As a leader how do I make an impact to challenges that are so deep?  You just start.  My guest Buki Ishola and I talk about the challenges that Black professionals face in the corporate world progressing to senior roles in their careers.  Leaders at all levels have influence and decision making over who gets hired, promoted, progressed.  Leaders have a direct impact on the quality of the relationship developed with their team, the depth of conversation around people's hopes and dreams for their careers, and access to development opportunities to gain experience, build skills and demonstrate leadership.  Our most important role as leaders is to help everyone achieve their full potential.  Sadly, the results indicate across all sectors and all industries very few Black senior professionals.  You can make a difference.  Dive into this conversation with us.  Just start my friends.

Join me and my friend Janet Boyle-Jackson “Over the rainbow”.

Season 2 of the I Heart My Community Podcast is for leaders, like you (and me) who want to continue to learn and grow and do our part to make our workplaces and communities stronger and more inclusive. And BE better, together.

We kick off pride month with Janet’s story of moving to Bruce & Grey County in 1979, as trail blazers, Jan and her then partner and now wife Barb raised their 5 children and navigated many ‘firsts’ from integrating their family as a lesbian couple, workplace challenges and a community where they felt a sense of belonging and enjoy the freedom of self-expression.

We learn about the financial challenges that family status had on the things we take for granted like employer family benefits and tax filings.

What’s the next “first” for Jan? Aging LGBTQ+ communities worry about what retirement living and long-term care look like for them.

Will it be and inclusive space or will people feel they need to go ‘back in the closet’ to be safe at a vulnerable time in their lives.

How we will as leaders respond to looking ahead to support the needs of an aging and diverse community?

"You have to look in the sky and keep looking up.  You are part of bigger world and when you see an Eagle you can take a breath and know that everything is going to be ok."  Those were the words spoken by Christine John in the latest episode of the I Heart My Community Podcast.

The Eagle in indigenous teachings is considered a messenger of the creator and is the symbol of love, friendship, honour, and bravery.

Christine is an Indigenous woman who works at Bruce Power and forges relationships with Indigenous communities.

From a young age she wanted to be a voice for others and help make the world better.

With her grandparents being part of the residential school system in Canada, many of the teachings and traditions of her culture got lost and not shared due to the shame created from that dark part of our Canadian history.

Christine took on the role in her family to explore her past and her heritage and to bring the teaching of the seven grandfathers into her life in a beautiful way to honour her past and let the teachings guide her.

Christine is an avid volunteer in the community.  I admire her strength, her sense of purpose and the way shares her heart and lifts people up.  Thank you so much Christine, I'm grateful.

And very often, it’s simply believing we can.

My guest Kim Wolf navigated the world of manufacturing in what some would call a ‘man’s world’ to hold manufacturing leadership and plant manager roles in familiar household names like: Eveready batteries, Pepperidge Farms, The Campbell Soup Company and The Original Cakerie.

While the accomplishments speak for themselves, what really struck me about our conversation was person that Kim chose to be in her career.

What’s clear to me, is that she held a strong innate trust in who she was, what she could achieve, what her values were and then designed her life and career aligned to what mattered most to her.

When faced with problems and resistance, that could have been resistance to her gender or her age, or her origins, Kim embraced these moments to rise up to and to see opportunity out of resistance.

Relentlessly and unwaveringly knowing her own value and the value of diversity of thought.

What’s not lost on me, is the importance of role modelling to our daughters, sons and community around “what’s possible”.

Kim watched her own mother go back to school as a single mom to support herself and her family. Watching her own mom rise and learning the lessons along the journey.

Thank you, Kim, I loved this conversation and look forward to many more as we support our families, colleagues and communities in also believing what’s possible when we believe in ourselves and work together.

#iheartmywork #leadership #iheartmycommunity

We live in a time when we do away with 'old fashion' things and ways of being.   Like racism.  Most people know that "old fashion" racism including intolerance to Black, Indigenous and People of colour is socially unacceptable.  We know this with our minds.  We tell our families.  We say, we're not racist, we say we love everyone.

If we dare to take a look a little below the surface we can start to see how modern racism shows up.   Often unaware and unconsciously below the surface it creeps out.  Often in what's not said.  Often expressed in negative emotions like denial of a problem or feelings of resentment for asking for change.  For asking to consider the thoughts and feelings of others.  To think before we speak.  To change old habits, to choose different words, to change our own behaviour, to make space for everyone.

This week, I am thrilled to share my conversation with Flo Nusselder of West Grey and is a graduate of John Diefenbaker Senior School in Hanover.  Flo grew up in Durham and now attends Queens University as a Psychology major.

Flo shares her learning and journey of her own discovery and shares how you can begin your own.

Beyond parades, window stickers, surveys & action plans, how to we create inclusive communities?

I spoke with Dela Avle about how to go beyond task forces & initiatives and learn to be human with one another. 

Drawing on the skills of being a good friend and neighbour.

Connecting with how we are the same. Rather than focus on our differences.

Dela was born in Ghana and is a graduate Brandis University and Harvard Law School. He practiced law at major law firms in in New York and Toronto before joining Bruce Power and settling in Bruce County in 2009.

I loved getting to know more about Dela and his fascinating life journey.

One day he hopes to try fishing - Bruce County, I think we can deliver.