LAC 14 | Inclusive Leadership

 

There is a noticeable disconnect in DEIB work. Often in conversations, inclusion is thrown around simply as a buzz term when it is more than that. In fact, an environment that inspires inclusivity prevents detraction in collaboration. So what is inclusive leadership supposed to be, and how can we achieve it? In this episode, Dr. Nicholas Harvey, the Chief Empowerment Officer of Nicholas Harvey Consulting, joins Alicia Couri to give us the answers. He shares the value of inclusive leadership to achieve operational goals while maintaining space for human difference and creating equitable environments. He also taps into the dangers of code-switching and what it will cost you. Do you want to avoid detraction in collaboration and achieve inclusivity? Tune in to this conversation and learn how!

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Inclusive Leadership Is NOT A Buzz Term With Dr. Nicholas Harvey

Why Most DEIB Efforts Fail

We’re going to talk all about inclusion. Let me share with you my dynamic guest. His name is Dr. Nicholas Harvey, the Social Impact Coach. Nicholas is the Principal and CEO, Chief Empowerment Officer, of Nicholas Harvey Consulting, a strategic advisement, and executive leadership development and management consulting practice committed to creating ready-now leaders for a changing and diminishing workforce.

As a Social Impact Coach, he uses his public policy and nonprofit expertise to help corporate social justice leaders achieve their mission for positive change and justice. His work includes promoting leadership across sectors that facilitate inclusion by embracing, creating, and holding space for human difference and engendering equitable environments, systems, and structures for all while achieving the operational goals of the enterprise through his program, NQclusionetics, the art and science of inclusive leadership. We’re going to talk about NQclusionetics. It’s his trademark. Dr. Nicholas Harvey, welcome to the show.

Thank you so very much. I’m so glad to be here with you. Greetings to your audience as well.

What is inclusive leadership right off the bat?

When we talk about inclusive leadership, allow me to back up a little bit. You hear a lot of work going on now around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Unfortunately, so much of the work was rooted in this idea of diversity and diversity management. The idea of that, we need to bring different types of people, usually demographically. Unfortunately, we’re like putting Skittles in a jar. It’s like, “Look at all these different colors that we have here, and won’t it be better?” The answer is no, it won’t.

Not organically like that.

It’s going to take some work. The idea, again, was around diversity management. Also, even the idea of diversity was largely around race and gender. Coming out of the civil rights struggle of the ’60s and the ’70s, we understand about the Equal Employment Opportunity. People seem to get on race and gender, and they got stuck. That’s where all their activities and their measures were about.

As human beings, we need more than that. When I talk about diversity, it’s about human difference. That’s the thing that we’re seeking to embrace. What then inclusion means is positively acknowledging this human difference. You’re able to take deliberate action to create an environment where everyone is respected, and they’re able to achieve their full potential.

That’s what we talk about in terms of inclusion. Inclusive leadership is the type of leadership that facilitates inclusion by embracing, creating, and holding space for human difference. Engendering equitable environments, systems, and structures for all, as you said, while achieving the operational goals of the enterprise.

There’s been this disconnect over the years that the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work is separate from the operation goals, or the mission, or what the organization is about. What we do with inclusive leadership, we acknowledge that no, there must be a sense of alignment. That inclusion and the work that we’re doing is as much a strategic enterprise as operations, IT, marketing, sales, and the like.

Everybody sees this as an adjunct, an add-on, something separate. It’s supposed to be inclusive. The word itself of inclusion is supposed to be woven into the fabric of everything that you’re doing. Not be this, “We have this initiative over here, and it’s a standalone thing that we’re working on.” I want to go back to something that you talked about.

You mentioned the civil rights and the idea of integration. There was this attempt at integration without education, without allowing the space for it to happen. It was forced onto communities and environments. When you’re talking about inclusive leadership. It’s not about forcing this idea of DEI&B, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, into an organization as a mandate. It’s more around holding the space but intentionally creating opportunities for this environment to grow and flourish. Is that, in a nutshell, what you’re doing?

