Power of Words: The Link Between Inclusion & Leadership (CLIP) [Video]

Alonzo Kelly learned the power of language as a young professional.

“I started to realize early in my career that there was an ‘Us and Them’ mentality around this word leader,” Kelly said.

Kelly said he’s since rejected the mentality.

“I think everybody in an organization is a leader. You’re either the leader of a task, the leader of a team, the leader of other leaders, or the leader of a system. If we remember that we are all leaders, I would assume that the language would not change when we engage each other.”

Kelly is an executive coach, professor, best-selling author, and radio host. He’s a featured presenter at the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Annual Meeting and Conference (AMC), https://amc.wisbar.org/, on Thursday, June 16, 2022. He’ll lead a discussion on “The Power of Diversity and Inclusion in Your Legal Practice” and how allyship has emerged as a leading model for achieving authentic diversity and inclusion.

Kelly, a proud Detroit native, said that in his experience the notion of inclusion has been fractured by a too narrow focus on individual experience.

“You cannot have five million different understandings of inclusion and then set policy around that. If we are going to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong, there should be some intention in terms of the language we use and the understanding we have of what it means.”

Kelly holds three graduate degrees and is working on a fourth. He said his mother drilled home the importance of education.

“My mom was non-negotiable on education. In fact, if you trick-or-treated in our neighborhood, she would pass out school supplies.”

And his long and varied CV? Kelly chalks that up to being “professionally claustrophobic.”

“Everybody’s got a thing,” Kelly said. “I love information, and I love what information has done for me and allows me to do.”

Kelly said his AMC presentation will be “a full participation, loving headache experience.”

“I will be asking a lot of questions … no dictionary, no Google. We will be having a family conversation where everybody will be right and we will navigate that terrain.”

Kelly said that climbing the metaphorical mountains thrown up by working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues is usually less treacherous than the descent.

“As a diverse professional, I am never nervous on the climb up the mountain. It’s when we think we’ve reached the summit that people like me get nervous.”