Lenora Billings-Harris

Biography

As a diversity strategist, Lenora partners with organizations to help them make diversity a competitive advantage. She has been included as one of 100 Global Thought Leaders on Diversity and Inclusion by The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), and was named by Diversity Woman Magazine as one of the twenty top influential diversity leaders in the US. Her award winning diversity leadership research is recognized in journals internationally. Lenora`s ability to transform multifaceted diversity and inclusion concepts into immediately applicable "how to`s" have enabled her to help Fortune 500 companies, professional associations, government agencies and educational institutions facilitate change to attract and retain top talent, expand multicultural markets, and heighten the number of engaged employees.

Lenora is the co-author of TRAILBLAZERS: How Top Business Leaders are Accelerating Results through Inclusion and Diversity, and she is often an expert guest on TV and radio internationally. She serves on the adjunct faculty of the business schools of Averett University and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and leads a full service diversity consulting firm. She has presented to audiences in over eighteen countries on six continents including in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Lenora is a Certified Professional Speaker (CSP). She holds a BS from Hampton University and an MA from the University of Michigan and has held key positions with General Motors and CIGNA Corp.

"People are like marbles, with a hard protective covering of the varied components inside that make them each a culture of one."
- Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP

Publications

Trailblazers:
How Top Business Leaders are Accelerating Results through Inclusion and Diversity

Make diversity your competitive advantage
To reap the full benefits of diversity and inclusion, today`s forward thinking companies look past "diversity" training towards a more comprehensive, holistic business approach. These leaders incorporate diversity and inclusion into every aspect of business culture, employee engagement, talent management and market penetration.

Trailblazers reveals the practices, metrics and research, as well as the anecdotal evidence, for building and sustaining workplace cultures that make strategic diversity and inclusion a business necessity. Focusing on concrete actions you can implement immediately, this insider guide profiles the best practices award-winning companies have used on a sustained basis to transform their organizations.

~Captures insights and best practices from the most effective Chief Diversity Officers, several of which are determined by the Diversity Inc Top 50 Companies for Diversity
~Companies profiled include IBM, Dell, Verizon, Merck and Co, Sodexo, Verizon, Andrews Kurth, The Coca-Cola Company, American Airlines, Citi, Ford, Shell and Pitney Bowes
~Covers everything from how to use employee resource groups to help target consumers and forge tighter client relationships; from talent optimization, leadership development and retention, to increasing middle management engagement and the skill-sets required for effective Chief Diversity Officers as true business partners and more

Trailblazers gives you an in-depth view from the inside out of which practical solutions make diversity and inclusion efforts a systemic and winning way of doing business for today`s top-performing companies.

Titles

The Diversity Advantage: The Oz Perspective
Lenora uses the characters of The Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to help you understand how you can use your brain, heart and courage to make a real difference in today`s multi-cultural world. This fun, yet thought-provoking message will inspire you to connect the gifts you have with the gifts of others to increase your organization`s options for multicultural success. By realizing the power to make a difference is within each individual, you will discover ways to go beyond stereotypes and bias to create and sustain an environment that supports high productivity while celebrating differences. Lenora uses life-size stand-ups of the characters and music from The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz to create an entertaining yet impactful keynote.

TRAILBLAZERS: How Top Business Leaders are Accelerating Results through Inclusion and Diversity
Are you ready to go beyond diversity awareness? Is your organization ready to effectively create and sustain an environment that engages all team members so they can achieve their highest potential without regard to their differences? Are your leaders ready to learn and then implement Transformational Diversity Management Principles (TD&IP) that will support your organization`s vision, mission, and business strategy? If so, this program is for you.
Based on Lenora`s latest book, this presentation offers participants an opportunity to learn the best practices of trailblazing companies such as IBM, the Coca Cola Company, Verizon, Sodexo, American Airlines, Citi, Ford and many more, as well as see the surprising results of Lenora`s D&I research conducted through The Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University Of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Beyond The Vision
Lenora uses personal stories, metaphors, audience interaction and quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mendela and others to help you discover how you can use your abilities and courage to make a real and sustainable difference in today`s multicultural world. This uplifting, yet thought-provoking message will inspire you to embrace the unique gifts you have and to value the gifts of others to increase your options for positive change as an agent of One Dream.
By realizing the power to make a difference is within each individual, you will discover ways to go beyond stereotypes and bias to create an environment that supports high success while celebrating differences.

Trailblazing: Beyond Diversity Rhetoric
Are you ready to go beyond diversity awareness? Is your organization ready to effectively create and sustain an environment that enables all contributors to achieve their highest potential without regard to their differences? Are your leaders ready to learn and then implement the Transformational Diversity Management Principles that will support your organization`s vision, mission, and business strategy? If so, this program is for you.
This presentation offers participants an opportunity to enhance awareness and understanding of Transformational Diversity Management Principles based on the work of Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP in her book The Diversity Advantage: A Guide to Making Diversity Work, and her research with the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
Join Lenora for this informative session exploring inclusiveness and diversity from a business bottom-line point of view. Determine whether or not diversity is required in your organization in order to achieve high performance. You will be surprised with some of the outcomes.