Building Meaningful DEI Connections

Hello, Cadre community doctor E. Here I am. Your diversity, equity and inclusion to push and challenge you to think about diversity, equity and inclusion in ways that will create and affect change, not just for you, but for your teams that you might lead, for your organizations whom you are a part of, and the cultures that into which you belong. And so these past couple weeks, I've been talking about building meaningful connections, meaningful dei connections. And I said, and I touched on last week that I thought that there are, and I think there are three levels.

There's an outer level, which I addressed last week, and that outer level involves or entails trust, transparency and time. Very external facing. Right. You know, getting you to build trust and think about what trust looks like in a transactional kind of way, being transparent so individuals and team members see where you are, connect with what you're trying to do, and see themselves in that regard. And then obviously, giving yourself time, not looking for the quick solution or lightning in the bottle.

And so that's the outer level. Trust, transparency and time. Going to talk about the inner level today, which is more inward facing or more internal. And I think there's a huge distinction because you have to have both. There has to be that emphasis and that focus to the external, but then there also has to be an equal amount of energy and focus devoted to the inward growth and development. The first component of that inward level is, you know, the ability or the impulse to ask, right. To inquire, to really interrogate who you are, what you believe, what you know, what your comfort zones are and where those comfort zones might exist from a boundary standpoint.

So really ask and inquire what those are, start to unpack those, start to interrogate them in a really substantive, revelatory kind of way, where does your level of vulnerability or aversion to conflict come from? What, you know, what does it lead to? What are some of the ways that you use it, maybe as a defense mechanism and where does that come from? And how does that hinder or help your leadership style or the culture or the standard that you're trying to set with your team? So really begin to ask some of those interrogative kinds of questions, and then secondly, really acknowledge what those things are and where they are to the extent to which they might inhibit or prohibit you from growth and development, from really connecting with people.

And really, as you, as you start to acknowledge where and to the extent to which some of those things exist, really begin to peel back the layers of the meaning of some of those things and the impact and the implications of those things in terms of building relationships, meaningful connections, being vulnerable, transparent, all of those other kinds of, you know, emotive qualities that are just as important for leadership and DEi, that many of the other skill sets and qualities are related to understanding difference and being willing to engage through and around barriers and obstacles and all of those kinds of things.

So ask yourself the really revelatory kinds of questions, the really interrogative kinds of questions, the really reflective kinds of questions, acknowledge where those questions and answers take you in a real substantive kind of way. And then finally, as you move forward, align your steps, align your approach, align what you're trying to do with everything that you've unpacked and discovered and that has made itself readily available for you to see and learn from. And as you start to rediscover, reimagine who you are, who you can become, where it can take you, you can start to align not just what you do as an individual with some of that, but what you do as a team leader in an organization.

So that's the inner level to building meaningful DEI connections, asking yourself reflective, revelatory kinds of questions, acknowledging what those questions might reveal in terms of answers and unpacking, you know, all of the things that might be discoverable and new to you, and then aligning what you're doing, moving forward with all of those things that become revelatory and visible to you. So that's the inner level. I'll see you next week. As I talk about the inner core, which I think is equally powerful, it.