The Art of Self Worth
Did you know 85% of people have low self-esteem? Join Sarah Anne and Sarah Kelly for conversations about discovering our worth. Each of us has the potential to make a positive impact on the world. However, we often forget this and become disconnected from our true worth. Finding our worth is a lifelong journey that includes play, joy, pain, fear, healing, unlearning, re-learning, and more. In this podcast we share the good, bad and in-between around self-worth. You are worthy.
The Art of Self Worth
Leading with Heart: Compassion, Courage and Self-Worth in the Workplace with Daisy Auger-Dominguez
Leadership is more than guiding teams towards achieving business goals; it's about doing so with compassion and courage, especially in a post-pandemic world that demands a human-centric approach. In our latest podcast episode, we are honored to have global leader and speaker, Daisy Auger-Dominguez, share her insights on creating work environments that thrive on empathy, resilience, and inclusivity.
Throughout our conversation, Daisy, author of Inclusion Revolution, emphasizes the necessity for leaders to embody compassionate courage—a term inspired by Chanel's CEO, Leena Nair's philosophy of putting people at the heart of business operations. This approach is not only humane but also strategic, as it aligns with workers' growing expectations and the need for a supportive culture that fosters trust and confidence within the workforce.
We also delve into Daisy's career journey, examining how being the first, or the only, in various roles shaped her into the leader that she is today. Her experiences underline the powerful influence of supportive managers and inclusive environments in fostering executive growth. Daisy candidly discusses the challenges in creating empowering cultures and how operational hurdles can either invigorate or stifle the human spirit within the workplace.
And of course no conversation with us would be complete with a dive into the importance of self-worth at work. Leadership today is about fostering a culture of self-worth, enhancing team relationships, and making inclusive decisions. Daisy encourages leaders to ask reflective questions that drive strategic planning and action, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and the continuous effort to align our actions with our values.
Anyone keen on the intricacies of embedding DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) into every facet of the employee experience won't want to miss Daisy's valuable perspectives. So join the conversation and discover how balancing courage and compassion leads to exceptional leadership, as well as increased personal resilience and well-being.
Stay in touch with Daisy on her website, LinkedIn, and Instagram. You can also watch her TedTalk and learn more about her book, Inclusion Revolution. Daisy will also be joining us live April 5th on Zoom at noon ET for a deep dive into Embodying Your Worth.
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the conversation we just had was so incredibly energizing.
Speaker 2:It really was. So. We had the privilege of talking with Daisy OJ Dominguez, and we actually first met Daisy this past January in Costa Rica. We were able to really get to know her there and see just how much wisdom she has, and we couldn't wait to have her on the podcast to share more.
Speaker 1:And with her wisdom, is just this light and for our listeners, we wish you could see, because Daisy's smile could light up a room, but you'll be able to hear it. That's how transformative it is.
Speaker 2:So a little bit more about Daisy before we jump in. She truly is a global leader. She's recognized for driving organizational transformations and she likes to play at the leading edge of people and culture. She's held leadership roles at Walt Disney, google, time Warner, vice Media, viacom we could go on and on and on. She has worked with some really amazing organizations, but in addition to that, she's a bold advocate for inclusion, compassionate and courageous management in the modern workplace, and she's a sought after speaker and thought leader in management, leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, workplace culture and the future of work. She's the author of Inclusion Revolution, the Essential Guide to Dismantling Racial Inequity in the Workplace, and this fall she has a forthcoming book that I'm so excited about, burnt Out to Lit Up how to Rekindle the Joy of Leading People. Let's dive on into the conversation.
Speaker 1:Hi Daisy, we are so thrilled to have you here today, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3:I'm thrilled to be here.
Speaker 1:We want to start off with Inclusion Revolution, which is your book, and you emphasize the importance of compassionate and courageous work cultures. How can leaders cultivate these qualities within their teams, especially when that requires a shift in the workplace?
