How the CEO and Their Team Prevent Harassment in Business and at Work

The most effective Harassment Prevention and Awareness training sessions that I’ve conducted include the CEO and their team – not just attending the training with all employees: also standing up and declaring their commitment to prevent and stop harassment – in the organization, and with respect to themselves as consistently refusing to engage in, permit, condone or ignore workplace harassment. Organizational leaders who walk the talk before, during and after the Harassment Prevention training sessions without exception, ensure that the respect and compliance messages in Harassment Prevention training are unilaterally understood and implemented.

In a New York Times interview last week, Catharine MacKinnon, the lawyer who wrote “Sexual Harassment of Working Women” in 1979, which led to the 1986 Supreme Court unanimous ruling that sexual harassment is sex discrimination; and Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News anchor whose harassment complaint against CEO Roger Ailes resulted in a $20 million settlement and a public apology from Fox News, bottom-lined the key role organization leaders play in the efficacy of Harassment Prevention training:

Catharine MacKinnon: I’ve seen leaders of companies go in front of their employees and say: “Listen, we’re here to work, not to cater to your social and sexual needs. If I hear you’re doing that, you’re out of here.” It’s pretty strong, but harassment doesn’t happen in those places. 

Gretchen Carlson:  She’s so right. Imagine if every leader of every company did it that way: “The buck stops with me.” And every manager — half of them women, hopefully — was there to hear it. All the enabling would stop.

Catharine MacKinnon: People can tell when you mean it. They really can.

How does your CEO and the rest of your Leadership Team walk the talk of preventing harassment themselves, in business and at work?