Leadership Voyage

S4E18: Enabling More Black Men to Ascend to Senior Roles with Dominic George

• Season 4 • Episode 18

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Dominic George is a dedicated leadership coach with a passion for empowering Black men to ascend from mid-level leadership roles to senior leadership positions. With a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by Black professionals, Dominic brings a tailored approach to his coaching, providing targeted guidance and strategies for career advancement.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominiccgeorge/
Email: admin@visionleadershipforlife.com

Book ("The Authentic Edge"): https://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Leading-Without-Losing-Yourself-ebook/dp/B0FJ2PCQY9

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  • Black men's biggest corporate struggles
    • "keep your head down" and do your work has been the biggest pitfall
    • but they need to prioritize cross-departmental relationships, understand the mission and vision of their org, and learn the work streams of others in the org to collaborate and create win-wins
  • Black men's biggest obstacles
    • not enough sponsors in the workplace
    • not enough coaches and mentors within the workplace
    • often you might be the only African-American in the room; when you "see yourself" in the room you can more likely imagine yourself in a role
  • Black men connecting with mentorship and support
    • look to your own personal network!
    • conferences, podcasts, referrals
  • For organizations serious about DEI, what practical steps actually support Black men?
    • too often, when Black men are "the only" in a space they feel the pressure to represent all Black men rather than themselves
    • look to HR and ask why (if there are) so few Blacks, and question hiring practices and how they serve the mission
    • ask what you want to be as an organization
    • provide internal or external executive coaching opportunities
  • Growth Opportunities
    • if you don't communicate effectively, you lose people as a result
      • people often don't realize they're poor communicators or that they aren't being received
      • you're communicating for the person across from you, and it takes some emotional intelligence
      • when you practice (e.g. record a meeting), you and those around you get to improve
    • in order to identify your own knowledge gaps,
      • be a lifelong learner! have an intentional desire to grow and develop
      • ask for feedback (your team member, 360)
      • some areas you can objectively see you don't cut it yet
      • see the resourc

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Did you know that up to 82% of new managers are left completely in the dark, untrained and searching for answers? That lack of preparation doesn't just hurt your new leaders. It holds your entire business back, draining morale and costing you productivity. Stop the clock on bad management. Golden Mean Consulting offers a proven no fluff approach to help your new managers build the right habits from day one. Our co-founders Sonia and Jason have over 20 years of experience in the trenches, so you can trust they know what works. To learn more, visit golden means consulting.com. That's g o ldemeultinggroup.com. Wherever you are on your leadership voyage, it starts here.[Music][Music] Hey everybody, welcome to Leadership Voyage, the podcast dedicated to your pursuit of becoming a great leader. I'm your host Jason Wick and feel free to reach out to me anytime at startyouvoyagegmail.com. Before I forget, it's been a few episodes since I've mentioned our affiliate instacart. If you're looking to get groceries delivered to your doorstep, handpicked by a shopper uh sometimes in one is as fast as one hour, click the link in the show notes to get free delivery on your first order of $35 or more. And by doing that, you support the show, you support Leadership Voyage. We are well over 50 episodes now, talking to lots of guests over the past four years, and it's my pleasure and joy in this season four to be able to bring more and more wisdom to you all. My guest today is Dominic George. Dominic uh hails from Oakland, California, currently resides in New Jersey. He went to UC Berkeley and Colombia in New York. And he is a leadership coach for black men. He helps black men break through mid-level to get to senior roles. And I had a fantastic conversation with Dominic. He was such a joy to talk to. Um, from the moment we started the call, we were hitting it off very nicely. We were both doing like home improvement projects that same day or something. So, it was really easy to get connected. This conversation comes in two halves. The first half we talk about black men, some of their challenges, uh, opportunities in the workplace, and he is a, as I said, a leadership coach for black men. The second half we talk about things a little more broadly in terms of career growth more particularly and gaps that we can fill um, with particular approaches and plans on how to close those gaps. So everybody stick around for my fantastic conversation with leadership coach Dominic George.[Music] Okay everybody, welcome back to another episode of Leadership Voyage. I am very happy to be joined by Dominic George today. Nice to see you Dominic. It's great to see you as well and thank you for having me. Of course. Of course. and they say,"Good things come to those who wait." For all you listeners, we we started our email thread sometime early in 2024, and by the time this airs, it'll be late 2025. So, took us a year and a half to get going, but it's nice nice to meet. So, thanks for making the time, Dominic. Absolutely. Well, this is an exciting topic for me to discuss because it's something I've never had on the show. And this is your wheelhouse, which is you help black men rise from midlevel in their in the org chart in essence to senior level. And you have a book that you just launched. So, we're recording this in July, just a couple of weeks ago, mid July, you wrote

