Allow me to re-introduce myself 👋🏾!
My name is Geronda Wollack-Spiller, and I hope you're ready because here...we....go 🏎️.
⏲ For as long as I can remember, I've become too familiar with being the "only." The only black person in my class, the only black woman who played trumpet in a band or who was on a team. The only lesbian on a team or who played soccer. The only black woman who was runner-up for prom queen, who was a lifeguard or on a team at work. Or the only woman who played on a men's American football team.
😬 When I joined the workplace, this familiar experience wasn't new to me. Representation was low, and the company's leadership wasn't held accountable. There also wasn't a clear understanding of the true meaning of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the whole company wasn't aligned.
😬 Trust was skewed because not all stakeholders had the same feelings of trust across the organization. However, leadership and others felt like the company was doing fine with DEI.
🤔 After talking with thousands of people across different identities over the past 5 years, a similar trend emerged. They didn't feel understood, accepted, or set up to succeed. What's even more intriguing is their managers' sense of fear, discomfort, or unfamiliarity.
🤔 This led me to grow as a DEI practitioner and change how I support organizations. How I got organizations to align on the definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. How organizations while well intentioned had to shift from intent to outcomes and no longer hide behind just hiring targets or solely increase in representation at the leadership level to name a few.
💡 This then fueled my mission to shift how I do diversity, equity and inclusion right and move from empowerment to outcomes and actions. Not only through a data-driven approach but through equity and historical context.
🎉 So now, for the past 5+ years, I've been Consulting for the business I founded, Courageously Inclusive Leadership LLC, where I help leaders and organizations ask the right questions early and reflect on what keeps them from outcomes-based DEI.
So, who's with me?
#2024goals #leadership #inclusionmatters #breakthesystems #reflect #bethechange #inclusiveleadership #equity #outcomesbased
Let's go! Proud of you and well-deserved Kim Sneeder! 🎉