True Believer: CEO, Founder on Guiding Leaders Through A DEI Reckoning
Jennifer Brown, CEO and Founder of Jennifer Brown Consulting, says DEI efforts are an urgent need.
From the age of five, Jennifer Brown was performing. On stage, she was singing and dancing as a child growing up in Southern California in a musical family, then as an adult pursuing a singing career.
“I love the adrenaline, I love being under pressure,” says Brown, CEO and founder of Jennifer Brown Consulting, a global strategic leadership and diversity consulting firm that coaches business leaders on critical issues of talent and workplace strategy. “Which is good because I have three 90-minute keynotes online today,” Brown says.
““I love the adrenaline,” says @Jenniferbrown, the CEO and founder of Jennifer Brown Consulting, a global #strategic #leadership and #diversity consulting firm that coaches business leaders on #workplacestrategy. ”
Join Jennifer Brown for Power To Change Conversations 9/21
The author of the 2016 book, Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change, as well as the 2019 How to Be an Inclusive Leader, a Nautilus Book Award winner, Brown had her sights set on using her “triple threat” of talents of singing, dancing and acting in a performance career on stage. But that would change.
Studying American History at Middlebury College in Vermont, Brown graduated in 1993 and moved to Boston, where she was signing in the Boston Symphony Chorus at night and working at City Year, a nonprofit organization that “helped young people do community service,” she says.
She was also sidelining at night in a few bands and working as a studio musician. “I had an R & B cover band, and I can do a mean Bonnie Raitt,” Brown says. “I wanted to be a singer.”
With her sights set on that career, she moved to New York to earn a masters at the Manhattan School of Music, studying voice and graduating in 1998.
“Unfortunately I injured my voice in vocal training. I had two rounds of surgery to remove nodules and cysts,” Brown says. Her musical career was over by 2002.
“That was very shameful, scary and heartbreaking,” she says. “Where do performers go?” she asked.
At the recommendation of advisors, she earned a second masters in leadership development at Fordham University in 2005 and her second career was off and running.
Working as a training coordinator for an insurance company on Wall Street, Brown says, “I was the most junior person on the global training team. It was stimulating, challenging, heart-centering and it felt right.”
Read more in Take The Lead on DEI efforts
Later she became director of training and development at Tommy Hilfiger and in 2005 was laid off due to restructuring. She worked successfully as a 1099 subcontractor for training companies and traveled delivering “hundreds of classes on conflict management, business writing and learned a ton about the workplace,” Brown says.
“I had a strong opinion about what I would change in that world so I wanted to hang out my own shingle,” she says, and her own consulting firm was born. Her first client was Cisco, the multinational tech corporation based in California, with $52 billion in sales today.
Over the last 14 years, her company has grown to consulting Fortune 500 companies including Toyota, Starbucks, and Capital One. Brown is an expert source on changing demographics, specific communities of identity including women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, generations like Millennials, and the role of male leaders in change efforts.
“@Jenniferbrown is an expert on specific communities of identity including women, people of color, #LGBTQ individuals, generations like Millennials, and the role of #maleleaders in change efforts. ”
As an LGBTQ leader who came out at 22, Brown says, “I am deeply involved in that community and in workplace advocacy helping companies be better.” She adds that as an LGBTQ leader and consultant, “I had a seat at the table at IBM, Deloitte and Merrill Lynch when this whole movement of diversity and inclusion was nascent 14 years ago.”
Recognizing the urgent need for boards, corporations, companies and leaders to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in 2011, “I pivoted the firm to that.” Her firm now has 20 employees and is at work on more than 100 projects.
“Recognizing the urgent need for boards, #corporations, companies and leaders to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in 2011, “I pivoted the firm to that,” @Jenniferbrown says. #leadership #consulting #DEI”
Today the need to promote inclusion and diversity in the workplace is urgent, Brown says.
“Companies have been delaying, avoiding or giving lip service to this work and it has been a constant battle to legitimize the work and get them to do more than check the box,” Brown says. “We’re true believers, but it doesn’t mean the client is doing the right thing with innovation, recruitment, retention and resonating with customers. They need to roll up their sleeves and get to work.”
The evidence that DEI improves business performance and financial returns is highly visible, yet not heeded often enough.