Speaker 3:I think, before answering that question, I have to admit what we all know, which is that work has changed right. Workers' expectations of work, the relationship between the worker and the employer has dramatically changed. And, you know, at a time when everyone looks up to leaders for guidance, you know creating this growing mountain of expectations that have, you know, grown exponentially since the pandemic. You know there's all of these changes that leaders have to manage and take care of. And sometimes you feel that if you can just focus on the operational, if you can just focus on the day-to-day, putting one foot in front of the other, that's the only thing that I need to do. And we forget that leading at any moment in time, but particularly in today's day and age, requires this deep well of compassion and courage to not just get the job done, but to instill confidence in others, to instill trust in others and to instill followership.
Speaker 3:I recently read an interview with Chanel's CEO, lina Nair, and she said I'm going to quote her it says put human beings at the center of everything. I really, really care about people. It's not lip service for me. You remember people. You remember their names, their stories, the trivia, what's going on with them. I do believe if you put people at the heart of the business, they will care about the business. And if you care about them, look after them, give them the space, give them the freedom, listen to their ideas, give them respect, care, they will care about the business. And she went on to say that I'd much rather that we at Chanel show our people are at the heart of our business and, by being exemplary, show the world that it's possible.
Speaker 3:I love to hear CEOs say that, and that is one of the reasons why I wrote Inclusion Revolution, because I wanted to be able to not just showcase where it works, because it works, but also to share examples of how you can implement these pieces into your everyday, because it's really just part of being human. Right, it's bringing your human to work. It's bringing and letting everybody else be human, your human to work, it's bringing and letting everybody else be human. And that's the compassion piece and the courage piece is really in just standing by your conviction and your values and what's important to you. And sometimes we feel that the two can't coincide, that I can't be courageous and compassionate, and frankly I think compassionate courage is really what is the mark of a modern day leader.
Speaker 2:I love that Compassionate and courage, that unification Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I think we tend to think of courage as these, you know, really bold actions that are, you know, sort of impossible from what we can do.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it takes courage just to simply be the one who says something doesn't feel right in a meeting. Right, it takes courage to be the one who says I actually I don't think we're done with this meeting yet, because not all of us are on the same page. Perhaps if we just take an extra five to 10 minutes to make sure that everyone is in alignment with the decision that we've agreed to, that everyone is in alignment with the decision that we've agreed to and their responsibility in carrying out whatever tasks we have said everyone's going to do, because how many times have you left meetings? And you're like, oh my God, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do next. Maybe you haven't, but I know I've left meetings, or I've had team members leave meetings and go like Daisy. So what are we supposed to do next? What's going on? And I think of you know, like if they had just taken a moment, if we had just taken a moment to clarify that, you would reduce the burden on people to have to spend the next couple of hours trying to decipher what was said. You would actually lighten their load so that they can actually do what they're supposed to do and you actually help make people accountable, right?
Speaker 3:We talk about accountability at work so often. It's like accountability is about clarity, right. Accountability is about saying what you're going to do and then doing it right. But sometimes you can't do what you're going to say if you're not clear on what you're supposed to be doing in the first place or if no one's really holding you. You know up to task to do that and it takes courage to be able to say that.
Speaker 3:Right, we, we operated these hushed voices at work. Right, everyone's like in these whisper campaigns I was like oh yeah, here comes such and such, he never does anything. Or or here comes the leader and they're going to tell us what to do, and blah, blah, blah, and no one's going to care. Right, and I was like it takes courage to actually be the one that says okay, I think everyone here is and I, I I've learned to do this and I've built that courage muscle over the years, but it's being able to sort of look around the room and say I was like okay, this room is not aligned, it is not connected and someone's gonna have to say something. And if you're the one that's leading that team, it's your role as a leader to serve up that courage.
Speaker 3:But, by the way, that's compassion, right? So it's not just courage for the sake of being ah, you know, I'm just I'm the big wig in the room. It's also showing compassion and empathy for others, right, it's demonstrating not just that you can do the right thing, but that you're doing it for the right reasons, right, that it's about. It's not just about getting the job done. It's about making sure that those who are entrusted and responsible for getting the job done have the information that they need, have the support that they need, have the you know we use the big fancy word psychological safety right, being able to feel safe in a room. But that they feel safe to be able to raise their hand and say you know what?
