Welcome to Intentional Conversations, the podcast where thoughtful leadership meets meaningful impact.

This week we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Joel Pérez for a powerful discussion.

🎧 Grab your headphones, hit play, and let the conversation begin!

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RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

How To Cultivate Genuine Self-Awareness And Propel Your Leadership

How to Achieve Organizational Excellence through Cultural Humility

KEY TAKEAWAYS DR. JOEL:

• Cultural competence is the foundation for working towards developing a posture of cultural humility.
• Every leader can benefit from cultural humility.
• I want to create space for people in the middle who are struggling to find answers and are afraid to ask questions from either side of the argument. These people isolate themselves because they are afraid to ask questions.
• The conversations I love having are those coming from a place of curiosity.
• What is the ideal state you want to be in, instead of what do you want to fix? We’re so conditioned to fix things.
• Always focused on the things you want to fix first and that is the wrong place to start.
• Individual - what biases do you have - we all have them. They never go away, but you can do things to mitigate their impact. Ask yourself “What biases do I need to check before I talk to this person?”
• Get clear about your identities and how are they present in the work you do.
• Developing “other” awareness - as you get to know your people, ask questions, but it must be modeled, so share more about yourself.
• You cannot force people to share more about themselves, and you shouldn’t.
• In the process of people feeling comfortable sharing more about themselves, you can begin to identify where the problems are.
• Find people around you that you trust who can give you honest feedback.
• Being reflective, how did I show up and how was that perceived?
• Yes do conferences, read books, get certificates, but if you’re relying on that only, you have to do it in community, you cannot do it in isolation.
• Self awareness is central!
• We spend so much money to get clear on who we are, but what do you do with it!

WHAT ARE COMMON PITFALLS INDIVIDUAL LEADERS FALL INTO WHEN TRYING TO CREATE INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENTS?

• They’ve not developed their curiosity. We don’t listen, not deep listeners and we don’t train ourselves to be deep listeners. We like to tell people what to do when the better idea is to say 'Tell me more about your decision making process', is it ok if I give you feedback?
• Leaders really struggle with developing the ability to be deeply curious and deep listeners.
• Maybe just learning how to breathe.
• Create a 15-minute gap between meetings.
• You have to do this work in community, not by yourself.



🟣 CONNECT WITH DR. JOEL :

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelperezphd/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apoyocoaching01/

Website: https://apoyocoaching.com/home-5144

🟣 CONNECT WITH NWC:

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nikawhiteconsulting

Facebook: https://facebook.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nikawhiteconsulting

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@nikawhiteconsulting

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Check out Dr. Nika White’s book, *Inclusion Uncomplicated*: https://nikawhite.com/inclusionuncomplicated