQ+ people has increased 14 times over since 2015. 49 states had bills introduced last year.

👉🏾 So I want to ask directly: how is your company actually showing up for LGBTQ+ employees right now, not in June, not with a logo update, but today?

Because when people are watching their rights be debated, restricted, and stripped in real time, the question of whether they can bring their full selves to work is not abstract. It shows up in whether they speak up in meetings. Whether they trust their manager. Whether they stay.

Psychological safety is not a perk. 😥 For a lot of LGBTQ+ and trans employees right now, it is the difference between functioning and not.

I have been tracking this closely. I built a live interactive dashboard where you can explore the data by state, bill category, and year, linked in the first comment 📈 . All data is sourced from public legislative tracking organizations.

If you are a leader, an HR professional, or an ERG champion trying to figure out what to actually do with this moment, I want to talk with you.

I have a few Pride Month speaker slots still open for June 2026. I work with organizations on LGBTQ+ inclusion, belonging, and what it means to lead people through hard seasons.

If that resonates, 💬 comment "support" or send me a DM, and we can find time to connect 🤝🏾.

On this date: In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the United States v. The Amistad, ruled 7-1 in favor of a group of illegally enslaved Africans who were captured off the U.S. coast after seizing control of a Spanish schooner, La Amistad; the justices ruled that the Africans should be set free.

🥳 Sarah Scala was such an amazing pleasure to have on Leading in the Moment yesterday sharing great insight about implementing psychological safety in your teams!!💪🏾 It was also super cool to learn that she's part of a women's bike club and will be riding with her fellow bikers on Friday for International Women's Day 🚴‍♀️.

👉🏾 If you missed our conversation you can catch it here on my YouTube channel, Leading in the Moment - https://lnkd.in/d8aEi8qQ. It was a good time 🙌🏾.

👉🏾 You can connect with Sarah on LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahscala/ or you can check out her website at https://lnkd.in/djcn2Mnf

👉🏾 To see more Leading in the Moment videos for tips on psychologically safe practices for high-performing teams, subscribe to my YouTube channel here - https://lnkd.in/gR_7k3-D

👉🏾 And, subscribe to my newsletter to become the most courageously inclusive leader you can be. You can access tips, stay in the know on upcoming Leading in the Moment series, and more! Click here to subscribe - https://lnkd.in/g3c-pG5S

lnkd.in

Having a fire with my love and enjoying some hotdogs and s’mores 🔥

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.

Getting ready to present on Psychological Safety for Better Teams at the ISPI Conference in Nashville!! 🙌🏾🙌🏾

I’ve got time after my talk too, so you know I’ll be at a live jazz bar afterwards 🎺 🎷 🎶