Diversity in The Workplace

Why are we having so many challenges in the workplace? work is suppose to be good for us, it provides us an opportunity to feel valued and important. Yet time after time we have staff fallout's, this one not liking that one, this manager giving all the graveyard shifts to one person and on and on...


If we truly want to develop effective working relationships we must start with what we have in common, our similarities, and not our differences. People have more in common than they realize. We must stop looking to find differences to justify our dislkies of collegues, and become comfortable with what we have in common. Diversity in the workplace will pose challenges, maybe even special challenges, but it also adds a diverse richness to an organization. What organizations need are people centred leaders to manage the great resource.


This means that all managers, supervisors, CEO'S must build trust in their teams. Trust isn't given by virtue of the leaders position, trust must be earned by the leader demonstrating competence, character, and a connection to people. People will forgive and overlook occasional mistakes, but a flawed character that slips, no way!!!! This means that the traditional name calling and wreckless comments about team members by leaders must stop. Secondly, leaders should know that you don't use your authority for sexual favors. In this area even an occasional slip is lethal.


Leaders must embrace their team members and their diversity of gifts and talents. When you are competent, you are not easily intimidated by talent, you welcome it and the best ways of using it. Leaders must honor the diverse skills around them. This creates a starting point for understanding and appreciating diversity in the workplace. 

What Are You Prepared To Die For

"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he is prepared to die for he isn't fit to live."Martin Luther King Jr. Today we see that people in the middle east have found out that human beings have some universal rights that should not be silenced by threat or by power.

Knowing this and doing something about it is like night and day. When the people do however decide to wake, change will come and leaders who are operating in the stone age will find themselves running for cover, no doubt with several containers of depends. The question we must ask is why has it taken so long for the people to wake up? It is due to ignorance.

Corrupt, morally bankrupt, and creatively bankrupt leaders strive for ignorance to be blanketed over the people through control. Firstly, they love controlling what you think. When you find yourself constantly being challenged to change your thinking to theirs, to change your ideas to theirs, to always see it the way they want you to see it, you are following a bankrupt leader. These persons are so fixated that they become almost antisocial outside of their domain.

A new day is dawning in the middle east, the people have woken up from their slumber and they are prepared to die for something that is noble. Now they will usher in a new day that will not allow a select few to be the only voice of wisdom and knowledge. 

The Caribbean is in need of sweeping changes but those changes will not come until the people learn to stop the ignorance of hating and backbiting one another. This is what governments in this region thrive on, getting the people to hate the opposition rather than the corruption. For centuries the middle east told their people that the west is a devil and wants to destroy our way of life and the people bought it, hook line and sinker. But they eventually woke up and turned their hatred to the corrupt bankrupt government systems.

Find something worth dying for then start truly making a difference in your world. Stop making up the number, stop being a jelly belly. Many people think they are broad-minded just because they are too lazy to form an opinion. The lazier a man is, the more he is going to do tomorrow. Boy sounds like a Bahamian eh!!! 

Being Creative Comes With Being Misunderstood

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."Martin Luther King Jr. Human beings are extremely comfortable with keeping things the same old way. It becomes a trademark, a badge of honor to wear proudly.

With the onslaught of technology we see where leaders are being challenged to go beyond the usual, the regular, the maintenance...  we have coined a phrase,"if it isn't broke don't fix it." This has become the mantra of most leaders to their detriment and the detriment of their organizations, their countries. Well we have a new phrase for you today, "if it can improve, improve it." Can you imagine if we were satisfied with the fan, ceiling fan. We would not have air conditioning, by the way, the fan still works. Can you imagine if we were satisfied with the "out house" we would not have the bathroom today, by the way, the out house still works.

The key to the future is tied to being creatively motivated by why not!!! Leaders who keep things the way they met things are not really leaders, they should be called managers. Managers keep things just as they are, when opening a new account we make six copies, why? because that how it was when I came and by George that's how am going to leave it!!!

Persons who need the approval of others will never venture beyond the shore. True leaders are confident and self assured so that they do not need the approval of others. This means then that you must be different, and oh boy watch out! why? because people will do everything in their power to disapprove, to maintain the status quo.