a book called The Authentic Edge:

Leading Without Losing Yourself. And as your uh the work that you do, you self-proclaimed. You want to help black men rise from mid-level to senior leadership without compromising values, voice, or legacy. So, can you tell us what inspired you to start the work that you're doing? Yeah, I I would say um for the longest time I've seen myself in a coaching capacity, whether that was back in my teenage early adult years when I was swimming um or in the swim swimming world. Um at some point I was a coach after I swam through college. And I always found some excitement in just offering people tools and strategies that I've learned along my journey to make it easier for somebody else. And so when I transitioned into the workforce and started my journey in leadership, I started to notice that um whenever I would reach out for help, there were always people who would help guide me and and direct me in the direction that I needed to go or wanted to go rather in terms of getting towards that senior leadership opportunity. And what I noticed in the workplace was there was a lot of individuals, specifically black men, who weren't getting the same attention, weren't getting the same guidance or asking the questions needed to really get through some of those obstacles and oftentimes pitfalls. And so when I noticed that trend um alongside other people um in the workplace um asking me advice and for guidance and direction um I realized that that was a sweet spot for me that both I enjoyed people felt comfortable coming to me and asking me those questions. And so um as it evolved um I decided I wanted to help as many people as possible and then that sparked a particular interest in black men and helping them navigate the corporate ladder. Love that and thanks for the backstory. And yeah, as we were getting to know each other a little bit before the record button, um, as you said here, Dominic, for all the listeners, Dominic was a swimmer at UC Berkeley. Uh, also I believe you went to Colombia in New York as well for some extra education too, right? Um, and it's great to hear that backstory about how you saw yourself kind of as a coach or in supporting roles in different contexts and then kind of connecting these dots in corporate America with part with some of what you were seeing with black men. What are some of the most common leadership struggles that you see particularly among uh mid-level uh black men who um are looking to get to that next level? What are some of the most common leadership struggles that you see? Yeah, one of the biggest struggles that I see and it's such a great question. One of the biggest struggles I see is often we've been told in the workplace to sort of put your head down, do the work, focus on your work stream, and the results will lead to the opportunities. And what I often find is yes, you will get the praise and the results that you're looking for in terms of execution and progress forward where you're focused on your individual work stream. But a common pitfall that I see and obstacle in the work um place is not prioritizing cross- departmental relationships. And something that I often teach when I'm coaching other black men at the mid level is to really understand both the dynamic of your organization, understanding what is the mission and the the vision of the organization because that's going to be your anchor and foundation. And then also understand who are the other leaders alongside of you whether that's your peers whether that's upward um other leaders in the company in different departments like what are their individual work streams what are understanding what they're working on so that as you evolve and grow um that you get to collaborate and create those win-wins across departments so that the organization wins your colleagues win and you ultimately win in the long run when you're progressing ing towards that senior leadership opportunity. But I see the biggest pitfall is just people putting their head down and only focusing on their work versus um building those crossf functional relationships. Yeah, thanks for that answer. So most commonly you're seeing folks who are just kind of keeping their head down, doing their job, minding their own business. And your advice, if I'm hearing you right, is to put your head up, look around, broaden, connect with others and other departments, understand your company's vision and mission, where it's going, and make those connections and use that as an anchor for for moving forward. Yeah, certainly as the starting point there's um more nuance um ways in which I see individuals sort of walking into pitfalls, but I would say that that's the first step that every aspiring leader should take is to figure out who's in your organization and what's their why behind the work that they do. Yeah. Thank you.