What has to happen now is we find that we’re experiencing this diversity fatigue. It’s funny that diversity fatigue is not a new term. It’s several years old. This idea that even the suggestion of needing a diversity initiative in your organization, it’s triggering and it creates resentment in many parts and resistance. It does more harm if it’s not implemented properly. It harms the underrepresented minorities that you’d hope to serve.

Can we shift the narrative a little bit because these counter-narratives that, “This is affirmative action on another thing?” No. What we’re seeking to do is to talk about, “Can we create a welcoming workplace where all can thrive?” When I’m offering my course in welcoming workplace formula, that change there. Who can argue with welcoming workplace where all can thrive? We get past the ideas of special treatment or giving advantages to one group or another.

That’s this hostility that builds on the other end of that. That’s not an inclusive environment if you’re creating hostility.

We have yet to talk about the poorly implemented DEI initiatives in organizations. Someone was asking me in the work, “Who’s your greatest competitor?” I said, “It’s Google DEI,” and they think, “I can be a DEI consultant.” They’ll ask, “What’s this definition of that?” They’ll pull something from the internet and that won’t work in this context.

Case in point, people want to google the difference between equity and equality, and they have the image where people standing on different boxes trying to see a baseball game. I’m doing a training now, and my partner, for whatever reason, felt she was being left out. Someone asked her the difference between equity and equality. She says, “I saw this and we had to do a debrief.” I’m like, “You are not helping right now.”

In certain environments, people still see individuals getting advantages over other individuals. That is the assumption in American society and culture where we have this idea of meritocracy. We had our debrief and I said, “Don’t do that anymore. I’ve got this.” What we then do is say, “How about we explain the advantages of equity in terms of the Curb-Cut Effect? You see with the American with Disabilities Act, that were for handicap access, then you have a curb-cut.”

A curb-cut does not just benefit those who are handicapped. It benefits the UPS and FedEx people. Ramps benefit them because it provides access. Equity is about removing barriers to access. When we’re able to do that and explain it that way, we have the insight to say, “Everybody in your organization is not in favor of this.” What then do we do to get people on board? Quit googling, do the work, and take the time. Get appropriate training, not your $99 certificate online that says that you are now a DEI-certified practitioner.

Equity is about removing barriers to access. Click To Tweet

The question was, what are leaders getting wrong when it comes to these initiatives and doing this and that? That is a great explanation of that, but this idea needs to shift. The paradigm needs to shift in how people are looking at what equity means.

The whole thing needs to shift. I was with a group of young people and I said, “How old do you think that diversity at work and the like is just as a discipline? The hint is, it’s older than you and probably almost as old as me.” We have been doing this work and failing successfully for many years. We’re failing successfully. The challenge is this. Back to your original point, it is something separate. Here’s where I come at it. What was the impetus for this work? I always ask why. The impetus will then affect your implementation, which then speaks to your impact.

Whether or not people get the buy-in.

For instance, “Why are you doing this?” “We were sued.”

We don’t want to get sued. We will close.

We don’t want to get sued or we don’t want to get sued again, so let’s call Nicholas. You see the approaches. I even see it in terms of the people that they hire as their diversity vice presidents or their chief people officers, and all that. Here’s a hint to your audience. If your organization hires a labor relations lawyer, you know what they’re trying to do.

They’re trying to avoid being sued.

We avoid being sued again, and then we fall into that human resources compliance model.

It should not be about compliance. This is not a compliance issue. This is a human rights issue.

It’s even beyond that. I’ve been trying to say, “Should I do this?” I should warn all my friends. The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging problem in your organization is not a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging problem. It’s a leadership and organizational culture problem.

LAC 14 | Inclusive Leadership

Inclusive Leadership: The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging problem in your organization is not a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging problem. It’s a leadership and organizational culture problem.

 

Speaking of all the ways that people try to do this, talk about understanding the why. How else can the leaders recognize that the wheels on the proverbial bus are falling off? Before they run all the way off, how can they start recognizing my DEI&B initiative is going off the rails?

