Black History Month – every month. I create clear thinking and decisive leaders, which includes amplifying the collective impact of leadership teams. To be a great leader requires the ability to empower all workers within the workplace. To enable improved leadership capability and execution is the mark of a leader.
Every organisation needs to be customer centric, recognising that customers are internal as well as external. How the customer experiences your organisation starts with the individual. Each person has their own individual leadership culture that includes their ethnicity, their values and feelings of psychological safety. When two or more people come together you get the collective leadership culture. All the things in the first circle in the diagram. The organisational culture supports the leadership culture. When these two things work in tandem it becomes translated into the customers’ reality.
Therefore, it is beholden on leaders to engender a leadership culture that enables all individuals to survive. That has a positive effect on a person’s well-being and allows them to feel like they belong. Not only does this improve productivity, the customers’ experience, but also provides a sense of belonging. We know that when people feel able to bring their whole self to work there is reduced absence and improved innovation. We also know that diverse teams are smarter teams.
I believe that Black History Month can be used as a catalyst for change, and a chance to reset the Inclusion discourse within your organisation. This is one of the reasons why I provide talks, workshops, awareness sessions, webinars and sit on panels during October, which is Black History Month in the UK. I’ve also spoken at 2 CIPD panels on Diversity Impact (different subjects), and provided a masterclass for HDR UK’s Black Internship Programme.
When the month is used as a catalyst for change, an organisation is speaking directly to the customer’s experience. When you think about how you want your customer to receive your service and interact with you, you must plan how your employees are going to interact with you.
When you allow Black History Month to permanent through the organisation you begin to have an inclusion mindset that factors into your very policy and procedures. You highlight to all employees that you care about them, thus building psychological safety.
Here are some resources that you might find useful:
#1
In this episode Judith Germain speaks to Woosh Raza about the uncomfortable conversation that needs to be had by UK employers around #blacklifesmatter and the tragic events of George Floyd et al.
They discuss whether diversity is really a philosophy and ponder why HR should have the uncomfortable conversation now.
Judith asks whether the #blacklivesmatter movement affects UK employers; and if it does, what can employers do to acknowledge what’s happened and to function in this environment?Â
#2
This is an episode for The Maverick Paradox @ KLDR. Judith Germain hosts this radio show, and her guest today is Woosh Raza and they are discussing intersectionality in the workplace.
Woosh looks at the humanity of people and how everyone has an intersectionality that needs to be considered by employers today. He also outlines the danger of how inclusion might end up putting people in a string of boxes rather than accepting employees for who they are.
He is the Head of People & Culture at Phoenix Futures, co-chair of the CIPD Central London Committee. Woosh is also a Stonewall Ambassador and Princes Trust Job Coach.
They have an interesting conversation where Woosh shares his leadership hacks and surprises Judith with questions on Maverick Leadership that she has been pondering.
#3
In this episode Judith Germain speaks to Dr K Edwin Bryant about critical race theory and whether it really is relevant today. Is it really just a US problem? What can the UK and other parts of the world learn from the US and visa versa?
How do we celebrate diversity without the erasure of difference? How can we have conversations where there is no shame, guilt or hatred? What is the racial trauma that is effecting black women in particular?
Listen to this hard conversation to discover what we can learn from each other, what is the objective truth of history and what can we avoid and learn from.
#4
Information on World Afro Day 2022 can be found here.
#5
#6