[Music] Do you know the real reason half your employees are looking to leave? Untrained firsttime managers, you need a way to stop the bleeding, the expensive cycle of disengagement and turnover. It's time to flip the script from surviving to thriving. Let's equip your leaders to build engaged, loyal, and profitable teams. Sign your leaders up for our 6-week new manager boot camp, a hands-on, accelerated program to grow and learn with like-minded peers augmented by personalized coaching sessions. No theory, just simple tools that Golden Mean Consulting co-founders Sonia and Jason have used for over 20 years. Ready to invest in your team's success? Secure your spot now at golden means consulting.com/services. That's g o len mcconsultinggroup.com/services. that. So, that's one of the most common um struggles you've mentioned. I mean, what are some of the obstacles do you think that are in the way of black men from rising the ranks? Yeah. Um, one of the the obstacles that I see is there's just not enough sponsors in the workplace to support black men in elevating their work streams, elevating their results and um impact throughout the organization and rooms that they're not present to. And um yeah, there's just not enough sponsors to to be able to offer that um both guidance in the moment and speak the value of their work in other rooms that they're they're not present to. And also um there's just not not enough coaches and mentors to be able to guide um black men in those spaces. I would say that that's the biggest obstacle is finding that support within the workplace. Yeah, thank you for that. I I uh I I have a small business uh consulting business and the co-founder um a female. She she had a keynote this week again this is being recorded in July and and the title of her keynote was called being the only and it was about women mostly uh in rooms where there aren't uh there aren't many of them and rather than kind of suppressing your voice making it you know in embracing that it's unique and and she gave a a keynote about this this week and it kind of reminds me of that. I think something I've heard along the way that um that that's in my mind right now is sometimes it's hard to see yourself in a role if you don't see others who look like you or are like you in that role. Do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah, I I think it shows up in so many um workplaces already and the dynamic. I can speak from my own experience and reference some of the individuals who I've coached over my um within my coaching practice. For me, I've often been the only one in many rooms, whether that's starting in the swim world where it's um predominantly not that many African-Americans within the sport in general and then when you get to the elite spaces, there's very few far in between. And so, um, that was actually one of my anchors and foundation of of why I wanted to both continue be great and have fun at something that I was already loving is because I wanted to create a space where other young black boys, other black children got to see a swimmer, swimmer at an elite level. Um, so that they could aspire to be something greater. because often when you see yourself in a room, you could dream of how to become that person or how to be better than that um individual. Um so that was the swimming world. In the workplace, um similar um thread going to um UC Berkeley again the population of of black males were very small and few in between. Um and we certainly connected because um community is is important in those spaces. Um similar at Colombia. similar experience, similar in the workplace. And so, um, these sort of trends happen and it certainly makes the obstacle to get to where you want to go a little bit harder if you can't see a window and an opportunity in the door to get there through the reflection of somebody else already been present. Not impossible, but it it certainly makes the the climb a little bit harder. Yeah. A little additional challenge that you're calling out there for some for some. Um, we we mentioned earlier you've got this new book, The Authentic Edge Leading Without Losing Yourself. And you yourself have a podcast and a business called Vision Leadership for Life. And when you work with African-American men about uh and and are mentoring them, coaching them, um, how do you help connect them with mentors or others in their lives who can maybe show them what it looks like to walk through that door? Yeah, and also a great question. Um, again, community is such a foundation in how we move through the world. And it doesn't matter what your identity is, right? We all need someone in a space to help guide, direct, um, call us out, call us forward, call us in to different opportunities of elevating ourselves. And so when I'm coaching other black men specifically in the professional space, something that I start with is um oftentimes people don't see the value within their own community and they don't see maybe there's someone in your life who have had an experience but just haven't shared it because um people are often busy and they they go on and and live their life without acknowledging or celebrating their wins. And so sometimes you have to actually inquire about who's done this before, who's been in the space and that's when you start to realize that your own the power of your own network. Um so I often encourage the individuals that I'm working with to start with their individual network first. But then there's the