It’s a lot easier than people want to talk about. How about doing what’s called management by walking around? One of the things that I do is I challenge leaders to have a conversation with ten of their workers that they don’t normally interact with. Ask them the simple question, “What does it cost to be you working here?”

You bring up another very important issue, which is psychological safety. Do they feel safe enough to answer that truthfully? Is the culture open enough for that kind of vulnerability without feeling like, “I’m going to be now attacked or made an example of for saying what my experience is.”

I used to do that all the time. Even in in relationships where people say, “Nicholas, what do you think about such and such?” I’m like, “Truthfully?” They came back with me and said, “Lie to me.” I said, ” let’s stop for a minute.” Some people, to be in good relationships with you, maybe you do have to lie. My response to them was this. I said, “I would like to speak to you my truth, but will you make me pay emotionally for it?” As employees, “Will you make me pay professionally for it?”

We’re creating spaces. It’s not just safe spaces, but also brave spaces because the challenge that we’re finding is that we’re putting these standards in place, but psychological safety comes down to trust. “Can we trust you?” I’ve said to organizations in working with me, “Your integrity is on the line. The reason why I’m here is because you’re in trouble.” It’s funny for my entire professional career, people only call on me when they’re in trouble. They don’t call me and say, “We’re doing great and we want to just be better.” It’s like, “We’ve been successfully messing up, so let’s call Nicholas. He can help.”

The wheels are starting to run off the bus for you, and then they call you.

Yes. When we’re in environments and if anybody wants to look at Amy Edmondson out of Harvard does a neat piece on this. When she talks about innovation and having environments for innovation. The challenge you find is when you have an environment that has low trust and high standards, it creates anxiety. As we know, anxiety does not speak to innovation and creativity. We started talking about the wheels are about to fall off, “That might be the wheels, but you’ve got a broken axle.”

When you have an environment that has low trust and high standards, it creates anxiety. Click To Tweet

Also, a twisted chassis. You’re running sideways down the street. We’re getting there, but you can get there so much better with so much less stress and conflict happening under the surface tension. Speak to code-switching. Who else experiences code-switching? Everybody experiences code-switching.

I had the privilege of being with the Association of Latino Professionals For America. It’s interesting how intercultural and even interculturally how we code-switch.

What are the dangers of that? Talk about code-switching and what the danger is?

Let’s talk about what it is. What it means is that as we move across cultural environments, we take on different persona.

Not the alter ego that I talked about. This is a protective.

Remember, we are multifaceted. We flow in different places, spaces, and environments. I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. I was raised in Bankhead, but I was educated in Buckhead. For those who might get that understanding, Bankhead, that’s T.I. It’s all about survival. Code-switching is about survival. How do I feel I must behave or act in order to survive?

Be non-threatening.

We’re able to even work with our speech. A comedian group, Key and Peele, did it with Barack Obama, where Barack Obama is greeting people in a receiving line. With the persons without color, he’s like, “Pleased to meet you. Good to see you.” The persons with color, he’s like, “What’s up, fam?” That is an example of code-switching. You come into a certain environment. With mi familia, I said, “Hola, mi familia. Que paso.” It’s like, “Greetings. Good to see you. I’m glad that you’re well.”

What are the dangers of code-switching then?

That is back to, “What does it cost you?” We don’t talk about the psychic damage that is caused by not being able to be your authentic self. To the extent that, do we even know who we are? If ever.

It’s an evolution, but like you said, what is it costing you? Is it diminishing your confidence? If you have to code-switch and it’s pulling your confidence away, then it becomes a problem. If your code-switching empowers you in that environment, then it’s not a problem.

To your first point, my first thing is about impeding confidence, because then comes confidence in what? There’s this confidence in nothing. Confidence in an illusion. Code-switching to your benefit, that’s perhaps back to a narrative that I might question. Code-switching to your benefit, that’s a survival mechanism and usually is put in traumatic environments. Maybe we shouldn’t be in these environments that consistently cause us trauma and cause us to have to not be ourselves. That’s back to psychic damage. Remember, at the root of code-switching, it’s about a survival mechanism.

