Meet & Greet: RELYTE’s D&I Advocate Tashan Nicholas
Interviews

Meet & Greet: RELYTE’s D&I Advocate Tashan Nicholas

August 13, 2024
DEILGBTQ+ professionals

myGwork’s rainbow role model Tashan Nicholas shares why he is on a mission to empower and enable underserved professionals and communities through his coaching and D&I business RELYTE.



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

Tashan: I kind of landed in the world of working. I graduated with a degree in Economics and had been on a path that was chosen for me. So, I focused numbers and data and so found a relatively numeric job that wasn’t in finance. I started out as an econometrician at a global media agency. It was okay… the place and people were awesome, but I just wasn’t my most awesome self. I’ve always prided myself in my ability to connect with others. So I felt flat as most of my time was spent on spreadsheets (no shade, I LOVE excel, trust me), but I wanted to spend more time with people too. I didn’t realize this at the time and coupled that with what was crippling self-doubt, I got a job in the same thing somewhere else. I gradually got more confidence and realized where my strengths were, and I was able to shape my career based on that rather than my weaknesses. So I continued in the world of analytics, marketing effectiveness and modelling.

I think the murder of George Floyd was a turning point for the world. It was instrumental to who I am today, as I pivoted during the pandemic. I started engaging in D&I practices at my workplace and also did my diploma in life and performance coaching. That’s where my mindset shifted. I would argue the decision to do my coaching qualification may have been the first decision I had ever made that wasn’t set out for me. I also got one of current roles at the7stars as an analytics director, focusing on my unique skills as a storytelling and people-centered analyst. I also built up the courage to start my business RELYTE. I now find myself blending all walks of life where in a single week I can find myself conducting statistical modeling, talking about marketing effectiveness, coaching one on one, leading talks on allyship, co-facilitating leadership workshops and anything else that comes up in the mix.

myGwork: Why did you choose to set up your coaching and D&I business?

Tashan: I had spent so much time just existing and being unconfident in my formative and early years. When I first started working is when I became conscious of my other and my confidence dropped. I hadn’t realized that I spent so much time modeling what good looked like; which was easy growing up in multicultural London, where in school, good looked like me doing well. But in the workplace, there weren’t loads of people like me – being both Black and Queer is amazing, which also makes you a unicorn. I didn’t know what it meant to create your own blueprint at the time I had never seen that script. I think being the first in my immediate family to go to university meant there weren’t loads of examples of “This is what I did when…”. This is not to say I lacked, more that I needed to create something brand new, but didn’t know how. As my work life continued, I started to build up my understanding of how to do this, and my coaching training accelerated this. I finally felt that I had not only the language but the skills and tools to advocate for myself and create and enable my vision. The magic was that I was learning how to do this for others and doing it for myself.

Also with my immersion into the D&I space, I noticed that some of the feelings I was feeling in my early career, were not unique to me. It is clear to me there is underinvestment in diverse and underrepresented communities and professionals. But now that I have the skills, I’m on a mission to empower and enable underserved professionals and communities because I can’t ignore the disparity. Also because I care and I’ve been gifted ith wthese strengths and learnt these skills and tools for a reason.



myGwork: What services/areas does your new business focus on?

Tashan: At the heart of my business is the desire to enable and empower underserved leaders and this is achieved in three ways: Powerful and transformational conversations with leaders; equipping them with the knowledge to advocate for themselves democratizing access to leadership and DEI expertise; and lastly working with companies to understand how to create inclusive leadership.

Our first priority at RELYTE is the underserved professional or community themselves and so the solutions seek to enable them and then enable their companies to create environments where they can thrive too.

myGwork: Why is having access to tools and coaching so important as you climb up the career ladder, and why is it especially significant for the LGBTQ+ community?

Tashan: I think there are two forces; helping yourself and help from others. I genuinely believe that each human is their best resource and that when we can access our most resourceful self when we can solve all of our problems. This is not to say we will do this alone, just that that journey must start with self-inquiry.

I think this is especially important for the LGBTQ+ community where lack of representation, lack on investment and competition for our mental resources in the wider world can rob us of this opportunity to reflect on how can I grow? How can I grow in accordance with my values?

When we think of how intersectional our community is there is another layer of how much we area carrying on our backs. With the appropriate tools and incisive techniques we can take back control of our progress and time.

myGwork: Why is diversity and inclusion so important right now and what can business leaders do to support this in the workplace?

Tashan: I think the cat is fully out the bag now. We cannot continue to treat people unfairly. There’s a lot of power in people, and we know how amazing networks such as myGwork can provide networks and resources. I think we live in an age of “mass-minority” – where through the ability to connect in networks we can understand the patterns of minoritized experiences. With this, we can see more clearly what is systemic and structural, and what is personal. I don’t think a workplace can be sustainable without a deep understanding of their diverse workforces and that D&I knowledge is a business essential now. With that said, I don’t know how common the knowledge is, however I do see a lot of appetite to learn and grow.

I believe it starts with conversations with your communities. Business leaders must start open-ended communications with their employees about what their workplace needs are. This must be done in a safe way. You must be able to cut this insight by diverse identities. With that data comes time for commitment and goals. What does the roadmap look like with five or ten years of D&I commitment? What knowledge do you need gain? What data do you have on diverse communities and how can this be sense checked for equity? This is the work. Just like with any job, the beauty is it’s ever evolving and changing.

myGwork: How do you encourage people to choose what they want to do, especially in an age of telling and not asking?

Tashan: We have to be having a conversation with ourselves around what our dreams are. What are our values and how is this showing up in my life (or not)? When we realize the gap between where want to be and where we are, we can change it. It all starts with a conversation though; with yourself, a coach, a mentor, a boss, a friend, a family member etc. It’s important, however, that the right questions are being asked and that we begin practices that build up our ability to advocate for ourselves.

myGwork: What was the last book you read? Any interesting take-aways?

Tashan: I’m an audio book kind of person and a recent one I listened to was The Courage to BE Disliked. There is so much to unpack here, but essentially it presents a refreshing perspective on psychology inspired by Adler. The author opened my mind up to think about my past in a different way – a way that allows you to disconnect from perhaps the harmful aspect of being attached to it and reconnect to the present in a way that is helpful for progress and change. I really enjoyed it.

myGwork: What was your last holiday destination and where do you plan to visit next?

Tashan: Costa Rica, it was awesome and I had never travelled that far before. I want to be in nature again with some sun.

myGwork: What do you do to relax at the end of a hard-working day?

Tashan: I am a TV queen and hobbyist and so streaming whatever takes me that evening or writing a poem. I LOVE creativity and so to relax I love consuming and creating creative things.


You can connect with Tashan here.



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