professional spaces where um I like to say and something I've learned in my own professional and professional development is um this concept that you don't know what you don't know until you don't know it. Um, and the idea is that in the professional world, there are groups of black men who are looking to both elevate themselves, but also elevate others through um, teaching, through coaching, through guidance, of mentorship, um, being a sponsor, like all the things that you need to elevate. And um the second thing that I I walk um other black men through when they are working towards moving from mid-level management into senior level management is to tap into some of those resources. Sometimes that's at conferences, sometimes that's um listening to a podcast. Sometime sometimes that's just through a referral um to connect with someone else in your industry in order to elevate. But there's so many ways to do it. but starting with your own network and then branching out to those um networks that are unav or you're just not clear that they're they're there yet. Great answer. Um and and thanks for the multiaceted response to that. I think that's very helpful. Um man, when we talk about sometimes things are right under our own noses. I I love the way that you call that out. we have different communities, different identities with with different communities. And in this case, maybe some of the people you already know uh are are holding positions or have accomplishments or have done things you're not aware of and maybe you have to dig a little deeper into some of the folks that you already do know. Love that. And then the professional side, talking about introductions, referrals, conferences, podcasts. I guess when I think about it, now that you're saying it, there are just so many resources out there and maybe you just somebody needs a little direction, too. Um, but I I love the angle on both of those. Um, you know, talking about the workplace, um, it's it's 2025 and I I never talk political on this show. That's but but sometimes it just tangentially gets involved. So, you know, in this in this era right now compared to a year ago when we first started emailing, you know, there's kind of this almost anti-woke sentiment that's emerged and it brings up the the idea of DEI in the workplace. And I answer I talked to someone a couple of years ago uh about how to work with people different from you. That was the title of her book and it was a very interesting and important conversation. I would love to get your take as someone who's working with black men and we've just talked about a lot of times they're the only in the room, right? What are practical steps that organizations can take to support black men? Like actually support black men outside of kind of token moves. Yeah. Um and and thank you for the question as well. Certainly the the space in which we're in currently is definitely dramatically different than what it was a year ago, even a couple of months ago. And um as the world changes, we get to change with it. And I always think that uh or at least my guiding principle is whatever space I walk into, I want to make it that much better so that the next person gets to just grow a little bit easier. And if I've done that, I feel like I've done my job in that space. And so when I think about um what organizations can do to really elevate the opportunities of other black men in the room, something you said earlier, right, around the keynote speech around women um oftentimes being the only one in the room, it's a a relatable experience, sometimes a little different, but certainly relatable and overlap. Um, oftentimes what I see when black men are the only one in spaces is that they tend to have the pressure to represent all versus just live in their own identity. Um, figuring out their own identity and leadership, figuring out who they are as a leader and then elevating from that space. And so in those spaces where uh maybe there's a smaller number of black men within your organization, my first um offer is to look at your HR department and your hiring trends to figure out why is there only a few black men within your organization and really question um what are my hiring practices? What type of environment do I want to create create? Is it is it an inclusive experience or is it exclusive? and then what's the target um population that you're working with? Like consider all of those things that relate back to your mission and your vision and then question is your hiring practices actually um supporting you in that mission and vision. Um I would say that that's the first step if there's um a few black men within the organization. For those that's are already in the organization um I always um highly emphasize professional development. Um, again, you what I learned is you don't know what you don't know until you don't know it. And the lived experiences of anyone's ident identity is different from the person across from you. And there's some relatable experiences, but often for black men, um, we get to both infuse our culture in our leadership and we also get to infuse the organizational values and how we move forward. And something that I offer for organizations if you want to improve the experience of black men within those spaces is to offer them, especially if they're on the track towards um senior leadership, offer them the executive coaching both internal and external as an option so that they get to choose what works best