Speaker 3:I may not be able to deliver that by Friday. You know it's like can I get some help to do that? Can we push back by a day? Is there something else that we can talk about? We live in so much fear in workplaces and it's mostly because we many of us, but particularly our leaders, lack the courage and the compassion to be able to sort of pause and say, okay, what needs to be said here, what needs to be done here, and how do we do it with humans right, with the people that we lead and serve front and center.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. And why I wanted you to expand on it more is we say something really similar in Buddhism. We say that in Buddhism, you need the compassion with the wisdom, and it's again like those two things combined allow you to make action that's like from the heart and impactful and shifts things. So thank you, thank you for that. I love that.
Speaker 3:I love that we need we need more wisdom at work but like.
Speaker 2:But your definition of courage is wisdom and like. That's that's how I I see that kind of combined. Oh, thank you for that. So you have a lot of wisdom though you have worked at. So I mean, of course, the book shares that wisdom, but just looking at some of the organizations that you've worked at I mean, you've been at Google, you've been at Disney, you've been at Vice there's a lot of diversity just even among those three organizations. So, as you've kind of been working in all of those places, how has that influenced your approach to leadership and advocating for more inclusivity in work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, every one of my work experiences has, of course, influenced you know how I think about work and how I think about leadership, and you know for many of us it's often about you know the things that we're not going to do right, you learn to. You know if you have a bad manager you're like well, I'll never be a bad manager. You know if you have a bad. You know if you have a bad interaction with a colleague, well, I'll never treat somebody that way. But the fact of the matter is that we're all human and support. We do it because we come from a well of experiences when we weren't treated that way. Right, and you learn how to care for others. And my commitment to creating workplaces that work for everyone comes from a very personal place, because I know firsthand how companies and organizations are strengthened when they make their cultures more inclusive and equitable. You know, but I also know why that shift is hard operationally for organizations. So a lot of what shapes my experiences in the workplace is it's having been that only, it's having been that first. You know, recognizing that everyone has a relationship to work. Right, I talk about work. I'm obsessed with work. Right, this is all I ever talk about, when people, you know, when people talk about like what's your brand and you know, and what's your, you know. What do you focus on? I was like it's work, right, because everyone has a relationship to work. It's how we get paid, it's how we're able to put food in our children's bellies. You know, work is what we spend the majority of our days, outside of the time that we spend with our family and our loved ones.
Speaker 3:You know, I was always an only at the beginning, right, I rose from junior to executive ranks and you said it is some of the world's most admired companies and I often felt vulnerable, right, I felt frayed, I felt overlooked, even as I was fighting to break down barriers for women and people of color. And you know, as I was moving up in my career, as I was fighting to bring more seats to the table, you know I had to desperately, desperately fight to earn and keep my own seat. I felt like I had to hold onto my seat everywhere I went, because any day it could be taken away. And that's because all around me, I witnessed women, people of color, talented, talented individuals being repeatedly sidelined and marginalized. I saw some of the smartest people that I knew, be brought down to their knees in meetings and then leave organizations and do really well somewhere else. So clearly it wasn't about them, right, it was about the situation that they were in and, like many people, there were times where I also gave up small parts of myself right, where I let my courage shrink and my voice diminish.
Speaker 3:I've experienced all of that and I've also had the experience of working with managers who emboldened me, who shared with me a sense of what was possible, what I didn't even know existed. It was managers who went beyond saying I want you to be successful, daisy, to actually saying I'm going to ensure that you are successful, daisy. There's a difference between the two, and once you know the difference, you can't go back. They said to me that I see you, I value you, you matter, you make a difference. Once you know that experience, you know what's possible, and so I always tell my teams you cannot hear I believe in you too many times, right, like that's what we all want to hear.