LAC 14 | Inclusive Leadership

Inclusive Leadership: Code-switching to your benefit is just a survival mechanism in traumatic environments.

 

It’s about survival.

If you’re, from day to day, trying to survive, then the damage is going. We should be looking towards not surviving, not even just existing, but to thrive. We use that term for babies. If you have babies that are premature and the like, what does it take in order for them to thrive? The same thing for us as human beings. Our desire is to thrive.

Code-switching is like, “No. We should be able to be who we are and be in environments where we can bring our full selves and make these contributions. The reason why so many of us are in entrepreneurial spaces is that we’ve been in black spots where we have to downplay our gifts and graces. We’re in an entrepreneurial space, and all of a sudden, people will pay you to be awesome.

There’s no positive outcome with code-switching. You can’t flip it into a positive?

It’s a short-term strategy. In the long term, what is the price that we’re paying? We can think on it. We had those conversations where we sit back and say, “Could there be some long-term benefit?” We do the cost-benefit analysis. I would say that for the long term, code-switching is a losing proposition.

Anyone who’s thinking that they’re benefiting from doing it, think twice about it because you’re not being your true, authentic self with it. Let me give myself as an example on this. I don’t look at it as code-switching because at first, it started off as survival, my speech pattern. I was born in Trinidad. I grew up in Australia. I adopted the accent very quickly because of being teased for speaking the way I was speaking.

When I moved back from Australia to Trinidad, again, I was teased mercilessly for speaking the way I was speaking. I shed the Australian accent as fast as I could while I was in school. Over time, I had shut my voice down for a very long time, not speaking. It’s why I don’t learn languages for that very reason, not being able to pronounce things well. It’s the fear of being ridiculed for saying a word wrong in a different language.

My survival mechanism for that was I need to be able to pronounce words that are so clear and understandable for people so that they don’t misinterpret or misunderstand what I’m saying. Sometimes a little accent pops in here and there. Some of my little Trini or Aussie little thing might pop in the way I pronounce something. When I’m talking to my relatives, some of the Trini comes out. When I’m talking on this show, it doesn’t come out. I don’t see that for me as code-switching because I like the way I speak. I like my ability to be clear in the way that I speak.

True, but I want you to hear your story.

I know. It totally came from trauma, but I don’t feel like I’m being inauthentic.

It came from trauma, part of our own mechanism. Now think to what is this. Here’s the piece in terms of perspective on life. I’ll say this. I don’t know the spiritual or religious orientation of your audience, but I believe this. God never wastes a hurt. That experience you now can bring and allows you to relate and connect with different audiences. Also, it has the ability for you to perhaps help to facilitate in relationship and to help others to feel comfortable.

God never wastes a hurt. Click To Tweet

Sometimes there are people around me who have thick accents and they feel very self-conscious about the way that their English is being pronounced. They don’t want to speak in public or they don’t want to speak out because of that insecurity. I’m almost like, “Listen, I can’t even speak your language, so you’re doing better than me. You at least have more than one language to speak.”

You have a sensitivity to that?

I have a huge sensitivity and I encourage them. Mine was English all across the board. It was just different accents in the same language. I have a deep sensitivity for anyone who has an accent and feels insecure about it. To help them feel more secure about their accent.

That is a benefit and a blessing to them. To the point that we’re making, for instance, being a person by virtue of sometimes people say, “Nicholas, you’re a gentleman.” That definition is that you’re a person who puts others at ease. We don’t lead with our credentials. We don’t lead with the highbrow speech. we don’t lead with all that. We help others to feel comfortable.

That’s being sensitive. I wouldn’t necessarily call that code-switching. Code-switching again is back to survival mechanism in a traumatic environment. The real question is, what benefit are you getting from staying in that environment? What is it costing you to stay in that environment where you can’t be yourself? Again, back to a CEO talking to ten workers that they may not connect with on a daily basis and say, “What does it cost you to be here? What is the psychic damage? What does it do to your soul to be in these places and spaces?”

