Tiffany Atkinson

First day vibes!

Yesterday was my first in-office day for my new role as the Learning & Development Manager, Member Experience at Trupanion.

After spending several weeks working remotely in Indy, it was a nice change of pace to finally be in the office to meet my team.

One of the highlights of my first day was the welcome sign the L&D team made for me. Reading all of the personalized messages they left, sharing their excitement for my arrival to my new city, made my day.

Plus, the welcome party donuts and desk swag were an added treat!

I’m thrilled to officially kick off this next chapter with such an amazing team and I’m looking forward to helping make a meaningful impact here at Trupanion!

Dropping by with a quick life update:

7 days, 7 states, and 2,200 miles later The Atkinsons officially have a new home on the west coast.

Last week my husband and I packed up our car and drove cross country to our new home: Seattle, Washington.

At the start of the summer, we decided to sell our house and since then we’ve been full speed ahead getting ready for our big move.

In September as we were anticipating the move I accepted a job in the city (more on that later) and I’ve been working remotely in Indy for a few weeks.

I know for many of you this will be a bit of a shock as I purposely haven’t said anything.

But I finally feel ready to share this exciting change and I hope you’ll be just as excited about it as I am.

Indy has been my home for the majority of my life and it will be bittersweet to leave behind.

But I can’t wait to see what Seattle has in store for both my husband’s and my career.

To my Indy peeps, I’ll miss you all.

Please never be a stranger as my door is always open.

Now it’s time for us to get some sleep after being on the road nonstop for a week.

Take Care,
Tiffany

This month, I’m honored to be featured in TD Magazine’s August issue as a TD Rising Star.

For those who aren’t familiar, TD Magazine (Talent Development Magazine) is the Association for Talent Development - ATD’s award-winning monthly publication that covers best practices, emerging technologies, and trends in the talent development industry.

Each month, their “Up & Coming” column highlights the accomplishments of talent development professionals recognized as industry leaders.

I’m thrilled to be included among those who’ve been featured in the column.

As someone new to L&D, I was both surprised and excited when the editorial team reached out for me to share my story.

Reflecting on my journey and its many unexpected pivots during the interview was a meaningful experience for me.

It reminded me of how far I’ve come and the unexpected paths that have shaped my career.

I hope that by sharing my story, more women will realize they don’t have to have everything in their career figured out by a certain age and it’s ok to have an unconventional career journey.

There’s always time to start over, pivot, and try something new in your career.

Thank you to the TD Magazine editorial team and ATD for this incredible opportunity!

I’m excited to share my journey and hopefully inspire others with my story.

You can check out my interview in the photo and get a copy of TD Magazine’s “No Pain, No Gain” August issue at the link in the comments.

Take Care,
Tiffany

I’m usually one not to repurpose content, but with Pride Month upon us, resharing my call to action from last year felt appropriate.

We’re only five days into June, and I’m sure by now your feed has already been inundated with rainbow flags from those you follow showcasing their support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Just as I did last year, I want to challenge us to remember that Pride is more than posting rainbows to show your support.

It’s an annual reminder that we must work together to ensure the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ folks in our workplaces and communities.

This means our inclusion efforts need to go deeper than slapping a rainbow on our branding, marketing, and Zoom backgrounds during June.

Instead, we need to apply that inclusion where it matters and not stop on July 1st.

This month, I want to challenge us all to use whatever power we have to help LGBTQIA+ folks feel more seen and less othered by:

🏳️‍🌈 Making our hiring practices more inclusive.

🏳️‍⚧️ Highlighting LGBTQIA+ voices on our individual and company pages by resharing their content.

🏳️‍🌈 Asking those within the LGBTQIA+ community what they need from us instead of assuming.

🏳️‍⚧️ Buying from LGBTQIA+-owned businesses.

🏳️‍🌈 Hiring LGBTQIA+ speakers for our events.

🏳️‍⚧️ Using more inclusive language in the workplace.

🏳️‍🌈 Donating to LGBTQIA+ causes and nonprofits.

🏳️‍⚧️ Advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights (especially access to health care).

🏳️‍🌈 Speaking out against LGBTQIA+ hate speech (including purposeful misgendering).

I could go on...

But most importantly, we must all work together to create workplaces where people are seen and accepted for who they are, regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, sexual preferences, or any other aspect of their identity that ties them to the LGBTQIA+ community.

And we must challenge ourselves to do it all year long, not just during the month that everyone expects us to talk about it.

Sincerely,
An ally who wants to see Rainbow Capitalism come to an end

When I began developing our programming philosophy for my company’s rebrand into L&D Consulting, I knew I wanted to address some of the shortfalls in Women’s Leadership and Professional Development programs.

