Connecting people across their cultural differences has always been my passion. My dad was a member of Dr. Martin L. King Jr.'s personal executive staff. I had the blessed opportunity to grow up getting to know the legends of the civil rights movement.The people who helped shape this nation into the true democracy it had always professed to be.
My parentsraised me to believe that “… everyone is responsible to contribute to the society in which they live”.This value-set led me to join the Army where I earned the rank of captain and served eight years. No organization develops leaders better than the U.S. Army. As a result, while there I learned first-hand the vast difference between management and LEADERSHIP. Throughout my professional life, I have witnessed many good, well intentioned peoplelimit their success because they were unable to fully engage their people. Not because they weren’t good leaders, but because they lacked the competencies to engage across cultural differences. I’ve spent the past 21 years helping my clients (CNN, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, National Security Agency, U.S. Army, etc…) create diversity competent leaders at every level of their organizations.
DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP -V- DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
At BASIC Diversity we've shifted our primary emphasis away from diversity management (policies & procedures), and are now focused heavily on DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP (inspiration, motivation and inclusion). Diversity and Inclusion initiatives are essentially LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES. Every enterprise must ask itself, "Have our leaders created an environment where every team member feels included and engaged?" In the end, it won't matter how good your management skills and policies are if your people don't feel valued. When people feel devalued, excluded or marginalized, they withhold their full potential, productivity, innovation and creativity.
