Neha Sampat is the Founder and CEO of BelongLab, a company that helps clients catalyze fundamental transformation in building cultures of belonging.
Harnessing the power of social-science data and stories, Neha helps BelongLab clients identify and align their personal and organizational values with their work. She’s coached across industries, including legal, business, higher education, tech, startup, entertainment, and nonprofit fields. She is an expert on inclusive leadership and disrupting imposter syndrome, and she runs the top-rated “Owning Your Value” programs to cultivate confidence and nurture authenticity.
Through consulting, training, speaking, and writing, Neha helps organizations create inclusive teams by addressing hidden barriers to belonging. As a former lawyer, Neha has seen firsthand the costly mistakes organizations make regarding their people. That’s why she’s passionate about holistically closing the gaps in companies’ diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives to create an empowered, inclusive team.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Neha Sampat discusses her journey from law to education to entrepreneurship
- Neha breaks down common diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) mistakes
- The pandemic’s effects on DEIB initiatives
- What does imposter syndrome have to do with DEIB in the workplace?
- How systemic and individual bias contribute to feelings of doubt for marginalized groups
- Neha talks about organizations’ successful strategies to tackle unconscious bias and imposter syndrome
- What can individuals do to develop confidence and initiate change?
- Leveraging your privilege to shake up legal industry norms
- Neha’s reminder: avoid holding yourself to perfection
In this episode…
Recently, there has been a shift towards increased diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the hiring and recruiting stages. However, organizations are seeing a high churn rate among these employees because crucial components are missing in the day-to-day strategy. So, what exactly goes wrong after the hiring stage?
A significant factor that can diminish an employee’s sense of belonging is imposter syndrome. Although imposter syndrome refers to an individual’s feelings of fraud and self-doubt, it often manifests from being “othered” in the workplace. Imposter syndrome and anxiety are exacerbated by systemic racism, unconscious bias, and an employee implicitly being told they don’t belong — thus, leading to a high churn rate for those diverse candidates who were revered in the hiring process. How do you tackle imposter syndrome and other factors that affect employees’ sense of belonging?
In this episode of The Lawyer’s Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman sits down with Neha Sampat, Founder and CEO of BelongLab, to talk about busting imposter syndrome for a greater sense of belonging and inclusivity. Neha shares why many DEIB initiatives fail, the importance of non-homogenous leadership and addressing employee pain points, and the tried-and-true strategies for cultivating belonging on an organizational and individual level.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Elise Holtzman on LinkedIn
- The Lawyer’s Edge
- Neha Sampat on LinkedIn
- BelongLab
- Caren Ulrich Stacy on LinkedIn
- Diversity Lab
- “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome” by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
- “The ‘Lawyer Personality’ and Becoming a Happier Lawyer” with Dr. Larry Richard
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by The Lawyer’s Edge, a firm based in the New York metropolitan area founded by Elise Holtzman in 2008 to help lawyers become skilled business developers and leaders so that they can grow their practices, retain top talent, and step confidently into leadership roles.
The firm offers customized coaching, consulting, and training programs such as their signature business development program, Lawyers Making Rain.
Now more than ever, it’s not enough to just do good work and hope your law firm will thrive. And no matter how smart and hard-working you are, it can be time-consuming and overwhelming to figure it all out by yourself.
To learn more about how we help lawyers become rainmakers and leaders, visit thelawyersedge.com or email us at podcast@thelawyersedge.com.