To have a CEO that is willing.

That’s back to, “What are the that CEOs need in this season? People use the term soft skills. Other say human skills. I’ll say essential skills. It’s like, “CEO, it’s time for you to be a person. Not just a tool of the board of directors and your shareholders.” How is it that we go about doing that? It even allows CEOs to be authentic.

Be people, too. Let people see that you are people, too.

What the pandemic did for us is, you’re looking in people’s bedrooms or kitchen tables. Kids are coming in and it’s like, “No. Mommy’s in a meeting right now.”

Mommy’s a big important CEO. Go away.

Here’s the other thing. Mommy CEOs have always had to do that, but it finally came to the fore where people can say, “I love being a CEO, but I love being a mommy, too.”

That’s a blend of humanness.

Being mommy perhaps is sometimes more important than being CEO. I wanted to tell you all that, but now I can do that because there were so many women, and in particular women of color. My new term is not people of color. It’s people with color. People with color who have made choices. Many women left the workforce because of the responsibilities. Not only their nuclear families, but also extended families and the like, saying, “We need to rethink this.” What is it costing you?

NQclusionetics goes way beyond just diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity. It’s very powerful. It’s looking at us as human beings and what our needs are, incorporating those into an environment where everybody can feel like their needs are being met in this space. We’re not talking about what you need from your home life, but in the work environment. Don’t bring your blanket to work.

I see these kids in high school walking with blankets. I’m like, “This is not your house. Why are you walking with a blanket to class? Be like a person, get a jacket or something.” They’re in their bedroom slippers, pajamas, and blankets coming to school. I know that’s a whole other separate conversation, but what are we teaching them about professionalism and when they’re allowed to do things like that?

It depends. If you’re the kind of person who wrapped up in your blanket and your footy slippers and you code, what becomes the norms of professionalism? These have become conversations about the narratives. I ask the same question about young people who will say, “We’re doing pictures. Do I have to wear a jacket?” My question is, “How do you want to be remembered?”

The idea of beginning with the end in mind. You’re going to dress for the job you want, not for the job that you have. What are the “norms” of professionalism in that organization? During the pandemic, my thing was, “This is business. I’m going to treat it like it’s business.” He would see me and my thing was collared shirt. I’m going to put on a collared shirt.

That lets me know that I am going to business and I’m going to do the thing, so I don’t end up having those Zoom fails where people not wearing anything below the waist and the like. That is part of the mindset. We start talking about, “What environment do you want to be in? What environment can you flourish?”

Reminds me of The Devil Wears Prada. “You’re working for a fashion magazine and you’re dressing however you want to dress. That’s not acceptable here.”

It becomes an empowering piece for folks as opposed to saying, “Here are these norms of professionalism.” No, the choice is yours. To function and optimize your presence, your performance, and your progression in this environment, there are now choices that are available to you. You can exercise those. If that does not work out, then I, who I am, will give you the gift of, “I will allow you to exercise your gifts and graces in another venue.”

What is it costing you to be here? People need to ask themselves that question before somebody else asks them that.

Surely. It’s the whole idea of, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”

I don’t think a lot of people have that self-reflection or take the time to do that. They would rather have the paycheck than think about what it’s costing them. I’ve spoken to so many people who have been in very toxic work environments to the point where it becomes physically debilitating before they do something.

If you stop to ask yourself that question before, you wouldn’t get to that place where now you have to go on medical leave because the stress is creating so much havoc with your body. You’re at the point of burnout and you’re crying every day to go to work. Don’t get to that point. Ask yourself what it’s costing you to be in there.

Here’s the other thing, too, that’s very real and especially in the space where I am right now. Coming out of 2020, they hired so many Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leaders.

That was the buzz thing.

Largely, they’re women with color.

We’re getting the jobs.