I started with the most glaring one: biased archetypes and stereotypes used to define and determine women’s leadership potential.

Attend any major Women’s Professional Development conference or prestigious Women’s Leadership program, and you will see these biases on full display.

From exclusionary examples of successful female leaders to limiting steps for exhibiting Executive Presence and unrealistic goals for climbing the corporate ladder, women are often told they must change themselves to prove their leadership potential.

Now I’m all for exploiting the problems in a broken system to ultimately use that exploitation to change the system.

But what I’m describing isn’t what’s happening in Women’s Leadership today.

Maybe that was the initial intent, but at some point, we started conforming to the system as if it wasn’t broken.

So when my team and I designed our programming philosophy, we had one goal to uphold: to make our programs truly inclusive.

To do this, as our first tenet we adopted a revolutionary idea: Every woman has what it takes to lead.

Instead of telling women they need to change, we focus on the systems they’re up against that need changing and discuss the roles women and their workplaces play in dismantling those systems.

Because we recognize that women showcase their natural leadership skills every day, often without recognition, through the several leadership positions they occupy throughout their lifetimes while balancing their personal lives with building careers.

So as much as women may be capable of conforming to a broken system, we’d much rather help them take it down.

Now I know some of you read our “revolutionary” statement and thought, “Tiffany, that‘s not very revolutionary at all.”

And I agree.

But in today’s Women’s Leadership and Professional Development landscape, the idea of building programs that cultivate the inherent leadership capabilities of women without making them conform to a broken system still seems too revolutionary for some.

Even if it should be the standard we all follow.

Take Care,
Tiffany

With a little over a week left in May, you’ve probably noticed an uptick in mental health awareness content on your feed.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, after all.

While I appreciate the posts encouraging more open conversations on mental health in the workplace, I want to remind everyone that this should be a norm we practice all year round.

With mental health struggles rising worldwide, it’s crucial for us to build workplaces where talking about mental health isn’t taboo.

This not only helps those who are struggling but also sets a standard for how we view our overall health.

One group that can particularly benefit from open dialogue on mental health is those living with invisible conditions.

It’s estimated that 10% of Americans live with a physical, mental, or neurological condition that isn’t visible from the outside but can limit how they navigate the world.

These conditions, often called invisible conditions, can range from chronic illnesses to learning differences and vision or hearing impairments.

A frequently overlooked challenge faced by those living with invisible conditions is the toll it can take on mental health, especially when trying to keep up with career demands.

Not because living with an invisible condition makes someone less capable, but because it can thrust them into an unplanned battle of keeping up appearances when they’re feeling their worst.

In fact, it’s widely understood that most people living with invisible conditions do not self-identify or disclose their condition in the workplace.

Often fearing that disclosing their condition will result in retribution or accusations of faking or taking advantage of their condition.

As someone who has lived with two invisible conditions since the age of 19, one of which is a disability, I am all too familiar with these fears.

I have experienced firsthand the mental health struggles that can come from building a career while living with these conditions.

I encourage you to take everything you learned this May about the importance of discussing and prioritizing mental health in the workplace with you throughout the year.

Because you never know who could be suffering in silence and could use someone checking in on them.

Take Care,
Tiffany

One of the most common questions I’ve received since announcing our new direction as an L&D consultancy focused on inclusive Women’s Leadership and Professional Development programs is whether inclusive Women’s Leadership programming is too niche.

For me, the simple answer is: No.

Developing programming with inclusion in mind isn’t too niche.

At best, it’s the bare minimum we should consider when developing programming.

Unfortunately, many Women’s Leadership and Professional Development programs don’t consider inclusion in their process.

It’s just assumed that because a program was developed for women it will automatically apply to all women.

We believe this one-size-fits-all development approach doesn’t serve the vast and diverse needs of women.

We also believe it’s a shortcut that programs have been taking for too long and it results in programs that put some women’s professional development needs over the professional development needs of others.

Ultimately widening the gap of representation of women with historically excluded backgrounds in leadership such as:

- Women of color
- Women living with disabilities
- Women who are veterans
- Women in the LGBTQIA+ community
- And so many more women who deserve to have their voices represented as leaders

We believe that it’s beyond time to fix this equity issue by ensuring every Women’s Leadership and Professional Development program is developed with an inclusive and intersectional lens.

And that’s why if you ask us “Is developing inclusive leadership and professional development programming for women too niche?”

Our answer will forever be: “No. Women aren’t one-size-fits-all. Their leadership and professional development programs shouldn’t be either.”

Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but the least we can do.

Stay tuned as we share more about our vision to usher in a new, more inclusive era of Women’s Leadership.

Take Care,
Tiffany

Today’s home office while recovering from an ankle injury.

I promise it’s not as bad as it looks.

Anyone else have to get creative with their workspace today?