Decide to Climb the Ladder or Build Your Own
“My foot was in the door, the burden of representation was on my back, and the ladder was in sight. I just didn’t have a clue how to climb it.” – Stan’ O’Neal, former CEO of Merrill Lynch
Corporate America has not reckoned with its legacy of racism. Executive leadership, career success, and the journey up the corporate ladder are all steeped in white dominant culture. In order to navigate this racial, social conditioning and take control of the leadership journey from a place of power, we must create spaces for Black leaders that centers on the Black
experience.
This session will explore socialized patterns that accompany being Black in America, including the realities of power and privilege. We are going to look back before we look forward. Reflecting on the past while looking toward an ideal future, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how history contributes to their future path as leaders. This understanding
will give each participant a deeper awareness of their unique leadership strengths, values, and career goals, resulting in a vision and plan for how they want to navigate their future on their own terms.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives provide the foundation for training development. Terminal and Enabling Objectives provide a framework that organizes the course content, instructional activities, and assessments (Wiley Everything DiSC Workplace). The Terminal Objective describes the learning achieved by completing the overall course, while Enabling Objectives describe learning achieved with specific segments of the course.
Terminal Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will have:
- Created a toolkit of skills and behaviors to re-center themselves during instances of
racism and prejudice in the workplace - Defined a useful approach to navigate the intersection of power, privilege and internalized oppression
- Developed a leadership philosophy that serves as a “north star” on their corporate journey
- Developed a more critical eye for the influences of a white, dominant culture – allowing them to operate from a place of awareness and choice
- Identified an accountability community to support their growth and development goals
- Increased their confidence to introduce innovative solutions and contributions rooted in their unique identity experience
- Refined their sense of self – who they are now and who they aspire to be
Enabling Objectives
During this course, participants will:
- Conduct a gap analysis of their desired leadership growth areas, their network and community
- Explore the history of racism, systemic oppression and racial socialization in America
- Identify their core leadership values
- Practice skills and behaviors that allow them to more quickly and intentionally center themselves and find their voices in workplace situations
- Understand the mind-body connection, tapping into the wisdom and messages in our emotions and bodies and how they connect us to our needs and values in the moment
- Unpack the often unspoken “black tax” that accompanies being Black in the workplace – including implicit biases, explicit prejudices, codeswitching,
microaggressions, etc.