In Your Power

CHAPTER 12Powerful Truth: From Angry to Authentic

“From caring comes courage.”

—Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

Lisa was the head of human resources, and she knew she needed to do something. This was 2019, when DEI leaders were already fighting a lack of urgency in their organizations (which we still are despite greater awareness of injustices and ROI data.) Frustrated that she wasn’t being heard, she internalized the blame. She was a perfectionist who wanted to prove her worth and felt bad about herself. She was also dedicated to inclusive values. She had inner churn whether to stay or go.

Lisa was planning on approaching the next leadership team meeting with the usual—an elaborate PowerPoint with graphs of where the company stood on their metrics, accompanied by her strategic vision of their goals. She felt a sense of resignation, they'd just glaze over and go on with business as usual. Yet she wanted to take the company beyond scoreboards to embedding DEI in their DNA.

I told her she was ready to share with them her powerful truth: her observations about the lack of change and her passion about creating a culture of true inclusion and respect. We crafted a script for her to kick off the meeting, along the lines of “We're 30% of the way toward our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, and it's the end of the year. This is not okay with me. Where else are we okay with accepting 30% of our business objectives? I'm holding us accountable for doing better, myself included. I ...