Earlier this week the Supreme Court struck down DOMA and said good by to Proposition 8. This was a plus for diversity and inclusion. For LGBT couples in states where same-sex marriage is legal it’s historic. They are now eligible for over 1,000 Federal benefits, including joint tax returns, and survivor spouse and child social security benefits. For lesbian and gay…
Inclusive Leadership; leveraging diversity and building community with employees and customers I hated my first job. It was selling aluminum siding over the telephone. I didn’t even know what it was, how much aluminum siding actually cost. I didn’t know who owned the company or what happened once a live person showed up at the house of the perspective buyer….
I heard an LGBT activist on television infer that the Democrats who supported gay marriage were more “pure,” than Republicans who support gay marriage. He said that Democrats were more sincere because the only reason previous anti-gay Republicans like Sen. Rob Portman supported gay marriage was because they found out they had kids who were LGBT or had friends that…
A CEO recently complained that his employees were resistant to diversity and any kind of training.I asked him what he meant. He told me that the EEO officer had created a program and no one was signing up. What’s wrong with this picture?1-Diversity management is not the same as affirmative action and shouldn’t be sitting in the same office.2- When…
Jason Collins, NBA player with the Washington Wizards, told the world he was gay in an interview with Sports Illustrated and on Oprah. While there are a few naysayers who are reacting out of petty ignorance and bigotry, support for him has been overwhelmingly positive in the Sports World and from those of us in the outside world.
Roosevelt Thomas was one of the original thought leaders of diversity and diversity management. I read Beyond Race and Gender when I first started this work as a profession, and found myself agreeing with everything I read. His book, “Building a House for Diversity,” is one of the best books to break down why diversity and diversity management is so…
I’m tired of people talking about cultural competency. I’m not sure what it even means. It sounds like it is limited to “being good” at one culture, or just good enough to pass. I prefer to talk about cultural intelligence, or cultural flexibility which are processes to be able to interact effectively with people from any cultural group. Cultural intelligence…
Employee Resource Groups or ERGs, are organized networks of employees in organizations who have similar demographics, interests, or life experiences, i.e,, veterans, women, Gen Y, people over 40, African-American, people with various religious affiliations, South Asian, etc. Early on, many ERGs began as a affinity groups formed to provide social and career support for their members. As diversity and inclusion…
Meaningless Diversity Slogans(We probably have used these more times than we admit. I pledge to stop myself before I use them) 1- The Golden Rule- Treat people the way you want to be treatedWhat if you hate yourselfWhat if they other people don’t want what you wantWhat if you have no idea how you want to be treated because you’ve…
Have you ever had a job that you hated? That you dreaded so much you didn’t want to leave your house in the morning? I had one of those jobs. In those days, it was called telephone soliciting. I sold aluminum siding over the telephone. I didn’t know how much it actually cost or even what aluminum siding was. I…
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