Why the Chris Rock/Will Smith Oscar Altercation was a DE&I Issue
An Invited Opinion By Rainea Cumberbatch On Oscar night, Sunday March 27th, Will Smith became the fifth African American to win the prestigious Best Actor In a Leading Role award for his portrayal as Richard Williams in King Richard. The actor won the Oscar from an academy which, in it’s 94 years in existence, has only nominated 23 Black men for this award. We also watched Will Smith...
Will Smith “Apologized.” But Was It Full?
I’m pretty sure that by now most people have heard about the incident during the recent Academy Awards ceremony. No, not the industry-shaking fact that for the first time in history a streaming service won a Best Picture Oscar, for the indie film, “CODA,” (Children of Deaf Adults). Rather, everyone’s attention was galvanized by what is being called the “slap heard round the world,” actor Will...
How About A Little Respect for Women’s Professional Sports?
During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, my father was well-known as a sportswriter, radio, and TV commentator who was very comfortable expressing his heartfelt opinions in public. In general, he stayed positive; waxing poetic on the powerful beauty of a well-executed football or hockey play, the importance of the Olympic movement to global cooperation, and how tennis was rapidly changing for the...
The Magic Bullet For Retention Isn’t Higher Wages
My latest article in Forbes is about letting go of the false notion that we can keep good people just by paying them more. In January, MIT Sloan School of Business released the results of an exhaustive study of the reasons why a record number of people quit their jobs in 2021, a time often referred to as the Great Resignation—or as I like to call it, the Great Reconsideration. Despite the...
Wait, You’ve Done What?
Recently, the same week I turned 62, a colleague of mine commented on an article I’d published saying, “I had no idea you had such a fun background!”. The birthday, and that comment, caused me to reminisce a bit. Yup, I feel like I’ve led one heck of a life! So, I decided to try to sum it up briefly, in a nutshell. (OK, sorry, it’s a little bit bigger than a nutshell): 1. I grew up the...
Interviewing Lori George Billingsley, Cheif DEI Officer Coca-Cola
I have lived a privileged life. I am the son of a famous sportswriter, Gene Ward, who wrote for the NY Daily News and was syndicated by the Chicago Tribune and on TV and radio. So, as a kid, because my dad was interviewing famous sports stars, I got to meet some of my cherished childhood heroes including Arthur Ashe, the Stanley-Cup-Winning team members of the New York Islanders hockey team...
On “Curmudgeons” and “Sweeties”
By Cynthia Burnham, MBA You’re watching an old movie. The white actors have put on blackface with white, painted, oversized lips, and eyes wide. They dance around in a goofy way, wear strange clothes, and tell bad jokes in an exaggerated “uneducated” accent. The audience in the movie laugh hysterically throughout. Bad, right? I hear many of you saying, “Absolutely! I hope we have gone way...
The Main Reason For The Great Resignation Isn’t What You Think
Last week, MIT/Sloan Management Review published the results of a massive research effort by the university and its partners studying the root causes of the so-called “Great Resignation of 2021,” which we at the Center for Respectful Leadership call the “Great Reconsideration.” To us, the #1 reason people quit their jobs last year – a “Toxic Culture” – is no surprise. For nearly two decades,...
Upset? Angry? Try to Be Kind & Respectful.
A few years back I wrote on this subject, and since going out into the world with more people being less patient I think it’s important to share a time I made a mistake and had to own up to it. Right before Christmas a few years ago, we discovered we had been lied to by a sales rep at our cell phone store and, furious, we went back in January to return some unwanted merchandise we’d been...