Word for Word

7 Sep 2015

Fitting In & Standing Out – Dr Harold Hillman

LGBTI Community, News & Politics, Society & Culture

Columnist, radio host, author and leadership coach Harold Hillman grew up gay at a time when it wasn’t cool to be so…or at least it seemed that way to him. He spent the greater part of his young life aspiring to be straight – he got married, had children and joined the military.

It wasn’t until he found himself as the ultimate imposter – serving as a ‘straight’ officer on President Clinton’s commission to overturn the ban on gays being able to serve in the U.S. military – that he realised his entire life was a lie and he was no longer happy.

Since coming to terms that he could be black and gay and no longer have to strive to meet the standards of being white and straight, Hillman has been a lot happier being himself, rather than pretending to be some perfect ideal. He now spends his time focusing on others, more specifically, on coaching businessmen and women in the boardroom.

Drawing on his own experiences as a black, gay man fitting into a society which is predominantly white and straight, Harold Hillman’s new book Fitting In, Standing Out explains how you fit in with a team, and how you stand out from the team, are inherently tied together.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:50 — 51.1MB)

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