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What Travel Teaches Us About Leadership and Discomfort

Travel can teach us so much about resilience, flexibility, and humility. As a frequent traveler, I strongly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity as a way to stretch yourself, not only as a person but also as a leader. And for the record, travel doesn’t always have to take you an ocean away….

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Explaining the Outrage of Blackface

By now, we have all seen the headlines.

Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam first apologized but subsequently denied being one of two men, one in blackface, the other wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe/hood, prominently featured on his 1984 medical school yearbook page. While he denied being either individual in the image, he did admit to wearing shoe polish on his face to darken his skin to portray Michael Jackson in a dance contest.

Italian fashion brand Gucci announced a major push to step up diversity hiring as a part of a long-term strategy to build cultural awareness at the luxury fashion company following an uproar over an $890 sweater that resembles blackface.

Several celebrities — Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Ted Danson, and Jimmy Fallon — are under fire for their views on or poor judgment donning blackface.

Once considered acceptable stage makeup, blackface went the way of the N-word in terms of igniting controversy. At this point, we all should know that wearing blackface is offensive and wrong, but where does this practice originate from, and why is it so offensive?

Five Habits of Highly Successful Leaders

With the start of a new year, developing healthy habits are atop everyone’s mind. By now, we’ve all set our resolutions with a new hope to achieve goals both at work and home. In light of this tradition, as I continue to refine my own leadership style, I have pulled together common threads and habits of what literature sites as common habits of successful leaders. Forming new routines in our daily lives can be a challenge, but small changes make a huge difference.

A Year in Review

As we prepare to sunset 2018, it’s worthwhile to reflect on the journey that the year has taken us on. We learned a lot in 2018. And we also experienced events that made us cry. These tears weren’t in vain as they served as a catalyst, inspiring change in the world around us. So, let’s take a closer look at a few noteworthy occurrences:

Rise in Hate Crimes

The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL. The Emanuel A.M.E. Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, in Charleston, SC. A Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, KY.

Unfortunately, we all know the tragedy that struck each of these cities far too well. Earlier this month, two significant data points were released that are being discussed on the news, in our social media feeds, in our workplaces, and beyond. These facts are not surprising to most although difficult to digest when considering the totality of increased violence occurring all around us. Most of us have felt a shift happening but perhaps we didn’t know the true intensity of it until now.

A Breakdown of Talent Management

In every successful business, top leaders in the organization must focus on identifying and retaining the best, most diverse talent to achieve its mission and grow the business. Talent management, after all, plays an important role in the business strategy since it manages one of the most important assets of any company — its people.

How Social Determinants Impact Overall Health

One of the primary areas of emphasis within the current climate of the U.S. healthcare industry revolves around a clear-cut question that invokes a rather complex discussion. 

How can we – as researchers, doctors, nurses, and others in the medical field – create physical, social and psychological environments that effectively promote and provide the healthiest possible lifestyles for our society?

The general consensus has traditionally been that our overall health is dependent upon access to effective medical care. But in reality, new findings are proving the theory to be outdated and far from the truth. Advancements in preventive medicine have placed focal aspects of human health underneath a magnifying glass – paving way for comprehensive research that continues to reveal underlying truths about various societal health issues (cancer, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health, dementia and Alzheimer’s). We now know that medical care isn’t the forefront factor in our overall health. In fact, it’s actually viewed as the least influential aspect.