Speaker 3:So it's having had the experiences of not being supported, of being sidelined and you know I call it being bitten into submission more times than I could you know that I care to count. But also having had the experience of leaders who really believed in me, who saw me, who helped debunk myths right. You know, I remember the first senior leader who put my name in the hat for actually my first diversity role, and I didn't even know there was a hat for my name to be put in. I've had mentors and leaders put my name up for roles that I didn't even know existed, that I didn't even know were possible, that I didn't think I was capable of doing, but because they thought I was capable of doing, that emboldened me to believe I could do it, and then I did them, and then I did them incredibly well and then I kept on moving. And so all of that has influenced my belief that when you are supported, when you are believed in, when you are given the space and the room to be you and to test and iterate right and to fail right I mean I've failed also more times than I could count but to fail and get yourself back up that you're able to create more, you're able to build more, you're able to bring people with you and along you and in front of you and behind you in a much more meaningful way, and that creates a lightness in organizations. That's really powerful. That creates a vibrancy. That is really powerful. But when you don't have that, that's what creates darkness, right, that's what creates disillusionment. That's what creates disengagement.
Speaker 3:Every employee survey out there is about, you know, measuring engagement in the workplace. Well, you don't have to, you know, ask people that many questions to realize what's beating them down. When you look, when you look at organizational cultures where leaders don't care or don't show up for their teams. So this is a long way of saying I've seen when it works. I've seen when it doesn't. I've experienced that, and all of that has influenced my ability to not only think about it right, to ideate what it could look like, but to also operationalize it, saying I want that done, but you have to get it done.
Speaker 3:And so I've learned how to get it done right. I've learned how to do it through the motive pieces of this work, and then I've learned how to do it through the operational pieces, because it's very different to say, okay, I'm going to take care of you when a crisis happens and if something happens, I'm around. It's very different to say that than to actually create processes and structures that allow you to be able to have access to the benefits and the resources that you need when something happens to you. I like to compare it to kind of like you know, when you water plants, when they're wilting after a big heat wave, you give them some water and they kind of come alive. I was like that's nice, but it's so much more different if you build an irrigation system that actually waters them all throughout so they never have to wilt, they never have to collapse, they never have to burn out because they are being protected all along. Those are the processes and the structures that I've learned along the way to put in place that I share in Inclusion Revolution.
Speaker 1:We love that work is your thing, because work does impact our self-worth so much, they're so interlinked in our culture. When you're constantly elbowing and trying to prove your worth, it brings back this reflection of question of like well, is it me Like? Is it my worth, you know? And so the two can really play into each other when a leader is really trying to achieve inclusion and equity in the workplace and boost their people up without reading the whole book. But how can they do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, listen, it's work right. I love the framework of self-worth and I've always framed it from a place of self-awareness. Right, it's that you know, it's the key to understanding yourself and the role that you play right In supporting and enabling others to work and to thrive and to live their best lives. Right, that's in many ways that's the role of leadership to me, and inclusion revolution focuses very heavily on that sense of self-awareness. But, as you say, there's such a strong link to self-worth because when you're self-aware right, you know your strengths, you know your areas of improvement right, instead of your weaknesses. That's another way of saying it. Right, you know what motivates you. You know what your derailers are. All of those are intrinsic skills that enable you to lead and navigate organizations and places and communities Apparently within. That is understanding your worth right, your place in the ecosystem, if you will, what you bring to the table. But many organizations are designed in awful ways to take that away from you.
Speaker 3:I've often said I was like you know, my job when I was leading recruitment teams, and leading particularly executive recruitment efforts, was to, you know, bring people with their magic. Right. I wanted to bring you, sarah, into the organization because you're magical and you're going to, you know, bring so much value to this organization. But what I would see time and time again, especially for women and people of color, is that the organization would hire you for your magic and then they would suck the magic out of you. It's just like, ok, you're here now and now we need you to be somebody else, and now we need you to be like everybody else. Look at them and you know, just just follow suit. I had a manager my boss, when I worked at Disney, used to say it's like you hire like the same seven people and you knock one out and then another one just gets in front of you and does the exact same thing. You knock them out and the same person does that. And we all know that we want to be valued for our own intrinsic value right, like for what we bring to the table, and we all have our unique gifts and our you know and our rhythms and you know and our talent. Being able to recognize that and see that as core to what you bring to an organization and knowing that other people value and appreciate you for that, that builds confidence right, that builds connection right. And you know there's a loneliness epidemic right now in, you know, in our country, in the world, I think, in workplaces. Well, you know, we feel lonely when we don't feel connected with each other and we don't feel trust with each other, when we don't feel valued by others, when we don't feel connected, we don't feel that our sense of self-worth is, you know, is being valued equally to how we see ourselves. And so that's the complexity of what happens in organizations.
