Perspective on Belonging

Perspective matters. It’s an attitude, opinion, wrinkle in space and time, that informs a point of view. ?

Perspective. Hold your head one way, and an object is obscured. Hold it another, and it is all sharp angles and elbows. ?

I recently wrote about the 谷歌 experience at Essence Fest; the largest global gathering of Black women that had returned to New Orleans after the Covid-19 pandemic caused a two-year, in-person pause.??

Since that gathering over the 4th of July weekend, I’ve found myself returning to reflect on the importance of perspective and how feelings of belonging can radically affect perception and reality.??

?As my mind’s eyes adjusted to the realities of what thousands of Black women leaders, creators, thinkers and planners, founders, funders and facilitators, educators and entertainers coming together looked like, I appreciated anew the feeling that such a community based on belonging creates.?

?How does it feel, for example, to literally see yourself portrayed as you really are? At our State of Black Women brunch, I joined our assembled Googlers and partners reveling in Deun Ivory ’s photographs, which used Google’s Pixel and true-tone technology to reflect our rich, radiant, and nuanced skin tones and glorious hair textures.

What does a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist look like? Let your gaze shift from the usual image to focus on Jewel Burks Solomon ,?the first head of Google for Startups in the U.S. and a managing partner of the investment firm, Collab Capital , focusing on Black entrepreneurship. ?

?How do you feel knowing that Jewel is also the co-founder of Partpic Inc. – which she sold to Amazon at 27. Now in her early 30s, she’s helping others build their businesses while watching her own young son and infant daughter grow. If you’re like me, you feel elevated; you perceive a reality without limits.?

?Research from Coqual , 麦肯锡 , the Harvard Business Review and?“A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to Lead, Empower and Thrive” by author and former CBS News correspondent Jackie Adams and former Google VP and Gradient board partner Bonita Stewart , point to the perception and reality costs of the lack of representation and diminished feelings of belonging in the workplace. ?

Corporations, customers, communities, culture, and individual people all lose out if “belonging” and full access to growth, and the supported ability to contribute are not a part of our collective “success” equation.

That’s why it’s imperative that we lead from a position of belonging. Imagine how more inclusive perspectives and practices contribute to belonging and, in turn, how the success of our colleagues and organizations are affected when preconceived notions, biases, and perspectives are vanquished. All of us gain when we examine what is, shift our perspective, and invest in what could be.???