This content was created by Cynthia Fortlage. This content was uploaded by Cynthia Fortlage. This is a YouTube video titled "How can I help your company?" (published 2021-01-25) featuring a monologue by Cynthia Fortlage speaking from Chesham, UK. She describes her ~30 years of corporate and technology experience, leadership training, and work in diversity, equity, and inclusion (particularly LGBT+ and gender diversity). Cynthia explains how she can support the corporate market—offering program setup, audits/reviews (e.g., gender-diversity audits, intake/exit process reviews), culture-and-values alignment, and connecting with specialists for areas where she lacks lived experience—and invites organizations to contact her for consulting.
Chapters
Hey there, Cynthia here. Yes, this is Chesham, UK. You can see that we've had snow, so it doesn't really matter where you are. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, chances are you will experience it. So yeah, just wanted to send greetings. Last week was a big week coming off the announcement for the leading LGBT executive lists, and I was very honored to be on the list for a fourth time. And I've shared with you kind of what I think it means to clients and so forth, but I wanted to specifically today kind of address the corporate market. It's not one that I've spent a lot of time in, and kind of why would I be the right person to work within that space. And I think there's a number of factors that come into play. You know, the depth of my experience that you engage with me over the 30 years that I was in the corporate world, you know, come from aspects of obviously technology, technology within corporate strategy, within IT strategy is obviously one aspect. But it also covers things like corporate culture and redefining the corporate culture from the inside out, which really follows the process of finding your why that Simon Sinek talks about. And so really, you know, going on that motto that you are not what you say you are, you are what your customers say you are, what your suppliers, etc., say that you are. There's also aspects that cover leadership. Over 30 years, I've been exposed to many different leadership programs and training, so I bring all of that insight as well. Along with that, there is, of course, the aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion, which, while I have the experience that I had within the corporate world for an organization that didn't have the pieces in place that needed to be assembled and I led that charge since I was the one directly affected by it. And as an executive, that was my part of my corporate responsibility. It's what I brought to the table. But it's also from the work that I've done within the LGBT+ community and through board leadership and understanding other stories and what is needed from a resourcing perspective, but also looking at what we do within, you know, the women's sector. Many people overlook that, you know, women make up the greatest portion of the working population, but still culturally they're considered very much kind of second-class citizens within the corporate world. And so, you know, looking at gender issues from a female perspective is certainly still very relevant and it's very much part of the journey. And so I, I have this broad experience base of looking at the world from two genders in the executive suite, looking at it from an LGBT+ perspective lens, and working with many, many others. And while I obviously don't have clearly lived experience as someone with different skin color and so forth, um, I can network with specialists in those fields in order to bring that expertise to the table. So if it sounds like that I have something that you might need, if you're looking to establish a program and get going from the get-go, perhaps you're looking to have some sort of review or audit from a gender diversity perspective. If you're looking to ensure that your intake or your exit processes are applicable from a gender perspective. If you're just interested in the overall diversity, equity, inclusion space and you want to know, is that something that you can improve upon? Or perhaps, as it was for one of my clients, it was aligning your organization to your culture and values that include gender diversity and not really sure to do that. And I've been down those journeys. I see how they connect. I see how you kind of pull it together. So if that's something that you think might be a fit for your organization, I would love an opportunity to talk to you. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.