Dare to be different, dare to allow the creative juices to flow, dare to swim up stream while others are going down stream. Be joyous in your differentiation and do not allow others to stifle your creative flow. In the end they will respect you but may not like you. No wonder why they hated Jesus, he was different, he was radical he was victorious. You can be victorious as well.

Leadership, The Will To Confront And Challenge

"He  who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”Martin Luther King Jr.  Evil defined is wrong, it is contrary to conscience, morality, or law. Humanity is now plagued with evil on every side, and what is most disheartening is that leadership in every echelon of society is tainted with it. Leaders all see the dark elephant in the room but none have the will to confront it.

In the political arena it is, see no evil, hear no evil. In the church it is, the Lord’s work, take it to Jesus. In the corporate world it is, honor amongst thieves. As a result of the pass the buck syndrome, the people have lost hope in leadership and leaders are frustrated that the people are not simply bowing to their wishes. What leaders must realize is that people are no longer impressed with the traditional denial response, and that they have a right to seek an alternative.

Leaders must become comfortable with all types of situations, gone are the days when blowing people off and making them feel inferior because they differ in opinion. Leaders are not afraid of breaking new ground, real leaders are not controlled by systems but step outside of them when they are no longer useful. Leaders must have thick skin because change does not go down well with most people.

Good leaders look in unusual places for ideas because they recognize that they don’t know it all. Good leaders don’t argue with their team they listen attentively, why? There may be an idea behind the expression. Bad or redundant leaders do not listen and they argue every point by those on the team, simply because they are in charge and want everyone to listen to them. I guess they forgot, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If leaders fail to recognize the value in the people around them they will put them down rather than lift them up.

The next time you are in close proximity to your leader see if you are being put down or encouraged to grow and develop. If you find that you are being put down it means that your leader is stuck on himself and hasn’t matured sufficiently to value those around him. Let this be a lesson to not replicate the same mistakes in your family, in your work, and in your community. Develop the will to speak out, you won’t be liked but you will be respected.   

  

Leading With Humility

As we forge our way deeper into the twenty-first our organizations must be filled with leaders who lead with humility. With our insatiable appetite for power and prestige during the past century we change the meaning of leadership. What we came to know was that power must be taken first of all, secondly, it must be used to invoke fear to the followers. This attitude lead leaders into believing that they have the right to treat people as they please.

Today we would do well to take a different approach to leadership, and am bold enough to say that the life of Christ gives us a perfect example. In the Sermon on the Mount the master started with the Beatitudes, to ensure that the disciples got the message he took them into the mountains away from the multitudes. The Beatitudes are the attitudes or traits that should be in all those who aspire to lead. The first one says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Poor her means humble, in other words, blessed are the humble in spirit. Leaders who wish to lead must be humble in order to reach the destination. Humble does not mean weak, it does not mean that you are a push over. It means that you recognise that power is a destructive force and must be carefully managed and used appropriateately. This means that good leaders, humble leaders use the influence method through inspiring others rather than the actual force of power.

This does not mean that times may arise when it is necessary to use actual power, but when the time does, power would be clearly seen as the right choice. When a leader has humility he is patient, long suffering, always ensuring that all the facts are clearly known before speaking. In an organization staff must have confidence in the ability of the leader to not be hoodwinked or quickly sold on misinformation. For once who made a poor judgement your legacy will become tarnished and team members will begin to second guess your ability to lead.

Humility gives us an opportunity to make all team members feel like somebody, and when you can do that for the team your team will go the extra mile for it's leader. Humility gives the leader an opportunity to demonstrate how much he cares, when team members see that the leader is caring, they will move mountains. Why don't we try a humility today. 

What Kind of Leadership are You Under

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." Martin Luther  King, Jr.

It appears that the world has come to recognise that many of its' leaders are truly blinded to the reality that what they see as inhumane and oppressive leaders tend to view as good and acceptable. What is presently going on in Egypt sends a clarion call to leaders world wide that, "the people of planet earth wish no association with oppressive leadership" Wayne H.Thompson. Freedom is not a gift from some man to mankind, but rather a gift from the creator to all mankind.

