Partnerships in Diversity: Frank McCloskey, Vice President of Diversity, Georgia Power
“Who wouldn’t want to be a partner with me?"
I saw myself as the Marlboro man: I was an individual cowboy on the ranch, stringing barbed wire, herding horses and cows and running off all the bad folks, whoever they might be. I thought that was my role and that’s how I was going through life. I was a partner to myself. I was competing with everybody, and not even knowing I was doing that. Not knowing how difficult it was to be around me. My attitude was, “Who wouldn’t want to be a partner with me?”
I no longer assume a partnership is just going to happen. I can’t do this by myself. The breakthrough has been through White Men as Full Diversity Partners.
First of all, partnership means something. It’s an investment in relationships, not only in the company but with all of those closest to me. It’s not just going to happen by accident. With women, women of color, African Americans and with anybody who is different than I am, it is about understanding and listening to what is going on in their lives, and acknowledging that maybe they are living a different life than I am.
The relationship means I’ve got to go out and figure some of this stuff out on my own. What’s my accountability in this? How have I contributed to what’s happened? How am I going to use my systemic advantage to create fairness in ways that I’ve never thought about before?
What does the other person need from me to be in that partnership relationship? It’s being honest, being authentic it’s not about being perfect. If I just stay here and ask some questions, over a period of time I’ll evolve to a different place of partnership.
Georgia Power is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility that serves 2.35 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Find out more about Georgia Power’s diversity efforts. And listen to a 2006 Diversity Matters interview with Frank McCloskey and White Men as Full Diversity Partners’ Bill Proudman and Dev Pathik.
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The men and women who came back from the White Men and Allies® lab were able to model among themselves how to have difficult conversations. They are doing things at a different level at work than they’ve ever done before.
