As 2020 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to honor the work the graduate community of Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership has done this year to support our leaders, our organizations, and our communities.
To our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practitioners, you have helped us see a way forward as individuals, organizations and as a nation as we grapple with injustices and inequalities. Your knowledge and skill has been called upon to assess organizations and propose strategic solutions to long-standing issues that prevent all employees from thriving and succeeding. You have invited us into difficult conversations and encouraged us to stay with the discomfort of this work as we examine our own biases and role in oppression. You have used yourself as an instrument of change sharing your personal journey for the greater good.
To our leadership coaches, you have supported leaders through the most challenging of times. You have been there as leaders have been tested in ways that dramatically exceed the scope of any prior situation. You coached them to think differently, act boldly and lead compassionately. You helped them build the resilience necessary to sustain themselves and their organizations for the long-term and helped them learn about themselves and leadership along the way.
To our health & wellness coaches, you supported health and well-being during one of the most dramatic and stressful changes of our time. You have helped clients adapt to the realities of this year by helping them to align their daily choices in this new environment with their personal values. You have served as pioneers in a field that is emerging as a critical component in empowering patients to actively participate in their own care.
To our Organizational Development (OD) professionals, you have paved the path for how OD will be done in the future. The year has necessitated new ways of leading people, managing teams, and working with data. You have exercised creativity, resilience and supported organizations in re-imagining what is possible. You have brought optimism and compassion to help sustain organizations well into the future.
To our facilitators, you have created a new standard in how to lead virtual gatherings. Your design skills have been tested as you reimagined business events that connected participants’ ideas while also tapping into their bodies, spirits and emotions. You have been called upon to design and facilitate intimate personal events from honoring individual milestones to end-of-life celebrations that were once unimaginable in the virtual space. While physically apart, your creativity, presence and grace has brought us together in meaningful ways.
Because of all of you, leaders are more reflective, compassionate and in tune with their personal wellness, organizations are better positioned to see themselves and create lasting change, our virtual gatherings are more engaging and inclusive, and individuals and systems are starting to see prevailing inequality and injustices and making strategic moves to promote diverse, equity and inclusion. Please know that the work you do, especially in 2020, has made a difference as we all work to create a more sustainable and compassionate future.