Tag: diversity and inclusion

March 18, 2018 Diversity and Inclusion

Women’s History Month Initiative – Empowering Yourself and the Women Around You

Let’s get a little personal

Below is an email I sent to the women in my life. After having numerous conversations with friends, coworkers, former coworkers, yoga buddies, you name it, I started to realize that we’re all secretly living the same life. We’re struggling with the same things but we don’t know how to voice them, share them, accept a certain level of vulnerability on the way to self-improvement. I wanted to share these words, and this opportunity with my readers.

What is this initiative and what are the benefits of joining?

First off, in case you haven’t heard this today – you’re doing great! You’re working a part time or full time job, continuing to flourish as a human being and as a woman, and you are looking for even more opportunities to improve yourself.

I’ve dubbed 2018 “The Year of the Hustle”. I’ve faced struggles over the last 3 years, encountered roadblocks that shook me, and put many of my own goals on hold to manage other situations in my life. You might be in the same place, or trying to come back from it.

I’m grateful for the discussions I’ve had with all of the women in my life and it occurs to me that we’re all looking for ways to grow personally and professionally. That type of growth is best achieved with a system of support. So I’ve added empowering the women around me as a goal. I’m starting with a Slack group to bring together like-minded individuals and build a community of continuous development. By joining, you’ll have a chance to interact with and learn from the experiences of women just like you. Participate at a level that works for you; pop in when you need help or hang out to lend a hand to new friends!

Because I want this to be a safe and truly positive space for women, access to the group is by invitation only. Do you know any women who would benefit from participating in this project? They can request an invitation by filling out this form. 

The group will focus on the following 5 topics, with additional items added as needed:

Personal and professional goals Where do you want to be and how can this group help you get there?
Money Do you want to talk about salaries, negotiations, managing money and short/long term financial goals?
Time Do you need an accountability partner to help you stay on track? Are you investing the right amount of time in yourself?
Reality checks Feeling like the world is full of trash people? Struggling to find your happy place in an increasingly tumultuous time? That’s ok! Let’s talk about what you’re seeing and how you can make an impact.
Tools Find and share tools and resources that help you keep track of everything and discover new approaches to problem solving.

I’m super excited to get started and to see what we will accomplish together!

February 18, 2018 Professional Development

Leading with Strength and Vision – A Woman’s Guide to Strategic Communication

Session Overview

Female leaders exist in all forms, from Director level to teachers in the classroom. Regardless of your title or role, there are opportunities to establish yourself as a leader in every interaction. At first, stepping up can feel overwhelming; you might be concerned about what you should or shouldn’t say, or how you come across. That uncertainty is normal and a great place to start. Before you dive into the deep end, let’s think about your end goal! Being a leader can mean different things to different people, but it all starts with authenticity. You can get your voice and ideas front and center without the fear of being seen as “that” person. It starts with knowing and owning your communication style and utilizing critical thinking skills, past experiences and empathetic practices to demonstrate your ability to foster change.

In this 1 hour session, we’ll work to identify individual leadership qualities, discuss ways to influence change in your organization, explore how to establish yourself as a leader in any organizational structure and outline how to develop emergent skills.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will have gained the ability to:

  • Discerning avenues of communication at all levels
  • Leading with respect in difficult situations
  • Standing behind your ideas
  • Alternatives to apologizing (why you’re doing it and how to stop)
  • Leveraging previous experience to position yourself as an expert within your organization

Interested in booking this workshop? Email me to get started!

February 25, 2017 Diversity and Inclusion, Professional Development

Exploring Diversity to Engage in Meaningful Conversation

Diversity is more than a word; it’s a conversation. It requires definition, context, perspective. It has been applied to groups, to initiatives, to companies, to food, to ecosystems. Diversity can and does mean so many different things that in this day and social media age, it’s all but a prerequisite to unpack the term before you can ever begin talking about it.

I took a multi-culture and diversity course while completing my graduate degree. The first assignment consisted of completing a 2 sided diversity wheel that asked about you as a person and you as a construct. I know, I know, but stick with me. We were paired randomly with a partner and then asked to share as much as we felt comfortable sharing. At the end, we wrote brief introductions of our partner and shared it with the rest of the class.

I learned a few things about myself, things that I’ll likely discuss in another in-depth post. More importantly, I learned a great deal about the assumptions that are made when talking to other human beings. For example, by some accounts, our species is all we have in common. By others, looking alike is all it takes to be alike.

As a member of my company’s ERG program, I was finding it difficult to get real, deep, and frankly uncomfortable, conversation going. We were going in circles, talking about ‘us’ as women, as one homogeneous group that shares the same experiences. To some degree, that’s the truth. I’ve been cat-called, I’ve been judged for my gender, I’ve been challenged because of it. I also know, however, that my experience as a woman of color, as a person who is on a different education or career track, as someone who grew up in NYC, means that I don’t necessarily share the same perspective as the woman sitting next to me. This doesn’t make one of us better than the other but ignoring these differences can divide us.

Below is a workshop I delivered in a small group setting. I’ve expanded the initial exercise to open up conversations about what diversity and culture are, as well as to have participants identify their own knowledge gaps and look for ways to further explore them.

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