The time has now come for leaders to stop pretending to be gods and accept that they are no different from any other human on the planet. The selfish arrogance that has been allowed will no longer be tolerated by the masses. The persons who wish to serve now must be cut from a new mindset that has no affiliation to the dogmatic styles the world has come to know.

In the shifty game of politics where there are no clearly defined lines rogue leaders exploit the system to their benefit, The foolish ideology that we must be tolerate of everything suggests that anything goes. Humanity has become so tolerant that it had given away it's right to dignity, morality, humanity, integrity, hoping that perhaps things would get better. Now we find ourselves fighting for the basic things that make us human. Our world needs leaders that have backbone, everything cannot be acceptable, everything cannot be right. What has happen to moral leadership, doing what is best for humanity.

We have become so weak in the western world that leadership is viewed as nothing more than an opportunity to enrich oneself at the expense of empty promises, all one seems to need now is a super jelly back with the capacity for months of brown-nosing without taking a breath. Oh yes and lets not forget, the capacity to say yes to everything single thing!!!!

Have you ever worked for a company where ideas are discussed in a meeting and they die there. Belong to an organization where excitement is high and follow through is zero. Watch crooks and thieves thrive while the innocent suffer. Where supervisors stroke management into being clueless. If you have answered yes to any of the above, you are in an archaic system that is just as blind as the leadership in the eastern part of the world where they silence the voices of the masses through fear. In the west, they give you the grave yard shift, passed you up for promotions, then finally they invite you to bend  or simply move on.

Change is like freedom, it must be taken, not violently but with an aggressive commitment toward truly making the organization a better place. You will be viewed as a bully, you will be called names that are insensitive, yet for the sake of the organization you must continue, for the sake of the customer you must continue!!! satisfaction doesn't come from position but from doing what bis in the best interest of both organization and public. If you are under the kind of leadership that is not moving progressively towards change, maybe you just got your new assignment, CHANGE AGENT.  

When Trust is Broken, Where do You Start?

When trust is broken in a relationship it is like an earthquake taking place. What was once stable and secure becomes unravelled, what was once tranquil has been disrupted. This is what people experience when they have been hurt by someone they have given their trust to. The simple truth is, it does not go away easily. It is deeply sickening to find in these enlightened days that people are very comfortable abusing relationships and expecting things to go as if all is well. Leaders today seem to have disconnected themselves from the purpose to which they wanted to serve. This is clearly visible in all sectors of leadership. In government, in business, in church, in marriage.....

During the twentieth century our world saw more than it's fair share of despots wanting to viewed as leaders, gaining the trust of the people only until they have wrestled power for their selfish means then use that power to enrich themselves and abuse humanity. I find it very interesting that an oil rich nation like Egypt can the levels poor and borderline poverty in it's boarders while the few who took power live off what belongs to the people. This is no different from the British Monarchs who conquered foreign lands and then all the land belongs to the monarch. The history of relationships between government and the people have reached an impasse. The people no longer trust the governments, as a result the relationships are breaking and the carnage could topple the stability we once new and accepted.

To heal this breach, we need new leaders who are prepared to operate in true transparency, who understand that leadership is an awesome responsibility to serve, and not to take. The present turmoil in Egypt is indicative of an abuse of power, people may become subservient for a season, but when the God given right to dignity and humanity kick in leaders will find themselves running for cover.

When trust is broken, you must go back to the beginning, not the middle. Too often in the relationship between government and people governments assume that people would just go along with anything. In the corporate world, we see the same ugly style of leadership. While the leaders gorge themselves like a pride of lions on a buffalo with an insatiable appetite for greed  they think that some fluky press conference would appease the ignorant public. Now the public looks on CEOS' like a plague of locusts, and what about the honest staff who worked hard and honestly and was promised the promotion, and now find themselves seeking employment elsewhere.

New leaders must earn the respect of their staff, no longer will the position automatically give respect, the applies to the president or prim minister, and yes it also applies to the prelate. Starting over is not as difficult as it appears to be. Our perception is in need of change, real change. Not the traditional lip service change, or cliche rhetoric, but a going back to basics of honesty, integrity and service.