Be The Leader That You Wanted To Have With Nikki Ivey, Part 2

In this second part of a five-piece episode of the Peak Performance Selling Podcast, sales culture subject matter expert Nikki Ivey talks about growing up on military bases, where she had positive experiences with diversity, and having that rude awakening years later when they moved to South Georgia. Nikki also opens up about being the only black woman in the workplace, and why it’s important to step up and be the leader that you wanted to have for other minorities. 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Early childhood and growing up as a military kid
• Two different experiences with diversity
• No one figures out how to deal with culture and gender issues easily
• Prioritize your performance over everything else
• Be the leader that you wanted to have in the workplace

 

QUOTES

Nikki on the complexities of dealing with racial and gender issues in the workplace: "I don't think you figure it out one time. I don't think you make one big sweeping decision on how you're going to handle yourself in those situations. Because there is a pretty significant emotional element to it, at least there was for me. Meaning, in some cases, it felt safer, for lack of a better term to just keep my head down, do the work, not talk about, not think about, or let myself even feel about what it meant to be the only [black woman] in that building." 

Nikki's recommendation for people dealing with culture issues in the workplace: "Bear in mind that it still matters whether or not you do the job better than the person next to you. These culture issues for now can be kind of fixed. What you have the most control over is your performance. Prioritize that over everything."

Nikki on being the leader that you wanted to have: "If you don't feel a leader in the place that you wanted to go, it's because there wasn't anybody in the pipeline to become that leader.  But the math of that means, if you just go one step back from the role that you are looking up to, the pipeline is you."

 

You can connect with Nikki in the links below:

• Sales for the Culture Website: https://salesfortheculture.com/
• SDRDefenders Website: https://www.sdrdefenders.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-ivey/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/knownikkiivey/
• ​​Twitter - https://twitter.com/knownikkiivey

 

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• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbenjamin/
• Website - http://mycoreos.com/
• Podcast - https://www.mycoreos.com/podcast
• Email - Jordan@MyCoreOS.com
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/jbenj09