Meet & Greet: Belton Flournoy, Managing Director at Protiviti

To celebrate Black History Month, myGwork member Belton Flournoy talks about LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the power of being 'out' at work. The award-winning diversity champion also provides an insight into his career in tech and role as Managing Director at Protiviti.

myGwork: Can you tell us a bit about your career journey to date?

Belton: I have always enjoyed working with people, and in high school, I originally considered PR or Marketing as what I wanted to do. During college, I had a professor who taught intro to IT, and in the class, she said, ‘if you are enjoying this class, consider majoring in IT.’ Within a week I had transferred, and upon graduation, I was looking for jobs in Technology Consulting. I accepted a job at Protiviti, where the people and the interview process felt different, and started a career in consulting in Milwaukee. My initial focus was on IT assurance, where I was able to work in Milwaukee, Seattle, and Chicago, before moving to London where I started to focus on cybersecurity, identity & access management and technology transformation, primarily in the financial services industry. Now, I am lucky to be able to work with some of the world’s largest financial services organisations, helping them to understand technology challenges and build resilient, digitally enabled organizations.

myGwork: What's the most challenging aspect of managing people right now?

Belton: What I enjoy about a career in consulting is the fact that your role is constantly evolving. You get to work with new clients daily and you are always working to stay ahead of the newest technology trends. What I found most surprising at the Managing Director level was finding a way to get people to develop that sense of ownership and achievement as part of their delivery. It’s not only about achieving a higher level of output; it’s about finding a way for people to be excited to be a part of a team while having have a sense of ownership of their contributions towards the team’s goals and objectives.

myGwork: What attributes do you look for in new recruits and why?

Belton: I look for people who display a strong desire to learn. To be successful in technology, it’s not only about ‘what you already know’ but it is also about your ‘approach to continual learning.’ I have found the people who speak of their ability to solve a new problem as a great way to understand their learning process. Those who speak about recent articles or books they read, or how they solved a problem they were coding through an online forum are all good signs.

myGwork: What does Black History Month mean to you?

Belton: I grew up in Houston, Texas and was frequently the only person of colour in the room. As I progressed into high school, I recall sitting history class when slavery was discussed – it felt like every time the topic came up, people turned to see how I would react. It felt like all eyes were on me – when all I wanted was to just be a teenager in school and learning what we all learnt. I used to wonder why we still needed Black History Month – weren't we all the same? It was not until much later I came to learn that much of the history that was preserved and celebrated frequently left out the black stories. Every year, to this day, I learn something new during black history month. I learnt about Katherine Johnson, who was a math genius and helped to launch astronauts into space. I learnt about John London, who, in 1749, became the first recorded black person to vote in Britain, not because of his privilege, but because he owned property. I have even learnt about Bayard Rustin, a key advisor to Martin Luther King and the 1963 march on Washington, who was even left out black history due to him being gay. These stories, one time forgotten, are now being found and re-told to celebrate people of the past, who, at the time, did not have the same infrastructure around them to celebrate their achievements in the way we do today.

Today, Black History Month is something I look forward to, as it is a time for us to learn about historical figures that have impacted everyone's lives, who during their life did not have the same luxuries we are afforded today.

myGwork: How important is LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace for you personally?

Belton: I am a Managing Director in a cybersecurity practice working with some of the world's largest institutions to solve their most complex problems, yet I find I would not be where I was today without the support I have received from my company. I recall going to work with that voice in my mind saying ‘you are not good enough because of...’, scared to let people know the real me, fearing it would prevent me from ever getting to where I am today. Ironically, I would not be where I am today if I did not find the power to become my true self at work and come out of the closet. When you feel comfortable to be yourself, your productivity skyrockets, and you no longer spend time hiding those aspects that took up so much of your time before. I now want to work hard to help others achieve this same goal – not only is it the right thing to do for people, it’s the right thing to do for our bottom line.

myGwork: What's your favorite inclusion campaign to date and why?

Belton: My favorite campaign was the ‘courageous courageous conversations’ campaign that is currently running through my firm. It works by creating an open forum where people are able to ask questions in a safe, non-judgement zone. We have senior leaders who share very personal stories about themselves overcoming adversity, as well as entry level employees asking questions about what is or is not allowed. We have had someone speak openly about their disability, one asked what hair styles were allowed, a senior leader who had to take time off for stress spoke about their progression upon their return and another who was feeling overwhelmed working and raising children. The beautiful thing about these stories is that they humanise us. They make us realise that everyone faces challenges sometimes, even our current leaders, and we are the type of firm that supports you no matter what you might be going through – if you don’t speak up, you can’t reach out for help from your colleagues or a programme your employer might offer. This initiative is run by the UK ProCulture committee and has been running every year since 2020.

myGwork: How do you encourage staff to have a worklife balance, especially with the increase in remote/hybrid working?

Belton: As a consulting firm, it’s sometimes hard to know exactly how long it will take to solve a problem, especially when we are helping to solve an extremely complex issue. Our leaders and managers work to ensure our people know they are valued and respected, and if they do ever feel overwhelmed, we offer a variety of programs and benefits to help, including flexible working, part time working, sabbaticals and other mental health services. When it comes to managing my team, I tell them to ask themself, ‘will you get fired over this’. If the answer is no, then you should focus on ways to proactively manage what you can with the time you have, and communicate potential delays before they occur. We sometimes add stress onto ourselves, when a simple conversation to support in re-prioritisation could solve the problem.

myGwork: What's the biggest highlight of your career to date and why?

Belton: I have two, one professional, and one through my volunteer efforts that are interlinked. The first highlight of my professional career came when I was invited to lead a global regulatory remediation program for a large investment bank. The project was challenging and had me working with the bank’s most senior executives. Together, we are helping them to remediate regulatory issues that no bank had ever attempted to solve. To be in those board meetings and hear these bright minds in dialogue was a truly rewarding experience. It was also this meeting that made me realize the power of being your true self can have on your output. After this project, I decided to no longer hide who I was. I worked to create the LGBT+ network in Protiviti UK and soon started to work with Pride in London to launch Pride in the City, a mayor backed initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ people across London, impacting thousands during the time I was Head of Pride in the City. I now sit on the advisory board for the London School of Economics Inclusion Initiative, speak to organizations through TLC Lions, as well as supported the launch of the Technology Community for Racial Equality (TC4RE).

myGwork: What was the last book you read (fiction/non-fiction)? Any interesting take-aways and would you recommend it to fellow leaders?

Belton: If you are looking for a good book to read, I would recommend Think Big by Dr. Grace Lordan. It is a fantastic book about understanding priorities in life and how to address them. The other book I recently finished was Happy Sexy Millionaire by Stephen Bartlett. It is a powerful book that challenged my thinking of what success and fulfilment means. During the course of reading the book, I realized I was on the hamster wheel, always running to get ahead. The book helped me to no only step off the wheel, but realized most of us have what we need to be happy, but we allow ourselves to continue to say, once I make X, I will be happy – and we continually work towards it. This change in perspective has been powerful.

myGwork: What do you do to unwind at the end of a hard day?

Belton: I love to start my days with meditation, and I like to finish my days with a walk outside. This remote working culture had led to some days where I found myself not leaving the house at all, so incorporating some outside time each day after work, is something I find rewarding, both physically and mentally.

You can connect with Belton here.