for them in their own leadership um journey. as well as depending on how your um professional development um department is laid out within your organization, whether you have an LMS system or you actually do trainings where you go in and you you coach your your leaders on how to develop. Um I would encourage you to bring people from the external world into those spaces who are experts um and make that divers or diversify that um those resources so that you get to see different perspectives of how to lead a little bit differently. Um those are are a couple of of ways that organizations could push forward, but there's so many um that we could I feel like we could talk about that all day. No, good answer. Thank you. and some good tangible advice for organizations looking within HR providing uh and what their mission, what their goals are, what their hiring practices reflect um providing professional development for black men when they have an opportunity either internal or external opportunities for professional development with executive coaching. Love all these ideas and others. Thanks for uh for taking that question headon, Dominic. So, I wanted to take this conversation in general and turn it into kind of two halves. And the first is kind of focused on black men in your wheelhouse and and how you help others. And then kind of something that is hopefully a little broader for all professionals. Um, and we wanted to focus on career growth with some questions here. And this will apply to, of course, black men that you work with and with anyone else hopefully in the workforce, too. So, um, I was listening to one of your most recent podcast episodes, uh, this morning, actually, and it was about communication, and I I thought I'd spring this one on you. I I really really liked this topic. What is the cost if someone hasn't developed their communication and they possess poor communication skills? Yeah, the cost is ultimately you lose people. I think that's the foundation. If you can't communicate clearly, you lose people in the both the messaging and then also just the the um motivation to move forward with you. Um there there's a lot more in that podcast, but I think if I had to um sum it up in in a short sentence, I would say that that that is what it is. You lose people as a result. And often times people actually just don't realize that they are either poor communicators or what they're trying to communicate is not being received by the person across for them. And something that I often coach when I'm coaching leaders in terms of communication and addressing poor communication is to understand that you're not communicating for yourself. You're actually communicating for the person across from you. And so that takes a little bit of nuance, a little bit of emotional intelligence, a little bit of um leadership awareness to understand how does that person across from you like to be spoken to? How does that person learn? Um, and there's many ways to understand individual learning styles, but understand how that individual learns and what are their buttons like what are their um their pressure points when you push them a little bit too far in your communication or a little bit um too little like how do they respond? Um I I think in essence if you're a poor communicator you're going to lose that person across from you. But there's so many ways to to confirm that you're both hearing each other and delivering the message that you are intending to to deliver. Something I'm big on personally is practice. And what I also heard you say in that episode were some really interesting just tangible things a person could do to almost audit themselves on how they communicate. And for myself, I went to college for music. I was a professional musician. And something that you do as a musician is you record yourself. You listen to how you sound. Maybe you there's a bias in your brain as you play that makes you think that this note was in tune or this new was note was on in time. And I loved something that you added about how to kind of check yourself on how you sound when you speak was to record yourself and also to ask others for advice about how they hear you in the room. Yeah. and and it's a it's a line that you get to negotiate, right? In leadership, there's always there's can be a scarcity of time or there can be abundance of time, but what I love is that when you practice and I love that that's your philosophy as well. Um, when you practice, you get to improve and the people around you also get to improve in that process. Um, yeah, I of course I I have my own podcast. I'm often listening to myself. I'm often in like spaces where I get to reflect on something that I said. And what I love about leadership is you're always going to get the feedback if you if you create the space where people feel welcome to give you that feedback. Um, but what I love about the leadership space is you can create feedback in so many different ways. Um, and yes, I encourage people to practice as well. often when I'm working with leaders um and I talk about this in my book as well is I was working with an individual who I encouraged to record a meeting with themselves or not with themselves with their team of course with permission um and the intention was to understand their body language u because um communication is not just verbal there's also the silent communication of body language and how you're perceived by others and so I I've worked with individuals