Celebrate Black history. All of it.
This is the first Black History Month in a time in which lynching is a federal crime and Juneteenth is a national holiday. Last March, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act — only three Republicans voted against the measure in the House, and the Senate passed it by unanimous consent. The preceding summer, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act became law, when it, too,...
8 Ways to celebrate Black History Month in the workplace
As I mentioned last week, we will be honoring Black History Month weekly with the Respectfully Resist newsletter. Let us look inward and how you can create a safe and collaborative process to celebrate in the workplace. Here is part of a blog by Hi Bob Inc. If you haven’t already created events at your organization, let this article assist you in the brainstorming process. How can we celebrate...
A history of Black-owned businesses in the US
Throughout February, in celebration of Black History Month, our newsletter will feature history on Black owned businesses and commentary by Black business entrepreneurs. This week, we’re sharing a short history, with a timeline, of Black owned businesses in the US that was originally published by Hiscox insurance, which is The Center for Respectful Leadership’s insurer. Black-owned businesses...
Mistakes Leaders Make: and what they should do about them
Now that it’s come to light that former Vice President Mike Pence’s lawyers have discovered classified documents in his Indiana home, I’m sensing that most Americans are considering what is surely to be dubbed “document gate,” to be a political clown show unworthy of their attention and are tuning it out (if they ever tuned in). But there are a couple of leadership lessons here that are well...
Smiling Meditation
Becoming More Positive By Cynthia Burnham, MBA I have been giving a lot of thought to how we train or re-train our minds to help us become more positive. One thing we can do is to take advantage of our own biochemical natures. The “Smiling Approach,” outlined below, uses a quick fix technique I have done for years, and then adds a meditation/relaxation technique that was hinted at, without...
Why Trying to Put the Opinion Genie Back in the Bottle Doesn’t Work (and what you can do instead)
Despite his recent arrest in Romania on charges of rape and human trafficking, and despite climate activist Greta Thunberg’s cutting take-down tweet (one of the most-liked in history!) mocking him, and despite the understandable temptation to dismiss him as some odious, disrespectful, self-promoting, narcistic, attention-seeking, arrogant, infantile jerk, we cannot ignore the fact that...
Sympathy Versus Empathy and Why You Should Know the Difference
When one of my clients experienced discrimination in the workplace, she confided in a colleague. She had hoped to feel understood, validated, and supported. Instead, her colleague’s response made her feel dismissed and belittled. She was a high performer at her company, but she had recently been denied a leadership position. “You’re Asian,” her boss had said....
Open Our Hearts
Although I’m having trouble finding out more about someone named Janice Maeditere, they’re quoted in many places on the web as having said something about Christmas that I find particularly profound… “Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as it is opening our hearts.” On December 8th, the Center for Respectful Leadership held its CEO Summit and CEO’s Give Back Bash in San Diego...
The War on Children
For this week’s newsletter, I was going to craft a take-down of the so-called, made-up, non-existent “war on Christmas” (did you know that it was originally ginned up by the John Birch Society in 1959?) but decided it was much more important to talk about another – all too real – war instead: Putin’s illegal and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine. The horrors of this war are numerous: constant...