“Have you ever been ashamed of how you look?” asked Reginald Butler, a managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a conference room at Washington University’s Knight Center.
About a third of the 52 multicultural business leaders in the room stood up. The fellows of the yearlong leadership program with the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative began answering hard questions in August. The program of monthly workshops ends in September.
Butler told them to look around. “Notice who’s with you, notice who’s not, notice how you feel about that,” he said.
In a workshop about diversity in the workplace, Butler went on to ask other personal questions, such as whether they had alcoholic family members or were raised by a single parent. After a page of questions, Butler finally asked the business leaders how they felt.
“Vulnerable” was the common sentiment.
“It’s the opposite of what we do at work,” said Galen Gritts, president of the Thorpe Company, LLC and a registered tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. “We put on many layers.”
Some said they felt uncomfortable answering the questions because their managers were in the room. Butler said this level of mistrust must be addressed, because understanding and accepting what is going on in their employees’ lives is the ultimate level of inclusion. And that will in turn make them better leaders in their companies.
“Life cycles and careers are supposed to match, so managers are suppose to be talking to you about your life,” Butler said. “It will help you be a better worker. And you are not supposed to be stuck in a place of ‘I don’t know if I want to tell them because I don’t want them to judge me.’”
“That is diversity at its highest level, and we call that inclusion,” he said – “when you include people in the context and storyline and you feel comfortable having that conversation. An inclusive environment is much more productive than any other type of environment you can have.”
Even though the fellows have been meeting monthly since August, sharing personal information still threw up a protective layer from fear of judgment, many said.
The fellows are Hispanic-American, African-American, Asian-American or Native American mid-level managers or professionals working at St. Louis region companies for a minimum of seven years. They have all been nominated by their company leaders.
Now in its fifth year, the program’s goal is to help minority business leaders tune their leadership skills, said Valerie Patton, director of the initiative.
In its first year, there were 22 fellows. The program has more than doubled its annual participants, and throughout the year the program’s alumni participate in activities with current year fellows as well. About 47 percent of all fellows to date have received promotions in the past 24 months.
Program leaders are accepting nominations for next year’s fellows until May 13. As part of the fellowship, managers are invited to participate in some parts of the monthly workshops.
The idea for the initiative grew out of conversations about employment, housing and employment between African-American political leaders and Civic Progress representatives in the late 1990s. Despite diversity efforts, the fellows are learning that the region remains largely polarized.
Later in the workshop with Butler, the business leaders and company managers stood around jars of different colored beads waiting for instructions. They were told to pick the color of bead that represented the race of various people in their lives, including their supervisor, company president, co-workers and the majority people in their households.
“The person who takes care of how you look. And if there are too many, pick the one who you give the most money to,” instructed Butler.
Then he told them to close the box and go back to their seats.
“I have touched you at an emotional level, and unless I give you an opportunity to express that, you won’t hear or learn anything from here,” he said.
The most common words were “embarrassed,” “limiting,” “lacking” and, lastly,