where I've encouraged them to record themselves in a meeting um to both understand how are they showing up in presence and then how is their audio and their voice been perceived and received from others and it's just a an opportunity where you get to practice. Something I learned when I was in the education space is teachers do this all the time. Like they um have an expectation and everybody does it a little different, but there's an expectation to record yourself teaching to your class and that is used to elevate your own development and offer you skills and tips and techniques to improve. because ultimately the goal is for the students in that classroom to really receive the information and own it themselves and go off and do great things with it. Similar in leadership, when you're offering guidance and you're elevating your company through results and execution as well as intentionally um supporting other people in their growth, the intention is to communicate in a way where they get it and they could run with the idea and create something better. Um so I often um I similarly I focus on practice as well. Love the addition of the video recording of a manager with their team meeting. I hadn't even really thought about that angle but you're right. I mean, so much of of communication is nonverbal, especially now that we're back in rooms together postcoid and you know, I mean, uh, uh, quiet team member in the corner speaks up unexpectedly and you recoil or something as a manager, right? You don't even know what you're doing perhaps. I I love that angle and thanks for bringing the educational aspect, uh, teachers and education into this as well. I guess it's incidentally related, but I was going to ask um you know when we're talking about gaps in our own skills, like acknowledging that we have a gap and and we need to grow that in or it's crucial to to close that gap in order to grow. Um do you have other tips outside of what we've been talking about recording yourself for communicating and other ideas here that how can you identify your own knowledge gaps? Actually, I'll start with myself, right? So, I am committed to being a lifelong learner. Like, no matter where I'm at in life, I want to continue to learn. And there's a intentional um there's an intentional pathway to like just grow and develop. And I think as an individual, if you want to be a better leader, if you want to be a better um communicator, if you want to be a person who is better at execution, like whatever the thing is, there has to be an intentional desire to want to grow and develop. And so I would say that that's the first step. If you get into that mindset um where you actually want to grow and develop and learn, then I would say that the next step is to um ask for feedback. like that is the the clearest way to understand how you're leading and it's not always your team member, right? So there's there's 360 evaluations um where you get um access to a number of different people. It doesn't have to be just in the workplace, but it's people you're closest to, people who you're not close to, but have had some level of an interaction with you to get that feedback. And that could be the first indicator of some potential opportunities to grow in. Um, I would say that that's an example of things you may not know that you don't know, but you get to grow in after you receive the information. And then there's other things where you just know for yourself. Um, as a introvert who goes into spaces and practice being an extrovert in many different spaces, I've learned how to show up in those spaces as an extrovert because um when you're given a keynote and you're talking to a number of people in the a crowd or at a fundraiser, like you can't be an introvert in those spaces, even though that's my comfort level. Uh, but I've learned over my my leadership journey that I have to be the person speaking up in the room and and it it depends on the context of the room, but in general, I've learned as a leader that I have to be the person both listening and speaking up when appropriate. And that was a just a internal thing that I had already knew about myself. And so for the leaders out there who are looking to grow and develop, there are things about yourself that you just already know. you know that there are um both blind spots that you have, there are um points of opportunity for improvement that you're already aware of whether you got the feedback or not. Um you just internally know and that's just an invitation and opportunity to go out and seek the resource, right? That could be through coaching, that could be through um reading, that could be through podcast. It there's so many different ways where you could explore that lesson um to get the resource. But the first step is to actually just take the step. Love it. Thank you. And it seems that action, you know, being actionoriented is always going to help. So I love that taking your destiny in your own hands. Uh and and of course you said sometimes we know we look around, we go, well, I already know I'm falling short. You know, what am I going to do about that? But helping others that address or asking others that helps address your blind spots, too. And I love that angle. Thank you. Also really appreciate the introvert plug. I'm always a fan when somebody talks about being introverted. Um, for the listeners, remember if you're into introversion, uh, uh, leaders, specifically introverts, Terrence Lee, the introvert leader, he's been on a couple times. Scroll back and find that podcast after this one. Um, okay, one more question about career growth for you, Dominic. Um, you've got this thing called strategic career mapping. