We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shawna Gann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shawna, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I believe purpose is always revealing itself to us and looks slightly different in the various contexts in which we find ourselves. As someone who is racially and ethnically ambiguous due to my creole heritage, my lived experience has included navigating spaces and situations where my identity is baffling to others. The way I am perceived and treated by people seems to be somewhat dependent upon something as simple as my hairstyle. If I blow out my natural curls, it is often assumed that I am Black-White biracial. If I wear my hair long and wavy with extensions, I am regularly spoken to in Spanish, receiving admonishing looks for not speaking the language despite not being Latina. If I rock my natural curls or if I have my hair in locs, people seem to accept that I am a Black woman (at least according to hypodescent – or the one-drop rule). In all cases I have been asked about my racial identity and in various ways, since those who are the most curious try to dance around the topic and ask in the ways they believe must be the least offensive. The point is, despite my identity as a monoracial Black woman, my lived experiences include being treated like a multiracial or Hispanic woman. I have come to accept that my ambiguous racial identity is just part of the social game, particularly in the United States where we are obsessed with racial categorization, but on more than one occasion, I have faced racial discrimination in the workplace – something I could not and do not accept. I have worked in diversity, equity, and inclusion for much of my career in various capacities but coming back to the US after more than a decade abroad and joining the world of corporate America is when I figured out how I can most contribute to society. I began my academic research on Black multi-racial women and their understandings of organizational justice in 2018, I started my podcast, Our True Colors, in 2019, and in 2020, when corporate America panicked about race relations in their organizations after the murder of George Floyd, my work in diversity, equity, and inclusion was validated and solidified. My two-laned path led me to a career in organizational culture development through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and helping individuals and organizations understand the experiences of people who are navigating their workplaces as racially ambiguous employees.
The next part of the interview is where we’d love to learn more about you, your story and what you are focused on professionally – whether it’s a business, nonprofit, artistic career etc.
Please tell our readers about what you do, what you feel is most exciting or special about it, as well as anything else you’d like folks to know about your brand/art/etc. If relevant, please also tell our readers about anything new (events, product/service launches, expansion, etc)
A year or so ago, it hit me that my first “job” in diversity, equity, and inclusion took place when I was in Grade 12 and was asked by my high school counselor to lead a 2-day multicultural diversity workshop for my peers. I didn’t know that working with others in this way would be such a profound part of my life decades later. Now, years later, after first studying music and then moving on to an undergraduate major in education, I am a business psychologist offering services through my company True Culture Coaching and Consulting. My aim is to support individuals and organizations with their own diversity, equity, and inclusion journeys with organizational development, which I do by incorporating my experience as an educator and applying what I have learned from my lived experiences, including 15 years living and working outside of the United States. I offer trainings, coaching, and consulting to help people develop and implement their DEI strategic roadmaps. It is important to me that my clients see DEI as a part of their organizational culture and something that should be naturally embedded in their daily operations and interactions without feeling overwhelmed or shamed for the identities they hold, privileged or otherwise. Along the way, with my two podcasts Our True Colors and The Culture Clinic, I offer support and guidance through thought leadership. I guess what started taking shape those many years ago has finally begun to reveal itself in the work that I do now. It is so exciting to see my clients progress in support of their employees and, indeed, society, in general.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being a person who is racially ambiguous and who has varied lived experienced based on how I am perceived has helped me to broaden my own perspective and be naturally a bit more empathetic and open than most, I believe. Secondly, my years as a military spouse, traveling with my husband and our two children around the world has shaped me in a way that I wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. Having long-term exposure to different people, cultures, languages, and geographies has also contributed to my broad cultural perspective. Our family developed a “third culture” way of being, We don’t fit into a box. Who we are as a family, and in turn who we are as we each go on our personal and professional journeys, has been greatly influenced by our experiences living in different countries. Moving around made me a very agile and flexible person, a third quality that I believe has been impactful in my journey. It is because of my flexibility, agility, and resulting resilience that I had the courage to shift from a career in public education to a career in business psychology, coaching, and consulting in the DEI and Organizational Culture spaces. Aside from the benefits that can be seen when navigating a career change, one must recognize that our world is ever-changing. Having flexibility and agility is imperative to keeping up with the constant dynamic shifts we experience in daily life and, indeed, in the workplace. My advice to folks who are early in their journey is to diversify the company you keep and get as much exposure as possible to people who are different than. If the means are available, I recommend spending some time out of the United States or your home country, in general, and try to spend some time in a place where the dominant culture is very different than your own. This helps to develop a greater sense of empathy and contributes to one’s flexibility and agility, as I previously mentioned. It is easier to break down social barriers and redefine in-group/out-group dynamics when we have spent time getting to understand how people outside of our cultural spheres experience life.
Who has been most helpful in helping overcome challenge or build and develop the essential skills, qualities, or knowledge you needed to be successful?
There is no possible way that I could experience the success I have experienced thus far without the support of my family, friends, colleagues, and clients. Being an entrepreneur is terrifying – especially in a field that is heavily influenced by the zeitgeist and sociopolitical landscape of the times. It is expensive and risky. Having friends and family that encourage me and serve as my personal board of advisors helps me keep my confidence up and take risks where I might otherwise play it safe, possibly missing out on key opportunities. They help me keep my head up when things are tough, and they help me celebrate when things are great. Colleagues in the field are also trusted advisors and provide insights different than my own helping me to continually grow as a professional. They challenge me and force me to be creative and to continually learn and develop. And where would I be without my clients? Without clients, I would have no business! My clients have been instrumental in my success. I learn and grow from working with them and from the feedback they have shared with me. and I treasure them. Many have served as references for me when I am engaging with new clients, and they have also referred individuals and organizations to me, which helps my business to develop, Working with clients who are in this work with me as also showed me what is necessary for a successful engagement, giving me the courage to say “no thanks” when I can discern that a potential partnership wouldn’t be a good fit for me or a client. With all of the encouragement and support from friends and family, the insights from my colleagues, and the experiences with my beloved clients, I learned that it is okay to say “no” to some things and how to embrace other opportunities with open arms – all of which have helped me to be successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://truecultureconsulting.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnagann/
