7 LGBT executives on what diversity means to them

7 LGBT executives on what diversity means to them7 LGBT executives on what diversity means to themWhile accepting and celebrating employees for who they are should be a year-round priority for all companies, June is the official time to discuss areas of improvement for diversity efforts. As the international month of Pride, many professionals host workshops, throw parties, walk in parades and transform their normal logo to feature all colors of the rainbow.Though these gestures are often appreciated, executives within the LGBTQ community challenge leaders to think more holistically about their practices and the way they promote inclusion within the office, to their customers and as part of their brand messaging. Here, seven visionaries explain their personal definitions of diversity that may serve as inspiration and fodder for yur ownFollow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIts about peo ple, power and process.From Muneer Panjwani, head of corporate development at The Trevor Project. Panjwani identifies as an Indian-American Muslim immigrant gay man.Diversity is about centering people in the conversation about inclusion and belonging. While quantitative data about who is and isnt represented is important, asking why they need to be represented centers the conversation around the unique benefits a diverse staff brings to the workplace. Considering the benefits a diverse team brings to an organization certainly has bottom-line benefits, its also important to recognize that no one is asking what benefits do straight or cis-gender people bring to the workplace? Centering this conversation around people means understanding who has power and who doesnt. Lastly, having a specific, well-resurced, and established a process to identify and solve diversity challenges is important. There is nothing more demoralizing in the workplace than using tactics to delay or de-prioritize addressing diversity. Diversity should get the same priority as when the internet goes down in the office.Diversity includes background, perspective, opinion, and identifiers.From Daryn Carp, host at Bravo and Oxygen, co-host at Unplugged With Eraldo Daryn on the CW and Andy Cohens assistant. Carp identifies as a creative and outspoken lesbian.To me, diversity within the workplace means diversity in background, perspective, opinion, and identifiers. Its great to be around like-minded people and people who have similar backgrounds to you, but that alone can stifle an environment by never hearing and therefore not understanding other perspectives. So much of ur early life revolves around growing up with people just like us due to income status, where we live, who our parents are, and so on. Even in college, we tend to all relate because we chose the same college, and therefore, might be more similar than different. But in the workforce, it is important to interact with and have relat ionships with people from all walks of life. It expands our own perspectives and ergo, our own minds.Its an honest reflection of community.From Hellen Hale, an Interior Designer at Studio 11 Design. Hale identifies as bisexual.Diversity in the workplace should be an honest reflection of the community surrounding it. Team members should be chosen because they not only perform the tasks assigned to them but fit seamlessly into the company culture. Its also about embracing our differences and learning from each other - we all know something someone else doesnt. Diversity is not trying to meet a quota just because, or being overly-inclusive so that it is ostracizing to someone. If you over-celebrate someones differences, it can feel contrived or dishonest, and more about patting your own self on the back for being inclusive.Its about being welcoming.From Suzie Yorke, founder of Love Good Fats. Yorke identifies as a lesbian and female entrepreneur.To me, diversity means welcoming and pr oactively landseeking a variety of opinions and ideas from people of all walks of life. It means giving people a seat at the table so they can be heard. I seek out that diversity every day by personally engaging with my customers via social media and hearing their feedback. We live diversity as a company via our team and the value we give to their voice. I aim to represent those diverse experiences when I am creating new products, sitting in a boardroom, meeting with buyers or talking to investors. The great thing about working in the food industry is that food doesnt discriminate, and neither will we.Its about acknowledging our differences.From Stephanie Boone, founder and CEO of Wondercide. Boone identifies as a lesbian.For us, diversity means we acknowledge the differences between one another our employees and our customers - and celebrate the tangible and intangible value these differences bring to our culture and community that we fondly refer to as our pack. We believe every one, everywhere deserves equality no matter their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, abilities or disabilities, and that when we can unite around our differences great creativity, true connection, and inspired innovation are the outcome.It refers to both visible and invisible identities.From Jennifer Brown, founder president and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting. Brown identifies as a lesbian, cisgender woman.Diversity within a workplace refers to all of the various identities - both visible and invisible - that either make up or should make up the composition of the workforce. Diversity is often talked about in terms of counting heads, which means remaining hypervigilant about who is represented at what levels and who is not represented - especially where this is out of sync with the marketplace. We need to have representation of different ethnicities that reflect our population at large at all levels of a company. We need to have LGBTQ-identified people who feel co mfortable enough to bring who they are to work every day representing the percentage of the population who identify as LGBTQ.It means having multiple perspectives.From Fran Dunaway, CEO and founder of TomboyX. Dunaway identifies as a lesbian.I think that having multiple perspectives is important and critical for success. Differing opinions, backgrounds, interests, beliefs are essential to consider. Diversity opens the door for collaboration and input that pushes the boundaries in a way that doesnt happen when everyone is the same. The world is a melting pot of identities, ethnicities, and experiences. This impacts the lens through which we see the world. True progress stalls when ideals are homogenized into righteousness. Conversation and curiosity stimulate new ideas that lead us down new and exciting paths.

