480: How African Americans Should Navigate Racism at Work With Serilda Summers-McGee, Workplace Change [Main Time4Coffee Interview]

Serilda Summers-McGee is the Founder and Principal of Workplace Change, LLC, a Human Resources consultancy created to guide, advise, and encourage the business world through internal as well as external growth and transition, while incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into HR systems. Serilda has been an HR/DEI innovator for over 15 years, honing her ability to identify challenges and opportunities while teaching the masses how to be better leaders. She has inspired thousands to create, embrace, and mobilize lasting organizational change. Most recently, Serilda was Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Portland, Oregon, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.. While serving as the CHRO, she led a bureau of 84 professionals who supported a workforce of more than 10,000. Lastly, she has held leadership roles for the Portland Development Commission, the Oregon Department of Education, Kaiser Permanente, Partners in Diversity, and Reed College. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: What Serilda wrote about in the Portland Business Journal How common racism and discrimination is for Black Americans in the workforce (4:50) How to prepare for micro- and macro-aggressions in the workplace and what your rights are (6:46) How to identify discrimination at work and how to collect your own data (7:47) What’s exciting about the field of human resources (14:35) What Workplace Change is and how HR must evolve in order to change to the workplace (17:32) What HR’s power is and how it should be harnessed for change (20:07) Why Serilda studied biology and behavioral science in college and how her ideas about her future changed (21:55) How her job in college sparked her interest in the field and her explanation of how you should always follow your gifts (25:43) What road bumps Serilda has experienced professionally and how she learned that a being in a toxic environment does not prove your value (20:00) What advice she would give to her college self now, especially to have more fun (30:40) You can also check out her book on Amazon: Change the Workgame: Building and Sustaining a Diverse Workforce.