Jesse Ferrell shares workplace stories of racism and discomfort to argue that being pushed outside your comfort zone drives growth. He introduces REACH, a framework for leaders: Responsibility, Engagement, Accountability, Connection, and what he calls 'highly' as the fifth element.
Chapters
Well, let's say thank you to Grace. Now we start another diversity and inclusion. You could have heard corn. Sometimes you have to be uncomfortable. You have to be uncomfortable. Did you find that you were comfortable with the silence? Tell the truth. Were you uncomfortable with the silence? Yes. Were you uncomfortable with the silence? No. You are uncomfortable with the silence. Why? It's unusual. Nothing. Nothing yet. Everything. Nothing yet. Everything. We don't spend enough time talking about diversity to get still and get quiet and go within. So I believe that the best way to enroll inclusion is to start with any. It's about engagement. Were you disengaged during those first couple of minutes or engaged? I noticed everyone was just looking at you. It's like in that silence, nobody was like looking around going, what the heck? We were all like, what? Where are you going with this? Yeah. Think of it this way. After 31,276 give or take of life coaching, corporate coaching, I noticed and after 21,000 of professional students, I noticed something about people and they don't really get to the best levels of growth until they get a little uncomfortable and won't make a change. Does that make sense? That's when you'll do the work. Let's go back to the early days when I actually acted full head in hand, like afro all over. I don't miss it. I just figured I'd increase my character personality by every inch. It rolled back, not fun to be around. But at the end of the day, back in the day, it started like this. There was a day called Martin Luther King Day. You know what happened on Martin Luther King Day? You cannot imagine on Martin Luther King Day. What happened was it was at the Hilton companies, the Flamingo Hilton, a blackjack. And Martin Luther King Day was a day that our bosses named and claimed for us. We got our own holiday. Sounds good or you don't want cool. By the way, I started, you know I'm going to right? Cuz I didn't get anybody going. Yeah, that sounds good. Where you going? Right? MLK Day was the day that all people of color on the casino floor had off. It was happened to be a Monday. They either had Sunday Monday or Monday Tuesday. So Monday our boss is named Martin Luther King Day. They're relief from us. How's that leave you feeling? At that same property, there was a gentleman. Gentleman. He spoke with tight fists. He had hair like a Brillo had always long. He was five foot one and he spoke with an accent. And he used to say things like we got to get those pillars Fixed and the pillars were pillars. And he would say things. You got to look at this thing appropriating. And it was appropriate. The NAACP came down hard on building those times. They wanted diversity, they wanted inclusion, they wanted diversity. And this brilliant president of our said to the wscp, actually, he said internally, he didn't say, and where am I supposed to find myself a smart nigger? So I stand now on a blackjack table and my boss comes to tell me this in here, knowing that I. And I'm standing there with multiple college degrees. He said, you should go there. He was my boss at the Sam's, senior vice president of operations. We had an event, had 1500 people at that event. He says, I want you to go and introduce me. I was the most junior person on the get up to the front to introduce the senior vice president. I say my name, I'm Jesse Farrell. And then I went into a language. I believe it was Klingon. You know Star Trek. Say yes if you know Star Trek. It went like Pong, Gaiting, Kong, Biden. Good. Larry Noah. So I got his name right. And I got my name right. Everything else in the middle was Greek. And he says to me, whispers in my hair, You think? No words came out. Never again will one man or one woman decide the quality of my communication. At a breath like that, I didn't get a chance to practice. I didn't. I didn't know anything about words. The thing is, what would you have done about it? Practice. Practice. That's exactly what I said. I begin to practice. I owe him a lot of gratitude. The gratitude was he made me uncomfortable. He made me reach inside and go get what was already there. You have what I call reach. It's really, really huge. The reach stands for responsibility, Engagement, Accountability, Connection. And the H is highly. So I wrote this book called how youw need to Be what It Is. It's the eighth part. We're going backwards. The eighth part of that whole reach and how you lead the feeling. The old rule is treat others how they wouldn't want you to treat. Exactly. Treat others how you want them to treat. But what if you're a little goofy? So what I say to you as you think about the hardships we go through, I don't have a cross to merit that I'm the only one who goes through hardship. Different religions do, different races have challenges. Women have challenges. Other minorities have challenges. Asians, American Indians, Eastern. We all have our own process to bear. So this thing called inclusion, it's about all of us. So when I say to you is let's use the Reach campaign from a leadership perspective. Be responsible. Make the people around you that can help you move this forward responsibly. Employee engagement. Engage and connect and make say yes, if that makes sense. Yes. Will you do this? Yes. When will you do this? When? Now. You promise? Because I know where you live. I'm going to be watching. So I want you to consider today, what would you do? What one thing would you do to help this conclusion piece really take and know that you don't have all the time in the world. It.