I’m like, “Go, sis.” I love that they’re doing that, but a recent thing just came out. Talk about that. Three DEI leaders at Princeton resigned. Why? They weren’t providing the support. What questions are people asking? This is the conversation that I have with folks all the time. They’re like, “I have this opportunity to get this job.” I said, “Here are some questions you need to ask.”

First of all, where is your role within the organizational structure? What type of power do you have? What type of accountability do you have? What type of support do you have? A friend of mine has oversight over an organization that has 1.8 million folks. Guess what? She’s the DEI person for that organization. She only just got an assistant days ago.

Knowing that upfront would be like, “Do I get an assistant? Do I get a budget? Do I have the ability to make my own decisions? If I want to bring a consultant or coach or whatever, do I have that type of authority to go through? What happens when your procurement system is a model of the injustice that you’re trying to fight in the institution? It’s those types of conversations.

Nicholas, this is so much. We’ve unpacked a lot here. These are such great insights and such tangible things that people can look at in their organization to see from the top, all the way down. As an individual contributor, you have a responsibility as well to understand what being in that role is costing you whether you go to HR, your manager, or your leader, and help them to understand what is going on.

That is your responsibility as well. Don’t just look for leadership to provide the opportunity for that to happen to you. You need to be able to also be self-directed to do something if you feel like injustice is happening. If it’s costing you too much, walk away. It’s a hard thing to do when you’re getting a paycheck and things are a little tight. In the long run, how much more is it going to cost you in health?

In that, the word is exit strategy.

Create an exit strategy for yourself.

Create an exit strategy, not just the, “I’m out of here.” How do you intend to transition yourself from one spot to another and not lose? At the end of the day, we do still have responsibilities. We’ve got parents, pets, partners, and progeny. They’re counting on us. How do we do that and do that well?

This show is about leading with audacious confidence. As leaders, you can’t just pin a title on someone and think that you’ve done enough. It doesn’t work that way. We all have to work together, give them the tools, the resources, the ability to do the job effectively with confidence. You need to be a part of the process.

Yes, and ask, “What will this role look like and what’s the outcome that we seek?”

Back to start with the end in mind. What are we looking for?

Are we trying not to get sued again?

Are we wanting to build an inclusive culture?

If you’ve already undermined trust in your organization, what do you think your first task might be? Your managers have sued you and now you’ve lost. “Maybe I need to work on rebuilding trust with these people so that they don’t think that this is just a court ordered action.”

As consultants and as coaches, we have so many tools to help organizations understand how to go about doing this successfully. That’s what I’m hoping this show can bring to light for some organizations. To see the different opportunities that are out there and great opportunities from people who know what they’re doing, and not just a $99 certificate saying, “Check the box. I got it.”

In terms of audacious confidence, leaders need that. What happens if your leader has a value system that’s not embraced or they don’t feel that will be embraced by the organization if they feel that they were to make that known. Understand the views of leaders on social issues, it can affect the stock price.

Big time. We’re seeing that happen.

These are the things that are playing out in people’s minds, not just your shareholders but your stakeholders. Those considerations that come into mind, there’s a tool that came out about, “How do you balance share and stakeholder concerns?” The word balance was just created by folks to torment. We have to say, “What’s the appropriate role of this in my life?” Work-life balance? No. I have life and there are these different components that speak to my life. What role do they play and when? If you’re trying to find so many hours, that’s not going to work for you.

As a matter of fact, somebody had asked me that, so I’m putting together a piece on perhaps what are our principles for decision-making in this regard. That’s where it helps folks, where we know who we are, what it is we’re about, and what we hope to achieve so that we can lead from this essential core. That’s what being audacious is about. Everybody else is being fake. They’re trying to be somebody else. Friends, be yourself. Everybody else is taken.

Let’s first discover who that is. That’s why I have my seven steps to audacious confidence. Let’s discover who that is, and then be that.

Why? Everybody else is taken.

That will transition us into our rapid fire. I thank you so much. I know you’re scurred. Don’t be scurred. Before I jump into rapid fire, tell people how they can reach you and I want you to spell NQclusionetics so that they can look it up.

