Diversity & Inclusion

Jayashree Ramanujam - March 15, 2021 - 189 views

I always used to wonder what to do when I came across a person with a disability – whether I should offer help voluntarily or not. Then, on the night of April 3, 2020, I began my own personal journey into finding out. Amid a worldwide coronavirus lockdown, I was hospitalized due to an emergency: […]

Margaret Schweer - March 2, 2021 - 497 views

There’s a certain level of disruption that occurs when new leaders join an organization. Take the following scenario, which I witnessed firsthand at one of my clients.  He was the fifth senior director in two years to lead a key department in a global technology company. No wonder the group was suspicious. Based on early […]

Claudius Sokenu - February 16, 2021 - 364 views

From the start of my career, it was clear to me that my professional success would depend in large part on finding someone to mentor me through the perils of the workplace. In 2021, however, mentoring takes on an added and often over-looked dimension: It’s as important for encouraging diversity as it is for providing […]

John McVay - February 10, 2021 - 225 views

Great leaders aren’t great alone. They’re hubs that bring people together. This lesson on leadership isn’t intuitive, and it wasn’t for me. But through my friend and colleague Steven Skinner, a Cognizant associate whom I deeply admired and who sadly passed away in 2019, I learned this and other leadership lessons that only grow in […]

Sheila Narayanan - January 15, 2021 - 158 views

Skills-based volunteering is business’s way of giving back. Yet just as the pandemic has driven up the need for community and nonprofit services, volunteering in general has dropped off. This year’s observance of Martin Luther King Day and its designation as a national day of service comes at a time when the country needs it […]

Margaret Schweer - December 17, 2020 - 281 views

Although the global pandemic has taken a toll on different segments of the population, Gen Z workers may have borne the brunt of the economic fall-out of this crisis. Companies have slashed hiring and halted college recruitment efforts. Recent data shows that one in six Gen Zs have stopped working as a result of the […]

Kathryn Diaz - December 15, 2020 - 188 views

As the coronavirus pandemic wears on, remote work and learning is intended to keep us safe. For victims of domestic violence, however, it does anything but. Instead, working from home often keeps victims close to their abusers. This dynamic makes employee assistance programs (EAP) more important than ever. But while EAPs offer referrals and counseling […]

Tobi Young - November 24, 2020 - 919 views

I’m blond and fair-skinned—and I’m a proud Chickasaw Indian. You can imagine the collision of assumptions I’ve encountered throughout my life. And truth be told, I’ve also grappled with my own. At a time when unwarranted assumptions about others seem as ingrained in our culture as ever, the workplace is ground zero for having difficult […]

In our divided and socially-distanced COVID age, leadership has never been more important. But effective leadership for these times is as difficult to find as it is to define. Is it an iron-fisted presence that commands respect? Deft negotiating to topple opposition? An irresistible influence to sway crowds? In our experience, the best leaders are […]

Roger Nii Lante Plange - October 23, 2020 - 740 views

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is one of the oldest idioms, yet we often assess our peers based on what we think and see of them, rather than what we know and learn about them. UK Black History Month gives us all a chance to get past that, to celebrate Black contributions. Here […]