Good Vibes Leadership with Bernadette Smith

I spent two days this week on a retreat with my mastermind group. We’re a bunch of varied founders who come together to learn and support each other as we build our businesses. The theme of this retreat was “communication” and one of the sessions I enjoyed was on communicating with ourselves when we’re triggered by something someone says at work.

We started by learning our individual fear response - mine is flight - and then self-reflecting on the various comments that have triggered that response at work. We then practiced getting triggered (and recovering from it) in pairs. The magic is in the tool we learned to recover from the triggers. Our facilitator, Pavini Coakwell Moray, taught us a technique to ground ourselves, expand, and let the body settle the mind.

There are so many reasons people get triggered at work but I can promise you that the overturn of Roe is a big one. I hope that your organization is having internal conversations on what the overturn of Roe can mean in terms of programming (consider listening sessions), employee benefits, privacy, communications, and more. Brace yourself for business implications like these.

Here are the good vibes I found this week:

1. Allyson Felix Launches a Child Care Initiative for Athlete Moms
2. Marriott International Launches “Bridging The Gap” Hotel Development Program
3. Google Will Let LGBTQ-Plus Merchants Tag Their Businesses in Maps
4. Walmart Expands Health Services to Address Racial Inequality
5. Walgreens Aims to Add Diversity to Drug Trials Through Stores
    

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This week I had a bunch of planning meetings in anticipation of upcoming keynotes. About 80% of the time, the client advises: “As a heads up, our employees are generally pretty conservative.” I’ve heard this from clients in many industries: financial services, energy, manufacturing, commercial real estate, and more.

Still, they’re willing to learn – and admit what they don’t know. Recently I had an attendee from a “conservative” industry send me a private email hours after the keynote sharing a recent experience being called out on their own microaggressions towards others, and looking for some additional resources to be better informed in the future.

I appreciated this email so much because it required some vulnerability for that person to reach out to me, share an embarrassing experience, and ask for resources. It also showed humility and curiosity, both of which are essential to the work of DEI.

I appreciate that you take the time to read 5 Things – because we’re all still learning. The discipline of writing 5 Things every week is part of my own learning journey.

Here are the good vibes I found this week:

1. The NFL’s First Out Trans Cheerleader Readies for Her Carolina Panthers Debut
2. Ms. Marvel Is the First Muslim Superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
3. Ben & Jerry’s Launches Multi-State Billboard Campaign to Support Trans Youth
4. Biden Administration to Pay White House Interns for the First Time in Recent History
5. 220 CEOs Demand Immediate Action From the Senate to Reduce Gun Violence

Join thousands of readers by subscribing to the 5 Things newsletter. Enjoy some good vibes every Saturday morning. https://5thingsdei.com/

Happy Pride! I’m going to be honest here…to me, life as a gay person in America right now feels like whiplash. On one hand, we’re seeing rainbow everything and everywhere this year – from products at IKEA and Target to tweets like this from the Marines. It’s so extreme that I’ve seen posts decrying the commodification of pride. They’re not wrong. And also, I really love rainbows.

This week, Equality Institute Associate Facilitator Darnell Adams and I recap the latest 5 Things (good vibes in DEI:

• Unilever Is Skipping Rainbow Merchandise & Pride Floats. They’d Rather Make an Actual Difference
• Members of Ukraine’s LGBTQ Community Who Sign Up for the War Have Taken to Sewing the Image of the Mythical Beast Into Their Uniforms Just Below the National Flag
• Shonda Rhimes Launches Two New DEI Initiatives With Netflix
• Virgin Atlantic Makes History With New Change to Employee Dress Code
• Slack Will Teach Your Co-workers How to Pronounce Your Name

5 Things / Pride Paradox blog show notes: https://www.theequalityinstitute.com/equality-insights-blog/5-things-pride-paradox

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 I discovered that there were a lot of really inspirational actions being taken to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive world, but typical news stories focus more on negativity. I decided to begin sharing what I consider to be "good vibes" each week in an effort to provide a little bit of hope -- to others, and to myself! 5 Things caught on quickly and now thousands of leaders around the world receive 5 Things and share them with their organizations, families, and friends.

Join thousands of readers by subscribing to the 5 Things newsletter. Enjoy some good vibes every Saturday morning. https://5thingsdei.com/