“The evidence that #DEI improves business performance and #financialreturns is highly visible, yet not heeded often enough. #diversityinbusiness #bottomline”
A 2018 study of 1,700 companies in eight countries published in Harvard Business Review,“found that the most-diverse enterprises were also the most innovative, as measured by the freshness of their revenue mix. In fact, companies with above-average total diversity, measured as the average of six dimensions of diversity (migration, industry, career path, gender, education, age), had both 19% points higher innovation revenues and 9% points higher EBIT margins, on average.”
In a 2018 McKinsey & Company report, “Delivering Through Diversity,” gender and ethnic diversity in management positions “increases profitability more than previously thought. In the firm’s previous analysis, companies in the top 25th percentile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15% more likely to experience above-average profits. The latest data shows that likelihood has grown to 21%,” Forbes reports.
Read more in Take The Lead on DEI
In 2020, during a global crisis of protests over racial injustices and inequities, Brown says, “I think there is a scrutiny, transparency and criticism—a reckoning. Leaders are now in a panic and called to account,” Brown says. “We have been saying the house is on fire for years.”
“In 2020, during a global crisis of #protests over racial injustices and #inequities, @Jenniferbrown says, “I think there is a scrutiny, transparency and criticism—a reckoning. #Leaders are now in a panic and called to account.” ”
As a leader in this field, Brown has earned awards and recognition including Social Entrepreneur Of The Year by the New York City National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO); finalist for the Wells Fargo Business Owner of the Year Award; a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Winning Women Program; one of the Top 40 Outstanding Women by Stonewall Community Foundation; NYC Controller Bill Thompson’s LGBT Business Owner of the Year; Databird’s Top Female Executives of the Year for Small Business, and one of Hive Learning’s most influential D&I Leaders.
Speaking at Take The Lead’s upcoming Power To Change Conversations September 21, “Allyship in Action,” Brown says the word “ally” is under fire at times for some.
“Speaking at @Takeleadwomen ‘s upcoming Power To Change Conversations September 21, “Allyship in Action,” @Jenniferbrown says the word “ally” is under fire at times for some. #allyship #LGBTQ ”
“I think the problem with the word is people co-opted it conveniently, like slapping on the pride pin to say, ‘I’m an ally.’ It’s not enough to believe in the tenets, it needs to be actions every day. It needs to be uncomfortable every day.”
Brown adds, “We like the word, accomplice. It has less of a connotation of a knight in shining armor. Instead it says, ‘I’m here. You jump in the getaway car. I’m not here for the glory, I’m here to push things so things change.’”
Read more in Take The Lead from CEOs on recent DEI efforts
Brenda Wilkerson writes in Forbes, “In the case of elevating diversity, equity and inclusion across businesses and industries everywhere - especially those with the longest way to go like the tech sphere - progressive change involves actions that will affect ongoing cultural shifts that are reflected not only in the company’s core mission and team makeups, but also in everyday interaction not visible to the public eye.”
Acknowledging her privilege as a white woman, Brown says, “It is not just straight white men who need to do more right now. We all have different aspects of identity that have different levels of ease and safety. Privilege is something we need to understand and know about ourselves.”
“Acknowledging her #privilege as a white woman, @Jenniferbrown says, “It is not just straight white men who need to do more right now. We all have different aspects of identity that have different levels of ease and safety.” #antiracist”
This is a pivotal time in the culture and in workplaces, Brown says, as the pandemic of COVID and the pressure of protests have moved the concept of equity, inclusion and diversity to top priority.
“This is a pivotal time @Jenniferbrown says, as the pandemic of #COVID and the pressure of protests have moved the concept of #equity, inclusion and diversity to top priority. #workplaceculture”
“I just hope we can keep pressure on companies that check boxes and move on. There’s a lot of apathy and status quo inertia, so we have to do what will keep this fire burning,” Brown says.
“We have to keep making ourselves heard. The moral case doesn’t really work with this argument, we have to make it concrete. Is it boycotts, consumer activism? Private enterprise is where I’m pinning my hopes.”
Register here to find out how to become a robust ally when Jennifer Brown joins Take The Lead’s Power to Change Conversations on Monday, September 21, at 4 PM ET to speak on "Allyship in Action" along with host Felicia Davis. BONUS: All attendees will receive a free copy of the intro and first chapter from Brown’s award-winning book, How To Be An Inclusive Leader.