Speaker 3:Preparing for our talk on Friday, I've been thinking a lot about the lens of self-worth and self-awareness and thinking very much about the framework that I create and I share in Inclusion Revolution, which is a four-step framework. Right, it begins with an internal lens of reflecting right, helping you get clear on your truth and the truths of your coworkers. Right, the variations in your points of view, your feelings, your identities, your motivations, how all of that impacts the organizational climate. Right, it's like that, you know, in HR terms it's called situational. That's not HR, but you know, it's like it's situational awareness. Right, it's understanding your role and the role of you know of others, and the bulk of the book walks you through the steps that go after you spend that heavy time reflecting, which is visualizing and acting. Right.
Speaker 3:So the vision piece is in corporate terms is strategic planning, right? That's where you visualize where you want to go and then you kind of you know backwards plan what are the things that you have to do. And then the action piece is where you actually test it out and you and you do it, and this is where leadership comes in, right. This is where you spend time asking yourself okay, what is one thing I could be doing better to prioritize self worth in my, in my organization? What is one thing that I could be doing better to enhance the interpersonal relationships on my team? What is one thing I could be doing better to enhance my own decision-making, right? Am I prioritizing equity and inclusion in my decision-making or am I just, you know, making the same decisions that everyone else has made before me and therefore, you know, just having the same outcomes over and over again right me, and therefore, you know, just having the same outcomes over and over again, right it's, you know, it's those kinds of questions.
Speaker 3:The other questions that I pose in Inclusion and Evolution, which are specific to leading diversity and inclusion, is like why is diversity, equity and inclusion important to me, right? What scares me about it? What excites me. What's possible about this? We don't spend enough time asking those questions and we don't spend enough time understanding our role, our role in doing good or bad.
Speaker 3:For that it's hard. It's really hard to be faced with the reality of I failed my team because I did my team, because I, you know, because I did not center, you know, these identities, or I did not center this way of thinking I have, you know, I have ignored people on my team who are the quieter voices, right, and I have I have let the loud voices, you know, rule continuously and I was like and I haven't done it because I'm a bad person, I haven't done it because I don't care about them, I've just done it because that's a bias that I have and I have ignored it. Right, but in ignoring it, I've been complicit in maintaining a culture that does not value, that does not value self-awareness and does not value self-worth Right, it does not value the worth of everyone on my team. And so that kind of reflective action is what I think allows us to not just and you said at the beginning, when you said this question, you said I'm really self-aware.
Speaker 3:It's like I've had to work really hard at that right, and even with the level of self-awareness that I strive towards, there are times where I will leave a meeting or a conversation and go, oh my gosh, like did I say that? Or like, why didn't I speak up in that moment, why didn't I challenge that Right? Like they're they're? You know, we're human right, we're fallible, but but that, that, what that means, is that it's a continual, continual effort to to interrogate how we engage, how we connect and how we show up in the ways that best serve us. That, to me, is what self-worth is. Right, Is knowing that I'm showing up in every interaction in a way that is consistent with my values, are and who I am, because that's what I bring to the table. That's my value, that's my worth.
Speaker 2:So you've already kind of dove down into it. But on Friday you're joining us for our Embodied Worth speaker series, where you're going to be talking about embodying your wholeness. How do you recommend that people cultivate that courage to show up authentically?
