This book is not apolitical. This book is explicitly anti-racist, pro-Black, pro-LGBTQIA+, and feminist. This book takes the stance that Black Lives Matter, that LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights, that people of all abilities deserve respect and access, and that people of all genders have the right to sovereignty over their bodies and identities. This book acknowledges that capitalism is built on a foundation of systemic racism and that to have a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment we must acknowledge the historic and present injustices faced by marginalized people.

Through my thirty-plus years of experience as an operating executive, I have made diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) driving forces in my leadership vision. I have seen the impact of culture on organizations at every level, from startup to Fortune 500, and in both private and public companies.

Through my lived experiences as a Black man in the highest levels of corporate America, and from listening to my two outspoken millennial daughters, I have learned that the time is past due to take more-direct action in the fight for social justice. Often, doing the right thing is not the easy thing. To create truly inclusive cultures in the corporate world—which is now a necessity for all forward-thinking businesses—we must take on an entire system built on inequality.

Business leaders hold an important position in the power structure of our country, and they have the unique ability to reach thousands of employees and millions of consumers with their leadership. Building anti-racist companies by design makes for great places to work for all.

One of the most consistent challenges I’ve seen CEOs face is how to use organizational culture and people strategies to drive better results. Executives across the board know they should care about diversity, equity, and inclusion. So why are so few getting it right?

Part of the answer lies in a society that has not provided equal opportunities to all, combined with a corporate world in which managers tend to recruit and hire the people who come from privilege because they’re the ones who seem like the best “cultural fit.” The result is generations of business leaders who don’t even know where to find people from different backgrounds. But our country’s demographics are changing rapidly. The smartest business leaders know that they must access the best and brightest talent, with the best ideas for meeting the needs of a changing world, a world where anti-racist leadership isn’t just an option but a necessity for a thriving business.

To those who might still wonder if DEI is a zero-sum game that penalizes the straight white men who were for so long the only people who fit the corporate culture, know that anti-racism leadership is about creating more opportunities for all. Anti-racism challenges all of us to be the best business leaders we can be.

Written during the Covid-19 pandemic and the revival of the Black Lives Matter movement, Anti-Racist Leadership has been a labor of love. It was one of the things that kept me energized during an exceedingly difficult time in our collective history. As the pandemic threw inequity into greater extremes, I knew this book was more necessary than ever. The pandemic tested leaders in ways they wouldn’t previously have thought possible, and it exposed the dark reality of business rooted in exploitation and oppression. This time, DEI was life and death. When employees aren’t provided with the proper protections that should have been afforded to them as human beings, the results are dire. Whether because of nefariousness or unchecked bias, businesses by and large treated the mainly Black and brown working-class frontline staff at grocery stores, delivery services, and other essential businesses as disposable. Our response to Covid-19 was unacceptable. We must do better by our fellow humans. And it starts at the top.

One of the highlights of writing this book was the opportunity to work with my eldest daughter, Krista, a writer and actor in New York City. We are building a company together called Culture Design Lab, through which we’ll work with boards and CEOs to transform organizational cultures.

Krista pushed me to be more radical with my message. “Dad, you’re taking on a system that was built on discrimination,” she warned me early on. I knew from experience that she was right—after all, I’ve lived through many challenges as a Black leader over the past thirty years. But while I have always been a passionate champion of diversity, I am also a mainstream corporate executive.

Then came the racially charged incidents that left Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, and other Black Americans dead, and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed. Racism was the same as it had always been in America, but for the corporate world, the blinders fell in the spring and summer of 2020. Any number of white business leaders began contacting me asking if I could advise them on what they could do to be part of the solution. I knew I had a role to play in ridding corporate America of the racism that is always detrimental and sometimes fatal to so many members of our society.

I am grateful to Krista for her voice and passion, which deeply influenced the direction we took in this book. My daughter helped me see how important it was that we take a stand on the right side of history, letting our voices ring loud and true as Black folks. We, too, sing America.

Anti-Racist Leadership is part memoir and part practical field guide for CEOs and other leaders who are looking to transform their company culture to suit the needs of a new decade. This book is for you if you are:

• a C-suite executive or board member creating, or wanting to start creating, structural change at your organization
• an HR director passionate about improving company culture
• the head of a DEI program working to operationalize your agenda
• a senior manager who wants to level-up your leadership skills
• an emerging leader preparing yourself and your business for the transformations of tomorrow

In the chapters that follow, I will present the concrete steps all business leaders today should take to mend a broken system. By the end, you’ll be ready to be part of the solution, with a tangible plan for preparing your organization to tackle the needs of our increasingly multicultural world.

To the people who pick this up who are in a position of power or privilege, read this book with an open heart.

And to the young people, the LGBTQIA+ folks, the Black and Asian and Indigenous and Latinx people, the people with disabilities, and anyone existing in any marginalized identity or intersection, let’s go out there and change the world.