Interview Questions About Challenges as a Student

Interview Questions About Challenges as a StudentInterview Questions About Challenges as a StudentWhen you are applying for an entry-level position, a typical job interview question asks about your biggest obstacles. This question is a way for interviewers to get a sense of how you tackle problems and adversity. More important than the challenge is how you handled it Use this as an opportunity to highlight strengths that would be helpful on the job, such as persistence, communication skills, time management abilities, etc. Be Honest Its tempting to toss back a humble-brag as a response, e.g. My biggest challenge was that Im such a perfectionist Dont do this. Everyone has flaws and areas for improvement. By pretending you dont, youd force the hiring manager to assume that youre either lying or not self-aware. Neither makes a good impression. Focus on Challenges Youve Conquered By the same token, now is not the time to present yourself in an unflattering light. Theres no need t o share challenges youre still actively trying to resolve. For instance, if you currently have trouble keeping your cool in stressful situations, dont tell the hiring manager that you tend to freak out when the pressure is high. Instead, look for examples that show how you faced a challenge and overcame it. (So, if you used to feel stressed out before presentations, talk about how you solved the problem by taking a public speaking course and creating a schedule that allowed you to prepare ahead of time.) Look for Opportunities to Show That Youre the Best Person for the Job When answering this or any job interview questions, your goal is to show the hiring manager that youre the best candidate for the position. That means matching your qualifications to the job and using your answers to show that youd be a good fit. For example, if the job listing specifies someone with good time management skills, you might talk about how you developed a ordnungsprinzip to help you juggle a chal lenging course load and a part-time job. Practice Your Answers Its a good idea to have a couple of answers in mind, in case the interviewer nixes your first reply, or the interview goes in a direction you dont anticipate. Regardless, you should devote some time to practice interviews before you meet with the hiring manager. Ask a supportive friend to conduct mock interviews with you, to get a feel for how to answer questions effectively and organically and change tracks when necessary. Examples of the Best Answers Here are sample interview answers that you can edit to fit your personal experiences and background My biggest challenge as a student was being the student Sitting through the conventional lectures was sometimes difficult. My mind and body were always going and I couldnt wait to get out of my seat, move around, share my thoughts, and interact with my peers. I handled it by focusing all my energy into my listening and note taking. It helped keep my mind busy and my body moving, and I also left with some great notes. During my freshman year is when I faced my biggest challenge as a student. I had never lived away from home before, and I experienced severe homesickness. I was almost defeated by it, and had the opportunity to go home and attend a local college. I decided to try to overcome my homesickness, which I did. Acquiring successful time management skills was the biggest challenge I faced as a student. It was an aspect to college life that I underestimated the significance of. Now that I am in the workforce, I continue to use the skills I gained, and I am always trying to improve on them as well. One of my biggest challenges my first year in college was the volume of work. It was a big change from high school, and standards were also much higher I tackled this in a few different ways I looked for opportunities to start or join study groups, met with my professors for advice on where to focus my attention, and set up a structured schedule to make sure I was putting in the required time studying.

You need to clean your earbuds ASAP

You need to clean your earbuds ASAPYou need to clean your earbuds ASAPOkay, team, we need to have a little hygiene chat and its about those earbud headphones of yours.Do you know how many times youve put them in your ears, stuffed them into your pocket, shoved them into your bag, held them in your sweaty palm and put them back in your ears again? Infinite. Better yet, how many times have you shared them with a friend or your partner when watching a viral YouTube video or listening to a new Post Malone single? Quite a few. Now, how many times have you stopped to clean those babies?Right. Ewww.Naturally, when you wear headphones that jam inside your ears, youre going to get earwax and sweat and bacteria and all sorts of icky goop on those things. And that collection only grows when you decide to be generous and share them. So please, take 60 seconds out of your week and wash behauptung little guys.The process is simple. First, manually remove any earwax residue that has built up insid e and around the piece that goes directly into your ear. (Be sure to tilt the bud downward so that any stray pieces of filth dont end up falling beneath that little mesh surface and getting stuck inside the bud.) Then, coat a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol or your choice of disinfectant spray and wipe the headphones down thoroughly. Be mindful of excess cleaner, because that could leak inside the bud and damage the device.Once youre done, instead of letting your headphones fall back down to the bottom of your bag, give them their own little case in which they can stay nice and clean while on the go. Oh, and just stop sharing them with other people altogether. Blegh.This post was originally published on Swirled.com.