30: Jeff Ton and Nicole Jansen - Welcoming Diverse Perspectives as Leaders

Diversity is a dialogue.  Those that are "non-diverse" and "diverse" need to have conversations together to close the gaps facing women in leadership today.  Both Jeff and Nicole speak to the power of diversity beyond race and gender, defined rather in terms of experiences. In this episode, Jeff Ton, CIO at Bluelock, and author of Amplify Your Value - Leading IT with Strategic Vision, shares the candid conversations he has had as a leader, including the failures of not acting quickly enough, and the journey to taking tough feedback from his team about diversity and taking swift, bold action.  Today, he welcomes diverse perspectives into the dialogue with teams he leads, and calls on leaders to own their strengths, as well as their weaknesses.  As he educates our listeners, it might be scary to be vulnerable, yet for leaders wanting to build diverse teams, there is no other choice. On the flip side of this episode, Nicole Jansen, shares the female leadership perspective and speaks to the benefits of gender diversity.  As a certified Business Breakthrough Coach, and the founder of Discover The Edge and the Leaders Of Transformation Podcast & Community, she collaborates with leaders to drive positive change through welcoming diverse perspectives.  Through her own candid conversation, she learned, "do you want to be right, or do you want to be safe?" and chose to help that negative experience help her be even better as a leader.  She speaks to the drive and flow men and women offer when working together and the balance of feminine and masculine connection.  She chooses to be fascinated vs. frustrated with our current diversity challenges, and inspires more leaders to be more inclusive of those with different experiences than you own. Follow Nicole at http://leadersoftransformation.com/, connect with her community at https://www.facebook.com/LeadersOfTransformation/ and learn more about her consulting work at http://www.discovertheedge.com/. Get Jeff's book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Amplify-Your-Value-Leading-Strategic-ebook/dp/B07FLKLST2, follow him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffton/ or at www.JeffreySTon.com. Follow us @nextpivotpoint on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and connect with us 1:1 at www.NextPivotPoint.com.  We post daily about leadership, equality, and career development on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliekratz/.