Let’s make it easy on folks. It’s NQclusionetics. You will find that on the website as a tab under NicholasHarveyConsulting.com.

Go to NicholasHarveyConsulting.com. Brace yourself. Here we go. Nicholas, what is the biggest mistake that you ever did in leading others?

Trusting too soon. I think that people are trustworthy once they’ve been found to be worthy of trust. I have such great confidence in humans. The orientation was trying to bless people and being so and so forth. It’s like, “No, stop it.” You need make a decision, hold people to standards, and make sure people are clear about the standards. If it’s time for them to exercise their gifts and graces in another venue, then be quick to do so, and move on.

LAC 14 | Inclusive Leadership

Inclusive Leadership: Hold people to standards and make sure they are clear about the standards. If it’s time for them to exercise their gifts and graces in another venue, then be quick to do so and move on.

 

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve ever gotten that you still institute now?

You can always afford to be gracious.

That’s nice. Here’s a curve ball. If you are a castaway on a desert island and three things could either wash up on shore or airdropped to you and one cannot be a cell phone. What would those three things be?

I’m on a desert island. I can get three things. I need a Learjet, some fuel, and provisions. I’m getting off the island. I’m not staying.

It’s not even a boat. I want a Learjet, not a helicopter.

No, because I don’t know what island I’m on and I don’t know how far it is to get me. A helicopter can run out a few, so give me a Learjet.

Get me out fast. You don’t have a runway or anything, not even like a seaplane. Anyway, I’m not here to throw any obstacles in your way. You want a Learjet, you get a Learjet.

Please notice, I’m cast away on an island. That’s not me. I’m out. I got things to do.

If you were a song or a song title that’s out there in the world, what would it be and why?

To God Be the Glory for the things that God has done because we don’t do it by ourselves. There’s a scripture that says that God has done these things and it’s wonderful in our eyes. That’s why we do what we do. It’s really not about us. We’re giving glory to our Creator. We’re blessed to be a blessing. That’s how we serve.

What are you reading now or what are your three top favorite books?

Amri Johnson came out with Reconstructing Inclusion. I recommend that one. He did a fine job. He came through Atlanta on his book tour and shared that excellent piece. I love what he’s doing. I’m also reading Working with the Law by Holliwell. I’m revisiting a lot of the universal law and universal principle stuff. That’s the core out of which we can make our decisions and we shape and craft our lives.

I’m into Thomas Troward right now, all those writings from way early on about universal law and the mind, and how it connects to biblical principles.

I’m enjoying revisiting that because it’s so important that we understand that we shape and frame our worlds. That’s how we can then have an impact in the lives of others.

Thank you so much for your graciousness.

I’m honored by the invitation.

It’s been a rich and wonderful conversation. I hope people read the entire thing because it was so awesome. Thank you, Dr. Nicholas Harvey for being our guest. Any last thoughts as we wrap?

The world is equally balanced between good and evil, and your next act might just tip the scale. Blessings.

The world is equally balanced between good and evil, and your next act might just tip the scale. Click To Tweet

With that, I encourage you to lead yourself, lead your teams, and lead your organization with audacious confidence. I will see you next time on another episode.

 

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About Dr. Nicholas Harvey

LAC 14 | Inclusive LeadershipDr. Nicholas Harvey The Social Impact Coach Nicholas is the principal and CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer) of Nicholas Harvey Consulting, a strategic advisement and executive leadership development and management consulting practice committed to creating ready-now leaders for a changing and diminishing workforce. As a Social Impact Coach, he uses his public policy and nonprofit expertise to help Corporate Social Justice leaders achieve their missions for positive change and justice. His work includes promoting leadership, across sectors, that facilitates inclusion by embracing, creating, and holding space for human difference and engendering equitable environments, systems, and structures for all while achieving the operational goals of the enterprise through his program NQLUSIONETICS™ (pronounced inclusion-etics), the art and science of inclusive leadership.