BIOGRAPHY
Founder of The Change Coaches, LaTonya Wilkins partners with executives, upwardly mobile professionals, and teams to build cultures of belonging through highly customized coaching and consulting services. She is a sought-after keynote speaker and has inspired audiences all over the world. She built her career working in HR, talent management and learning & development at Fortune 500 companies before teaching and taking on progressive leadership roles at the University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business. LaTonya is currently the President of the True Star Youth Foundation board. She gained industry recognition when she was featured on the peer-nominated list of most inclusive HR influencers in 2019.
LaTonya developed her signature concept of Below the Surface Leadership based on her own experience climbing the corporate ladder and researching across disciplines while constantly being the “only one” on her teams. This revolutionary approach to leadership is about creating psychologically safe relationships across differences, empowering underrepresented employees to feel valued, heard, and engaged, and creating cultures of belonging in the workplace.
LaTonya’s clients often describe her as approachable, non-judgmental, inspiring, creative, unique, and insightful. You may experience her the same way as you read through Leading Below the Surface.
SOME SUCCESSES:
Founder of The Change Coaches, LLC
Awarded Most inclusive HR Influencer List 2019
President of the True Star Youth Foundation board
Excellent “teacher” award – Gies College of Business, Spring 2019
USEFUL LINKS:
11 QUESTIONS THAT LATONYA CAN BE ASKED
1. What does self-coaching mean and what does it mean that your book is written in this format?
2. How do we truly create cultures of belonging in our workplace?
3. What are organizations getting wrong when taking on diversity, equity, and inclusion?
4. You often distinguish diversity, equity, and inclusion 1.0 and 2.0. Can you describe what you mean by that?
5. Why were we all born to exclude?
6. What are the terrible three biases that are destroying your relationships and workplace?
7. What does getting below the surface mean and how can you apply it on a macro and micro level (especially when it comes to personal development, DEI and culture)?
8. Why do you hate diversity, equity, and inclusion?
9. What are the leadership qualities we need to be more inclusive, happy, and connected?
10. What has been most surprising to your clients when you get them to go below the surface?
11. What does it mean to get below the surface and how can staying there change you and your organization?
6 TOPICS THAT LATONYA CAN DISCUSS
1. How to truly create cultures of belonging.
2. The terrible three biases holding you back in yourself and the workplace.
3. Why diversity, equity, and inclusion is broken and how to fix it.
4. How to take diversity, equity, and inclusion to an advanced level.
5. How to fill your network with diverse contacts.
6. You’ve taken some initial diversity steps in your org, what should you do next?
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
LEADING BELOW THE SURFACE:
HOW TO BUILD REAL (AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE) RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT FROM YOU
With a foreword by Amy Edmondson
Authentic connections within teams can create a culture shift for an entire company. Leading Below the Surface illustrates this vision for the individual and the organization, taking a radical stance against the “surface-ness” of corporate culture. Inspired by organizational culture research, social psychology and neuroscience frameworks, Leading Below the Surface is a compass for the purpose-driven and forward-thinking leader. It merges true stories from the lived experiences of culture leader LaTonya Wilkins with actionable insights backed by dynamic interdisciplinary research.
Leading Below the Surface disrupts the way we think about traditional leadership constructs and the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have failed to make lasting change. The wisdom in these pages is powerful enough to not only change the way we think about corporate culture, but will instantly activate opportunities for the individual looking to advance their career while remaining authentic to who they are.
Click here to sign up and be the first to learn when Leading Below the Surface preorders are available in bookstores.
A GLIMPSE OF WHAT LATONYA WILKINS HAS TO SAY IN HER INTERVIEWS
SOME PODCASTS WHO HAVE INTERVIEWED LATONYA WILKINS
LOCATION & ACCESSIBILITY
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