Listening makes members of Luton aerospace company feel more represented

Feedback from members of Leonardo's LGBTQ+ Network Group, Pride, has confirmed that the quality of the listening skills used by their new corporate champion Paula Clarke, is making them feel more represented in the company’s working culture.

The aerospace engineering company employs more than 1,000 people at its site in Capability Green, Luton.

Paula, engineering and projects director, recently volunteered to act as the senior sponsor to the Pride Network for the company at its sites across the UK, including in Luton at Capability Green.

February is LGBT History Month, an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.

However, beyond celebrating the month, Paula wants to create lasting change within Leonardo, by making sure members of the community feel seen and heard, so their voices can inform future policies, towards establishing a more diverse and inclusive working environment.

Paula recently volunteered to act as the senior sponsor to the Pride Network for the company at its sites across the UK, including the Luton site at Capability Green and has already developed trust with Leonardo’s LGBTQ+ community by focusing on listening first and speaking later.

Sam Bone, chair of Leonardo’s Pride network, who first initiated the use of pronouns in the company’s emails to indicate personal identity (he, she, they, ze), says Paula has already made an enormous impact on Leonardo’s Pride network.

Sam said: “Paula focused on listening patiently to each individual, allowing them to express themselves fully without any interruptions.

"With her executive experience, she is also bold enough to challenge the norms and put forward our ideas at senior management level and sometimes senior management need role models as much as we do, because she is showing those right behaviours.

"It doesn’t matter whether Paula is LGBTQ+ or not as an individual, it is the fact that she has stepped up and asks us questions like ‘do you need budget for this or do you want me to speak to this person about that’.

"I am just off the graduate programme, so having someone able to advocate for us at that level is a real game changer. “

Sam explained that Paula’s advocacy is lifting up members of Leonardo’s LBGTQ+ community to a level where they can be better seen, by providing a platform for them to speak.

This has given the community a direct line of communication with senior management to influence change at a policy level, from both the network at grass root level and now from top down through senior management.

But they don’t want the listening to be a one-way process, they are keen to engage non LGBTQ+ employees to hear their thoughts and perspectives, since they are aware that their input is needed as they will see things from a different perspective.

That means throwing out the assumption that you need to be LGBTQ+ to join the network, a message they are keen to communicate, which has become easier to do since lockdown with informal virtual face-to-face meetings possible where they did not exist before.

Responding to Sam’s feedback, Paula said: “My job is to listen, then try and open some doors and be an enabler for ongoing improvement.

"The team has done a fantastic job of defining what we need to improve and how – my role is supporting them in achieving those aspirations.

"I don’t think we should get too comfortable, as comfort breeds complacency and some may think that because we have a Pride Network that it isn’t part of their day job.

"They assume it is all taken care of, however it may still leave room for behaviours to start creeping in that could impact people if they go unchallenged.

"Everyone will say that the concept of discrimination in the workplace is abhorrent.

"It’s a common-sense, moral and ethical statement. Where we can do more is to be conscious of how we live and interact each day as human beings, beyond the rhetoric.”