Corporate diversity

Diversity has now been hailed for years as being the catalyst for good business and governance. For promoting women to the top of the career ladder to fostering inclusiveness in companies when it comes to minorities of all kinds, be they race, gender, or sexual orientation-related, diversity has been on the corporate minds and media mouths of many a corporate pundit. As a corporate sister and a Black woman, I welcome the focus and emphasis on diversity because of course, it should have been a universal value for all since the beginning of times, but primarily because it benefits me. And in this era of profit and positively affecting the bottom line, let’s keep it real, who doesn’t want to work for their own benefit? Well, let’s keep it real, I know I do, and so do most, if not all, corporations around…

As an employee, a double-minority, and a voice in the community, I am not ashamed to say that I benefit from diversity initiatives, for all the right reasons, that is…Where the color of my skin and my gender stood in the way of success at first, now my work is recognized fairly, and my contribution appreciated. Where I feared standing out from the professional crowd and being noticed for who I really was, now my unique experience, perspectives and insights are viewed as advantageous to the business as a whole. And it doesn’t just work for myself, and so many others like me…

As a business-minded CEO of my life, family and career, I can also see how diversity is not just a winning value for employees like myself, but also and maybe even more so, for corporations themselves. One of the most important values I teach my own children is that in order to gain respect, one must give respect. And that when we respect and honor differences in all individuals, we are able to see the best in all of them. And when we can tap into the best, unique and ground-breaking potential in people, we actually, even more so than those whose strengths we were able to tap into, end up winners! It’s no wonder that the most effective leaders are not necessarily the smartest, but the ones who know how to hire and retain the smartest talent they can find!

In today’s era of keeping it profitable, corporations can certainly gain from keeping it real! By investing in diversity and being outspoken about it, corporations can tap into what is now the reality of business. They can unearth the incredible, many times unseen talent of this world, and put it to work for their own advantage. Not only can they, like CVS Caremark, do right and feel right about decisions such as foregoing billions of profit selling cigarettes for the sake of better health, but they can also so right by their bottom lines by effectively tapping into the diverse consciousness of their workforce and clientele!

Because we always knew diversity was a winning value for all, we just may not have realized how much of a winning value it can actually be, not just yet…

The Corporate Sister.