Leading together for a better world

By Kevin Manne

BUFFALO, N.Y.—More than 200 leaders from the business, nonprofit and academic worlds came together on May 10 to learn about building inclusiveness in today’s businesses and organizations at “Lead Together,” a conference hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Management’s Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE).

Industry experts and UB School of Management faculty delivered presentations across a variety of leadership topics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

Ted Childs, strategic diversity advisor and former IBM vice president, opened the conference with a discussion on how businesses must pay attention to changing demographics and emerging issues, and embrace them as opportunities for growth.

Geoffrey Leonardelli, PhD, associate professor of organizational behavior and human resource management in the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, delivered the midday keynote address on how to gain the benefits inclusiveness in the age of tribalism.

Barb Stegemann, author and founder of The 7 Virtues Peace Perfumes, a company that sources organic, fair trade essential oils from countries experiencing turmoil, capped off the day with a keynote address focused on how social enterprise can be used to help reverse global issues such as war and poverty.

“I loved each speaker’s presentation,” says Christa Meer, learning development specialist at Independent Health, who attended the conference. “We have so much emotional response to high-energy topics these days that it was nice to hear opinions and speeches that relied on logic and fact.”

UB School of Management faculty sessions were:

• Building Inclusive Cultures by Paul Tesluk, PhD, Dean and Professor
• Unconscious Bias in the Workplace by Katerina Bezrukova, PhD, Associate Professor, Organization and Human Resources
• Unleashing Your Potential While Recognizing Differences in Ability, Behavior and Culture by Dorothy Siaw Asamoah, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Organization and Human Resources
• Networks, Leaders and Teams by Prasad Balkundi, PhD, Chair and Associate Professor, Organization and Human Resources
• Confidence and Career Success: The Conundrum of “Failure” in Career Growth Experiences by Stephanie Argentine, JD/MBA, Executive in Residence, CLOE
  

Industry experts and their topics were:

• Negotiating Success for Women and Gender-Based Power Dynamics in the #MeToo Era by Maura Belliveau, PhD, Director, UB Center for Diversity Innovation
• Achieving Everyday Excellence: Using Personal Policies to Lead with Greater Impact by Vanessa Patrick, PhD, Professor of Marketing, University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business
  

The event was sponsored by Geico, KeyBank, Martin Group, UB Center for Diversity Innovation and UB School of Management Alumni Association, and built upon the success of previous CLOE conferences, which have offered opportunities to learn about the power of people-oriented leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship, emerging research and how to put that research into practice, and new ways to build collaborations and relationships.

Launched in fall 2013, CLOE strives to create more effective leaders and organizations. One of the center’s key objectives is to advance research and teaching in the area of leadership and its impact on organizational effectiveness. It also supports UB 2020’s goals of accelerating academic excellence, translating scholarship and developing leadership capabilities in UB students and business leaders.