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? What is it and how can it help someone anyone who's in their mid level in their career who is looking to find the right opportunity? What is it? How does it work? Yeah. And and you could definitely go um a lot more in depth in my book um which again is the authentic edge leading without losing yourself for more clear examples. But strategic mapping when I think of that I think of um in order to get to a result you have to have a clear desk destination. And if you don't have a clear destination of what the end result is going to be, you'll always be um lost. You'll always be on the road that maybe leads you to a detour. And so when I um coach around strategic mapping, um I'm often encouraging young leaders to just identify where do you want to be in your leadership journey. Whether that's a title, whether that's a a specific role, whether that's an emotional feeling when you're leading or if that's just I want to be the best at X thing, you have to get very clear on what that thing is first. And that then offers you the road map to figure out how do you map forward to get there. And um depending on the goal itself, like there's so many different strategies to get there. But um when I think about the strategic mapping, it's understanding where you need to go in order to get there. And then once you know that destination, then it's about creating the relationships that actually bridge the gap from where you are to where you need to be. Um alongside some of the skill sets um that ultimately needs to be developed. Um something that I coach to in my my own coaching practice is the three M's. So there's mindset, there's mastery, and then there's motivate. Um oftentimes I spend a lot of time on individual mindset. And that usually impacts how someone gets to their goal or even identifies their goal is how you think about yourself as a leader and how you show up as a leader. Um what is that mindset of how you're talking to yourself when nobody else is looking? And um once you sort of master the mindset of who you are, your own identity, and how you show up as a leader, then you can start to master some of the soft skills and the the hard skills that really get you to um that leadership elevation of that strategic map. And then ultimately, the goal is once you're in those spaces, you get to motivate others to um grow and inspire to to be better than where you are. Love it. uh three M's, mindset, mastery, motivate. Great stuff. And as you said, for folks who want to learn a little bit more in depth, they can find the book uh on Amazon and elsewhere. And we'll get to that in just a minute. Uh thanks for addressing that question. Uh Dominic, um before we give you a chance to let everybody know how they can connect with you or where you'd like to direct them, um I ask every guest on this show the same question at the very end. And that is, what is something that you've learned recently? you get to be whoever you want to be. And maybe that's not a recent development, but I think in my stage of of leadership and goal setting and where I want to be, you could always rebrand. You could always um repivot to to be who you want to be in the moment. And you're not tied down to whoever you were yesterday, whoever you were an hour ago. You get to actually sit in the moment and decide who do you want to be. And so I often think about just being able to rebrand. Um this came through a lesson of moving across country. Earlier I talked about um or you talked about my education um being from Oakland, California, went to UC Berkeley and then at some point years later I decided I'm going to up and move to a a different state where I knew no one. Um, but I just decided I was just going to go and take the risk and bet on myself that I was going to be extraordinary in that place because all the evidence told me that I was already great in California. Um, so my mindset was if I could do it in one place, I can do it in the next. Um, and that really taught me that um, through that time that you could really recreate yourself. And so the lesson that I've learned, maybe relearned again, is that you get to rebrand yourself wherever you are in life. and um your your your only um limitation in that process. I love it. Thank you. And and it's a great message of positivity and and honestly, there are a lot of folks in the um knowledge worker space, particularly right now with the layoffs and challenging job markets. I'm sure a lot of people are wondering some of that same thing. Man, am I too far in my career to do anything different? Do I have to do the same thing? And I love it because it goes back to your 3 M perhaps in a different context. mindset, right? Your mindset is what determines that. You can do that. You can rebrand. Thank you for that encouraging word. Um, Dominic, for folks who are into what we're talking about today, want to learn a little bit more, connect with you, where would you like them to go? Yeah, so the best place to reach me is via LinkedIn, uh, my LinkedIn handle is Dominic C. George. And, um, I'm the person messaging back and forth there. It may take me a little bit of time to get back to you. Um, but I'm always committed to communicating with everybody that I