Every workplace has stories.
Some are written down in values, competency frameworks and performance reviews.
Others are quieter.
“She’s brilliant with people.”
“He’s not very strategic.”
“She lacks confidence.”
“He’s leadership material.”
“They’re not quite ready.”
Repeat a story often enough and eventually it stops sounding like an interpretation.
It starts sounding like a fact.
In this episode, Vikki explores the stories organisations create about people, how those stories shape opportunity, and what happens when a workplace keeps responding to an old version of someone long after they have changed.
Because workplaces are supposed to develop people, but development requires revision.
You cannot say you want a growth culture while permanently holding people accountable to who they were two, five or ten years ago.
Growth requires organisations to update too.
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To ask:
What new evidence do we have?
What has changed?
What strengths are emerging?
Where are we still interpreting this person through information that is no longer current?
This matters even more when we think about diversity, because some people arrive in workplaces already carrying assumptions they never created in the first place.
This episode explores identity at work, leadership potential, workplace labels, performance, bias, development, promotion, diversity, organisational culture and the stories that quietly shape careers.
People do not only work inside organisations. They work inside the expectations those organisations hold about them.
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