Speaker 3:You know, cultivating that sense of self-worth, like I said, it's practice, right. Like many Latinas in the workplace, I have felt pressured to walk a daily tightrope, right, like choosing which parts of me to reveal or which parts of me to conceal, all the time. Right, and it's downplaying very much in many times the very talents and skill sets that are required for me to advance in my career. Right, that's the kicker that you're spending this time protecting yourself. It doesn't mean that you don't know what your self-worth is, but when you feel that your self-worth is at risk right, you have to protect it. And so you have to figure out am I going to say this much about myself? Am I going to reveal this part of it or am I going to conceal it? But the kicker to all of that is that when we spend all this time and energy concealing that, we're actually limiting ourselves from being able to grow in our careers. I know that I have been invited into organizations and into teams who claimed that they wanted me but really just seemed satisfied with putting me on this play. Being able to acknowledge that and to say no, like you don't get to do that is an act of self-worth, right, it's a courageous act, and it can also be a you know, it can be a dumb act, right? If it's not, if it's you know, if it's something that you really need, right, but it's something that you have to, you have to decide for yourself when's the right time, right. So when it's okay for you to be like, okay, I get it, I'm on display, I get the story and I was like, but I'm going to use this for my advantage. Or when you're going to say no, you don't get to put me on display, I get to decide my story, I get to decide my narrative. And that's this continuous act of figuring out.
Speaker 3:We use the word authenticity at work, right? Oh my gosh. Everyone's been told to bring their authentic selves to work, but the fact of the matter is that most organizations, they're just not ready to contend with what your authentic self is. We don't have those conversations. So you have all these particularly young people who often ask me it's like, how do you show up as your authentic self? Which I think, again, it's an extension of this self-worth, because for me to be my authentic self means that I value myself enough to know that this, this is how I'm going to show up all the time and and I always tell people the same thing I'm telling you I was like it's just years and years of trying, years and years of figuring it out, years of building credibility and and comfort and support in others and support in others.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite quotes, adam Grant, says that authenticity is not about expressing every opinion you hold, but it's about ensuring that what you voice reflects what you value. If you value respect and kindness, your comments shouldn't be filled with contempt and cruelty. That's also a way of demonstrating our self-worth. It's saying the things that matter to you, that are value-added, right, it's not just kind of like getting on a soapbox in every meeting, but it's saying the things that you know are value-add but that also are of value to you.
Speaker 3:I did my TED Talk several years ago and in it I shared how, in my first job at Moody's, I was afraid to talk right, I was literally paid for my opinion. I was a credit risk analyst and my job was to sit in these meetings and to say what I thought the rating was and that was valued equally. This was a rather meritocratic situation that I found myself in in the early part of my career, but I was so embarrassed for being the youngest person and for not having enough experience and wasn't quite sure what I needed to say. And it wasn't until one of my colleagues pulled me aside one day and literally said you get paid for your opinion. I want to hear you speak. And when I explained to him why I was nervous, what I feared, what I was afraid of it was having someone actually see me and not chastise me right, which was my fear I thought if I speak my truth, I am going to be chastised. And it was him looking at me and saying okay, I get that you're afraid, I get that you're worried, but I also know that the only way to move up in your career is for you to actually have an opinion and share it in these meetings. So why don't we do this? The next time you're in a meeting, you're going to say one thing, just one thing, and then you're going to start. You know you're going to see how you feel more comfortable going forward. And what happened was that I started talking and building my courage muscle right. I started feeling like, oh, I can do this. And like, oh, wow, the ground did not fall under me. I was like oh, you know what I said they agreed with, right? I'm like, I'm not crazy, I'm not an idiot, right? I actually? I have data to support my you know my opinion, and then you couldn't shut me up after that.
Speaker 3:But my point is is that that level of authenticity, that level of self-awareness, that level of self-worth that comes from testing and from, you know, iterating? But it also comes from this deep sense, this deep effort of self-reflection. I spent a lot of time thinking about the impact of my words, not just what I say, right, I spent a lot of time thinking about how people experience me, not just you know what they see within. But I was like how do you experience me? Because if I can come into a meeting and have a lot of people laugh and feel like I delivered a great presentation, but if it was just lighthearted laughter or they were just laughing at me, that doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 3:That level of self-awareness and that level of self-reflection requires us to really come to terms with how we want to be experienced. Right, I know I want to be experienced in a way that makes others feel better. I'm very clear that every conversation I have, I want people to feel better, to feel whether it's informed, whether it's inspired, whether it's connected. That's always been where I've derived joy from. If there's a disconnect between that desire of mine and how people are experiencing me, then the onus is on me to think about how do I want to show up?
