Founded in 2013, Dr. Tiffany Brandreth, is the CEO of TBM & Associates, a leadership and organizational consulting firm helping businesses with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) strategies, enabling them to implement practices that promote a diverse and inclusive workforce. The company’s six guiding principles along with its best-in-class services are the key elements winning the trust of its clients across Global Fortune 100, Fortune 500, and multinational private organizations. According to Dr. Brandreth (or Dr. B, as her clients call her) it’s the sheer sincerity and substance the work is delivered through as the secret to their success despite keeping their clients confidential. The entire team leads with admirable humility in the work they do.

The Pursuit of Excellence 

It is believed that behind every successful company, there’s a passionate leader involved with all their heart and soul. In our case it is Dr. Tiffany Brandreth. She describes herself as an eternal optimist pushing boundaries never fully satisfied which reflects in the style of her leadership. She is supremely principled with the support she and her team provide to leaders. Her energy and commitment knows no bounds in the pursuit of truly achieving an equitable, inclusive, and diverse workplace. 

Her expertise in the field is a reflection of her journey beginning in the late 90’s, where she began as an entry level employee to becoming an executive and ultimately being the trusted DE&I strategist in board rooms across North America and globally. Before DE&I became the industry it is today, she was developing DE&I strategies from the ground up and led them across multiple states and regions as a one person department without budget. 

Dr. Brandreth’s vision is “for every individual to experience an environment that embraces and inspires their excellence through the power of DE&I.” 

After conducting over 100 organizational assessments and working across 25 industries, developing over 40 C Suite Teams, last year she introduced new research to the D&I field and offered a new approach to solving its barriers. 

Finding the Root Cause of DE&I’s Failure 

In order to create a sustainable solution, one must find out the root cause of a problem. Through research

examining 75 leaders responsible for championing DE&I, Dr. Brandreth managed to find the root cause of DE&I’s failure through five brand new biases coined as DEI’s Death Zone™. To combat these five biases, she also found five characteristics for DEI’s success in how DEI is advocated for. 

This began the road to revising their strategies, rebranding the company, and developing assessments the market wasn’t providing because “in good conscience, we had to deliver the work that achieves DEI versus reinforce the death zone,”says Dr. B.

She thought the DE&I industry would jump on board but says it’s the C Suite who are the most receptive, and credits her 5C Model. Similar to Emotional Intelligence, Dr. B. is bringing DE&I Intelligence™ to the leadership field by helping executive teams build their Comfort, Confidence, Competence, Congruence and Credibility across DEI. 

Another remarkable breakthrough is the 4 DEI Sentiments model as the new training to replace the traditional bias training used for the past decades. These sentiments describe the attitude towards DE&I where people either feel Faulted, Inspired, Subdued or Failed.  She says “DEI is not failing. It’s the decisions for DEI strategies that are allowing bias to prevail. Efforts are incomplete because the education is incomplete, DEI only reaches one sentiment whereas we are reaching all four.”  

From Complex to Simple. The 5×5 DEI Plan 

For the first time in Dr. B’s career, she has a ‘prepackaged’ five step formula that fits companies at any stage of their DE&I strategy. For two decades everything she implemented for companies was customized. She philosophically opposed off the shelf programs because they did not take into account the organization’s uniqueness. That has now all changed. 

Because of her research, every organization with a DE&I commitment needs the 5×5 DEI Plan whether their strategy is seasoned or just beginning. It comprises of their proprietary assessment of the 5 biases

and 5 attributes. Includes a powerful learning experience in the Executive DEI Masterclass that brings a leadership team together to unlearn and relearn how to lead DE&I in their company. 

 Step four is agreement with how the team will build their DEI Intelligence™ muscle through the five C’s mentioned earlier. Final step is consensus on their DE&I Ascension Strategy. 

They have taken an overwhelming new set of ideas and reduced them into an easy to follow 5 step, 30-Day workout.

A 5 Year Challenge To the D&I Industry

In terms of company goals, TBM is looking for 25 companies who are interested in adopting the DEI Summit Strategy™ over the next 5 years. It’s intended to replace current best practices and the basis of new research as the first pioneers taking DEI to newfound heights. The 5×5 DEI Plan is the perquisite training ground. 

The company’s other milestone is no small feat. It includes persuading industry giants such as the Deloitte’s, McKinsey’s, SHRMs, and DiversityInc’s to pivot how DE&I is being awarded, educated, and marketed otherwise she fears in ten years it will be like groundhog’s day. 

Dr. B’s final words were, “We must in urgent fashion alter how we award, educate, and market DEI to change the trajectory of where we are headed, which is being in the same exact place ten years from now. Today, we have to stop and take a left turn so that in five years we are having a different conversation, reading different data, and discussing new winning strategies for DEI. I cannot implore this enough.”

Know your Principles and Live by Them

It has been an inspired journey for Dr. Brandreth and there’s a wealth of experience to show. Taken from these experiences, if there’s one golden advice she can share with the world it would be that one must know their principles and live by them no matter the sacrifice, while maintaining compassion, patience and faith at your core.  

She says there will be moments that will define what you stand for that comes with no glory and no recognition. The principles to DEI will be your stamina when you’re at a crossroads of doing what’s right for others that sacrifices what is best for yourself because what remains on your conscience are the people

let down by the decisions that silence their voices and the work itself. Leadership is not only about purpose, it’s about upholding principles when they matter most. 

For more details, visit- www.drtiffanybrandreth.com

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