The joyful way I’m rejecting competition (#AmplifyJuly)

Welcome to Inclusion Is Leadership, a monthly infusion of insights, research, and guidance to create inclusive workplaces. Created by Ruchika T. Malhotra, inclusive leadership advisor, founder of Candour, author of Uncompete (Viking, November 2025), Inclusion On Purpose (2022), and creator of the LinkedIn Learning course: Moving DEI from Intention to Impact.

I sometimes think about how nothing in my life would be possible without the efforts of countless people I’ll never know.

From the coffee I drink, to the school and camps my son attends (and the buildings and staff and decor), to the food we’re blessed to eat and the clothes we get to wear.

It’s humbling to consider the sheer number of hands, hearts and minds that have enabled all the details of our lives. It underscores our inextricable connectedness: no one does anything alone.

In that spirit, I’m excited that next month is our third annual #AmplifyJuly!

What is #AmplifyJuly? (If you’re new to it, welcome 😊)

We can’t thank all the people whose lives support our own (though I’d like to!). It’s just not logistically possible. What we can do—to express our gratitude for all we have—is pay our thanks forward.  

That’s what #AmplifyJuly is for. It’s a month-long (all of the weekdays of July!) celebration of turning my social community of over 70,000 people…over to you. It’s about highlighting amazing, often overlooked or lesser-known leaders doing incredible things in our communities. 

And…It’s an expression of what it looks like to uncompete in practice. It’s a way I deliberately use my resources and platform to give time, attention and cheering to other people doing great work. 

It also consciously rejects the notion that my time and attention are best spent solely focused on myself, or that success and access to opportunities require constant self-promotion. Nope! Not in this house.

Uncompete in Action

I’ve been lucky to have incredible support from many leaders and their communities over the years. When I think about all the people—many I know personally, plenty I do not!—who’ve amplified my work, I feel awed and so, so grateful. 

I'm sharing how I think about "returning" the support of big names like Brené Brown and Amy Edmondson with subscribers of my email list next week. If you’d like to receive it, I would love to have you! You can join here.

Gifts that Keep Giving

You’re now familiar with the “why’s” behind #AmplifyJuly, but I have to acknowledge this part, too: I get a lot out of it myself! 

1. Expanded Community

Perhaps my favorite “outcome” is the new connections I make and people I get to follow. The level of inspiration I feel every year just magnifies; it gives me hope and joy and comfort at a time the world continues to feel even less welcome and predictable.

2. Outpouring of Support

Actually, let me change my mind—my favorite outcome is the outpouring of support we see in the comments. It’s so heartening to see people unabashedly cheering each other on! As an example, Veni Kunche received incredible support on LinkedIn, and rightly so! She’s working on a huge challenge today—to diversity tech. Work like Veni’s is exactly why we started this campaign: to elevate voices that often go unheard because they don’t play into the typical FOMO trends on social media that perpetuate competition.

3. All Positive Feedback

At first, I wasn’t sure how #AmplifyJuly would be received. Fast forward almost three years, and it’s become one of the most meaningful projects I've done. In fact, I’ve had organizations reach out after the campaign wrapped to share how much they admire the initiative, and in some cases, that appreciation has led to real opportunities. My friend Elaine Lin Hering , a prominent author and leader was inspired this year to run her own Amplify July campaign!  

Another pure joy is getting feedback from the people we amplify. Some say it makes their day. Others see upticks in traffic after their feature. I do not feel like anyone owes me their thanks—that’s not what it’s about at all—but it is moving to hear how the campaign impacts people.

And you know what else? We haven’t received a single piece of negative feedback about #AmplifyJuly (not many Internet initiatives can say the same!), which to me underscores that we’re wired to uncompete. Uncompeting feels good.

Radical Generosity and Solidarity

No one does anything alone. But here in the United States (and from what I can tell, much of the western world) it can seem like people do. There’s a strong cultural emphasis on individuality, which obscures the fact that we’re connected in countless ways. Social media seems to turbocharge this harmful and false idea.

By amplifying others—in the many ways available to us—we show another, truer side to our stories. We practice radical generosity and solidarity, which are two key ways to reject competition that I outline in my book, Uncompete. 

In doing so we help each other and we help ourselves, and everyone wins.

I encourage you to nominate yourself and/or folks you admire for #AmplifyJuly here.

For now, want to practice in the comments? I encourage you to tag someone whose work you admire, or a friend you’re proud to know. Let them know why you’re moved to amplify them!