Speaker 3:What is, what does that mean? Because I know that I can be better, I know that I can do better, but I also know like I'm pretty, I'm, I'm, you know I'm, I'm a pretty good person, you know I'm pretty smart, I, I'm a pretty good person, I'm pretty smart. I have a lot of experience. I come at it from a place of humility. I'm Latina. I can't help but be humble. I come at it from a place of humility, but also, and always sort of like putting my head down and letting others, you know, be the ones and getting to a place of I can still be humble and I can still create space for others, while I also shine my light so that others can shine their light brighter.
Speaker 1:Thank you. That is such a beautiful message because I think that is one of the you know in this delicate dance of how do we into the cultural norm in corporate America and then also be ourselves authentically. And all of this is described so beautifully.
Speaker 3:It's hard because we have all this toxic positivity and you know, everyone's got to be rah, rah, rah. And then we've got, in order to progress at work, you have to, you know, speak and be loud and be known and be out there, right. But then, like, you can't be a jerk, yeah, you can't be too loud, especially for women. I mean, we, we face a double bind. We can't be not liked and we can't be liked too much, right. And when you add dimensions of race and ethnicity, you know it gets even more pronounced.
Speaker 3:I talk about hyper visibility for women of color. You know you can't be, you know, marginalized and you know, and sidelined so deeply that nobody knows you. But then if you become too visible, hyper visible, then all of a sudden all eyes are on you and any mistake you make is, you know, is your failure, right. So it's this incredible pressure of like am I too little, am I too much? You know what's the right balance.
Speaker 3:That's where self-awareness and self-worth comes in. And in not playing the part that others want you to play, but in playing your part right, I was like this is me, this is how I show up, whether I'm in a corporate board meeting or whether I am having lunch with my girlfriends or whether I am leading a team meeting, right, this is how I show up. I may adjust situationally based on the audience, but fundamentally, they're always going to get the same daisy, and that's self-worth, that's consistency, because that daisy is, I think, someone that's really important and special enough to be shared. Right? But you have to feel that about you, right, because we all have that.
Speaker 1:You have inclusion revolution and it's amazing, and we've talked about the self-worth in the workplace and really showing up with community and all of that. What has inspired you to write your second book, burnt Out, to Lit Up how to Reignite?
Speaker 2:the Fire.
Speaker 1:We are so excited for this book. I am excited too.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wrote Inclusion Revolution out of a fervent belief that organizational health, growth, dynamism all of that thrive when diversity, equity and inclusion bloom in organizations right? So I believe that, and I wrote a book that draws on my professional climb as a Latina executive working in diversity, equity and inclusion, and I wanted it to be a practical call to action, right? So? It's a management book that walks you across the employee life cycle, from hiring to onboarding to professional development, coaching, all of those and it's meant to be a step-by-step blueprint for embedding diversity, equity and inclusion on the entire employee life cycle.
Speaker 3:But as a practitioner of this work, I also know that reshaping systems is relentless, it's complex and it is fraught with setbacks, with skepticism, with resistance, with moments of just saying I want to give up. And so in those moments, we have to carve out spaces for ourselves to pause, to reflect, to recharge and to reset, because otherwise we burn out. And so I wrote the book of Burnt Out, because I wanted to sustain the revolutionary work of anchoring DEI right, so that you can stay strong and inspired yourself to continue to do this work, because this work needs all of you. This work doesn't need just moments of you, it needs all of you, and so that burnt out to lit up is a response to the pressures of navigating this work with skill and with humanity. It's meant to help you be the leader you want to be.
Speaker 2:So right now, everybody should come to the event on Friday. We'll get to hear even more of Daisy's wisdom about embodying your wholeness. But how else can people stay in touch with you?
Speaker 3:Oh well, linkedin is my community. You can find me on LinkedIn, daisy OJ Dominguez, and Instagram. Daisy AD is my what is it my tag at Instagram and then on my website, but most of my ongoing conversation with the broader community is on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Speaker 2:Thank you so so much again for joining us, daisy, and do not worry, folks that are listening. We'll have all the links to staying in touch with Daisy in the description below.
