Podcast: Donna Hicks, Honoring Dignity with Leadership

It’s been a few years since our friend Dr. Donna Hicks has appeared on our podcast.

She is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. You may recall that she has facilitated dialogues in numerous unofficial diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Libya and Syria. She was a consultant to the BBC in Northern Ireland where she co-facilitated a television series, Facing the Truth, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  She has consulted with governments, corporations, schools, churches, and non-governmental organizations.

And she is an expert on the subject of dignity.

She has two books on the subject, Dignity:  It’s Essential Role in Resolving Conflict and Leading with Dignity:  How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People.

Donna was recently part of a webinar for the Humanistic Leadership Academy. This group, of which Barry-Wehmiller was a founding sponsor, consists of leading university professors and business leaders from around the world determined to change businesses and organizations by transforming business education to be more human-centered. They provide enriching, enlightening and empowering experiences to faculty and students so that they can reliably show up as humanistic leaders for others.

On this podcast, we’re going to present Donna’s segment from her HLA webinar, along with some Q&A. In her presentation, Donna introduces participants to the Dignity Model and explains how it has been used to address numerous leadership challenges in the corporate world, healthcare, education, governments and organizations of all kinds. She also tries to give an understanding of what dignity is and is not, the neuroscience of dignity and what it looks like to have “dignity consciousness.”