Letter from the Diversity and Inclusion Partner
Author: Dawn Siler-Nixon, FordHarrison's Diversity and Inclusion Partner
The three P's for C-Suite success - Self-Promotion, Executive Presence, and Strategic Partnerships. These three concepts are truly revolutionary for women and minorities, yet foreign in the same breath. Many often shy away from self-promotion, but showcasing your accomplishments and skills is critical for success. Exhibiting gravitas – dignity, solemnity of manner and seriousness, as the situation requires, and not simply trying to be one of the gang, is a skill that must be honed and present during critical meetings and encounters. It is essential to ensure that you are developing and leveraging strategic partnerships within and outside of your organization, so your brand is widely known, you receive appropriate advice and guidance and you have a champion who may be sitting at the right table at the right time. One of our diversity and inclusion goals at FordHarrison is to provide a platform for everyone to have an equal opportunity to succeed. To do so, we must not merely look at an individual's current status or stature, but from where they have come. Once we know the path that people have traveled to bring them to where they are, we can apply the three P's for C-Suite success to help them achieve the success they want. Many companies struggle with balancing the need to be politically correct with the desire to help their diverse team members succeed. Success in this space cannot be achieved without the ability to have an open and frank discussion about our backgrounds, cultures and abilities. To do that, organizations must carefully orchestrate opportunities for peers to ask the questions that will expand their world and lead to the success each of us seek to achieve. We are doing that at FordHarrison, won't you join us?
To read the Diversity... Moving Forward Summer 2016 newsletter, click here: Diversity Moving Forward_Summer 2016.pdf.