Corporate Diversity- Is It Still Necessary?

We’ll find out! Be sure to tune in to my radio show Views From the Top Monday morning at 9AM EST. We’ll be having a healthy discussion on the need and role of Diversity Initiatives. I have the pleasure of have a panel of wonderful dynamic and powerful women who will lend their expertise and experiences in diversity.

The show which will air live on Monday, July 20th will focus on Diversity and how it plays a role in professional development, advancement and opportunities for women in the corporate and business world. We’ll have several prominent women on to discuss the trials and tribulations of corporate diversity, and most importantly inclusive diversity. We’ll also focus on companies that are getting it right. Some of the topics we’ll discuss are:

• Initiatives companies are taking to ensure inclusive diversity
• Opportunities & professional development that are available to women (especially women of color)
• The need for the diversity discussion in 2009, where we stand today and what the future holds
• Tips for women to navigate career success when there is a lack of diversity initiative
• The role and need for affinity groups/networks in 2009 and beyond

So if you want to be part of the discussion and possibly solutions, make sure you tune in and feel free to call in with your perspectives. We might have to extend the show some, but as it stands, the show is 90 minutes. www.blogtalkradio.com/viewsfromthetop

The panelists include:

Norma Henry– Information Technology Chief Diversity Officer and Program Manager at Verizon Business in Virginia.
Jane Hyun– President and Founder of Hyun & Associates in NYC and author of the book “Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling”.
Michelle Greene– the newly appointed Director IT of Governance, Application Architecture and Acquisitions within the Building Efficiency Division at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee.
Deepika Bajaj– founder and president of Invincibelle, a company empowering diverse, multi generational workforce and women to thrive in a multicultural world.
Leslie Sanchez– Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush and founder and CEO of Impacto Group LLC, a communications and market research firm, which specializes in defining social and economic trends affecting women and the emerging U.S. Hispanic community.
Carol Wyatt– is the Director of Human Resources for the BE 100 inducted Carol H. Williams Agency in Oakland, CA.

Be sure to tune in and call in with your questions and comments 347-215-9362. The chat room will be open during the show.

 

Global Landscape- Are Your Prepared?

For quite some time, I have been talking about a global economy, global diversity, and preparing myself to compete in this global society. While working on the translations of my company’s new website, I’ve been learning a lot. I learned how having multi-lingual staff is as vitally important as having your website and other marketing material properly translated! ¡Qué usted no sabe puede lastímele! (I hope I said that right!)

Over the last few months, I’ve been diligently restructuring my company and strategically growing my staff to include bilingual and multilingual individuals. (More on that another time). If I am serious about remaining competitive and truly focusing on global diversity, I need to not only learn foreign languages myself, but also surround myself with a multilingual team. I will be unveiling a new Candidate Center on the website that will include the ability to learn new languages as part of professional development. I am very excited about this.

How are you remaining competitive? Are you truly exploring the global landscape? Push yourself to excel and learn another language. Whether you take a formal class at the local college, buy audio tapes, enroll in immersion courses or find online tutorials, it is in your best interest to become at least bilingual. Now, if you are only looking for work here at home in the US market in positions that don’t require multiple languages, then you need to decide if you want to make the effort to learn. But I guarantee you that if you want to remain competitive (read: BANKABLE) in the global markets, you must LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE! Your career may depend on it if international projects are in your future. At minimum, you should be learning basic conversational *insert language here*.

Fino alla volta prossima.

Adrienne Graham