come in contact with when I can. And so that's the first place you could discover my podcast there, Vision Leadership for Life. You could also discover my newsletter, which I send out on a weekly basis to offer strategies and tips and tools for the aspiring leader who wants to go into senior leadership. Um and then there's also an opportunity to book on my calendar directly there. Um if you want to have an individual meeting around executive coaching um or if you want to elevate your organization and create opportunities where you get to thrive alongside other employees um within your organization um that's a opportunity to do that as well. And then finally, um, if you just want to reach out to me directly, you could email me at adminvisionleershipforlife.com and I will respond to your email. Great. And we'll have all that in the show notes for anybody who wants to click. So, thank you for that quick summary. Uh, Dominic George, really nice talking to you today. And earlier something you said was that your um I think you said your guiding principle is that whatever space you walk into to just make that a little bit better. I think you've accomplished that today with me and thank you so much for your humility, your wisdom and for sharing your time with us above all and uh it's been nice to talk to you a little bit today. So grateful to be here and thank you for having me. Glad we although it took a year, I'm glad we actually were able to have the conversation and many more.[Music][Music] There you have it everybody, Dominic George on Leadership Voyage. Thanks for sticking around for the entire conversation. I hope you got a lot out of it. I certainly did. I learned a lot about some of the challenges facing black men in the mid-level and also a lot about growth, some good conversations about practice and elsewhere and otherwise which for those of you who listen regularly shouldn't be too surprised by some of those topics. All right, so before I move forward or another reminder, Instacart, uh if you want to support the show and get a free delivery to your doorstep on any order$35 or more, click that link. Uh, okay. So, here are your show notes and episode recap for today with Dominic George. Black men's biggest corporate struggles are being told to keep your head down and do your work is generally been the biggest pitfall, but they need to prioritize cross-departmental relationships, understanding the mission and vision of the organization, and learn the work streams of others in the or to collaborate and create win-wins. Black men's biggest obstacles have been not enough sponsors in the workplace, not enough coaches and mentors within the workplace, and often you might be the only African-American in the room. When you see yourself in a room, you're more likely to imagine yourself in that role. Black men connect with mentorship and support. They can do this by looking to their own personal network. Sometimes you underestimate maybe who you already know and don't realize what they've accomplished or what they're up to. Also, there are conferences, podcasts, referrals, of course. Let's see. Uh, for organizations serious about DEI, what steps could they actually do to support black men? Well, when black men are seen as the only in a space, first of all, they tend to feel pressure to represent all black men rather than just themselves. So keeping that in mind uh when there are a few black men in the organization, look to HR and ask why there are so few and then question the hiring practices and how they serve the mission. Ask yourself what you want to be as an organization. Uh an important professional development opportunity that Dominic called out is providing uh executive coaching opportunities for black men. Then we talked about growth in general here. And if you don't communicate effectively, you lose people as a result. Often people don't understand or realize that they're poor communicators or that their communication isn't being received. Uh remember, you're communicating for the person across from you. It takes emotional intelligence to nail that. And when you practice, for example, recording a meeting, you and those around you get to improve. In order to identify your own knowledge gaps, embrace the identity, the uh embrace the um come on now. Embrace the philosophy. Thank you, Jason. Embrace the philosophy that you can be a lifelong learner. Have an intentional desire to grow and develop. Ask for feedback, team members, 360 review, whatever that looks like. Also, you know, objectively that you don't cut it in some areas. So, acknowledge those and come to grips with that. uh find the resources to improve, coaching, reading, podcasts or otherwise. Strategic career mapping starts with identifying where you want to go and then when you know the destination, create the relationships to get you there and develop the skill sets. There's more about this in uh Dominic's book, which there's a link to in the um show notes, but three M's are what are important here. Mindset, mastery, and motivate. And when I asked Dominic something he had learned recently, it it fit perfectly into this because he said,"You can always be whoever you want to be. You can rebrand. Sit in the moment and you don't have to be who you were an hour ago." I thought that was really refreshing to think about. Uh and it it fits perfectly with growth. So that's your episode recap for my conversation with Dominic George. Until next time everybody, take