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When Your Heroes Let You Down
When someone we admire disappoints us, it’s tempting to reach for an extreme reaction. Either defend them at all costs or condemn them entirely. But growing older (and wiser) usually asks something harder of us than either response. It asks for discernment. This is not an argument against heroes or role models. Human beings need…
You Don’t Need to Be Rich to Contribute to Charitable or Philanthropic Efforts
With the holiday season on the horizon, there is no better time than now for you to get into the spirit of giving. Building a culture of giving within your organization is an effective way to impact lives beyond office walls while simultaneously enriching the lives of your own employees. Through charitable giving and philanthropic endeavors, we can all do our part to make a difference for the greater good of society by helping those in less fortunate situations. And by doing so, companies can create a unified culture that promotes inclusiveness, selflessness and positive workplace environments.
Think Pink: A look into Breast Cancer Awareness as we Conclude October Breast Cancer Awareness Month
For the past month, you’ve probably noticed an infusion of the color pink intermixed throughout your day-to-day life. You know, the pink signs and posters in storefront windows. The pink clothes on sale in retail stores at the mall. The pink cookies at the grocery store. The pink apparel worn by NFL players during Steelers games. The pink pins, ribbons, and bracelets your friends and family proudly wear each day.
Because in October, pink is all over.
As you likely know, pink is the color associated with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which annually comes to the forefront throughout the month of October. It’s a staple over the 31-day span, signifying an effort to take steps toward finding a cure for a disease that takes the lives of over 41,000 women each year in the United States. Most of us probably know someone who has been affected by breast cancer in one form or another – whether it’s their own diagnosis or the diagnosis of someone close to them – and have been forced to face the battle head-on.
Tackling Tough Workplace Conversations
Regardless of your position or title, participating in tough conversations at work comes with the job. As an engaged employee, it is your responsibility to address and rectify these challenges as they arise to keep things running as smoothly as possible.
Tough topics are diverse in circumstance. Anything from poor work performance, inappropriate workplace behavior, emotional reactions, mental health stresses, verbal/sexual harassment and layoffs or terminations call for serious conversations that require effort and an effective communication strategy.
Although tackling tough topics in the workplace comes with the territory of being a servant leader, it isn’t always an easy task. Use these four tips to constructively handle these conversations in order to maintain a healthy and productive work environment.
How to Practice Servant Leadership
Leadership is a unique skill. It requires confidence, poise, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication, industry expertise, accountability, passion and drive to be a great leader. When all are combined, leaders are able to act as a resource others can rely on – both from professional and personal standpoints.
There are various forms of leadership, some producing better results than others. An effective strategy I’ve experienced throughout my professional career is the concept of Servant Leadership.
4 Effective Communication Strategies to Become a Better Leader
We’ve all interacted with leaders at some point in our lives. Maybe it was a boss, a mentor, a coach, a parent, a sibling, or even a friend. And, as we recall, the leaders who we shared the most positive experiences with – the leaders who inspired us to be the best versions of ourselves – were those who understood how to develop a relationship with us, those who empathized with our emotions, and those who knew how to shine a guiding light toward turning our trials and tribulations into success stories.
That’s because great leaders are dependent upon their ability to effectively communicate!
The evolving paradigm of inclusion: Where are we headed?
Ableism. Latinx. Non-binary. Alternative spirituality. Transracial. Mansplain. The landscape of diversity & inclusion is no longer Black and White, or Female and Male; it requires the ability to navigate culture in a manner that is vastly different today than ever before. But just wait until tomorrow!
Countless studies have shown that diverse employee representation at all levels of an organization has a quantifiable impact on financial performance. In fact, it is now commonly acknowledged that diversity & inclusion serve as the engine for many corporations to ensure the knowledge, critical thinking, and innovation required to successfully achieve business and mission-critical objectives. But haven’t we been talking about “the business case” for diversity & inclusion for some time? How much progress have we, as diversity practitioners, really made in our corporations and more broadly throughout society? And does the next generation of diversity leaders have a different agenda from that which we are immersed in today?