Accessibility & Compassion—an Exploration of a New Kind of Leadership

Introduction: Dee Borgoyn is a consultant, trainer, coach and speaker who is dedicated to building diverse and inclusive workplace cultures. She was born with a disability and is a lifetime advocate for fairness and equity for all. She was active in the creation and passage of the ADA. She holds a Certificate of Mastery in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from SDS Global Enterprises.

I sat down with Dee to discuss her work in the DE&I space, disability inclusion, ageism, and her book 28 Ways of Compassion. Watch and listen to the full interview here.

Jocelyn: Tell us about your journey of getting into DE&I work?

Dee: Well. I would say that it's been lifelong. I was born with a disability. I have one hand, I don't say, “I have just one hand.” I say “I have one hand and you have two hands.” So all my life, I was different and I’ve looked at things from a little bit different view than other people.

When it came time for me to go to college, I went into special education. I became a teacher but there were no teaching jobs. So I went to work for the state vocational rehabilitation division, which is the agency that works with people that have disabilities that are interfering with their ability to get a job. I worked for them for five years, and then I started a federal grant program that was under the Nevada state AFL CIO. The program was called jobs for the handicapped—that was back in the days when the law terminology was handicap rather than person with disability. I did that for five years and I was exposed to a really wide variety of disabilities.

I had placed so many people with a company called Spiegel, which was a catalog company, that they asked me to come and work for them as their HR manager. So that's how I got into Human Resources. I did a tremendous amount of hiring for them. And I saw the other side of the employer bringing the employee in. 

Then I went through some things in my personal life that I wanted to do work with more of a personal impact. My husband fell 23 feet off a lift and then my daughter who was 12 at the time had bone cancer. So I was at the hospital all the time and all of a sudden whether or not that customer got their move, it really didn't resonate with me anymore. 

So many people thought that I worked at the hospital, they would ask me for directions and I thought, I want to work in HR, but I want to work doing something meaningful. So ever since then, I've been in healthcare. Then I gravitated specifically towards the senior living aspect of healthcare. 

And at that time I was also involved in the creation of the ADA because I came from the state of Nevada and they wanted me to come out and represent them in DC.

So I’ve always been in diversity, equity, and inclusion. I've always been the champion for the underdog and making sure things are fair for people. It's been in my DNA since I was born, but my career and my life have supported it and continue to push me in that direction.

Dee Borgoyn as a young child wearing a bonnet, she has a prosthetic arm

Jocelyn: Awesome. Thank you. That's great. You talked about having a disability from birth, can you elaborate on how that experience influences the work that you do?

Dee: I think going back to what I said about always being different. It's funny about a disability. I think that a disability is only as limiting as the person who has the disability’s view of it. And then there's the other part, other people's view of it, how they view it and how they receive it. So it's all about attitudes.

My grandfather was a medical doctor and he was there when I was born. Of course, they hesitated to bring the baby to the mom, cause there was this difference and my mom was all worried. Well, finally they brought me to her and he was there and he told her, isn't it beautiful that God knew just who to give her to.

He also pointed out to me later that in Webster's dictionary, a handicap is a race or a contest where an artificial disadvantage is placed on a superior contestant to equalize the chances of winning. So it has shaped my life. I look through a different lens. 

Jocelyn: That's awesome. Now you’ve mentioned that you worked in healthcare and nursing homes, you’re also an aging services professional. Let's talk about ageism, how do you see that pop up in workplaces and what can employers do to prevent it? 

Dee: I think to prevent it, it needs to be brought out on the table and discussed as a factor of diversity. What I'm seeing is that either employers are forcing people out formally or informally or the older worker is growing in their fear. They get more and more afraid that something's wrong with them, maybe they have gained a disability in recent years, or they don't have the stamina used to. 

You know, I'm 63. And if I get a project, I always have to learn some new piece of technology. And that's 10 times harder than what the project is, but people get afraid. And sometimes they would rather quit than fail.

In September of last year, IBM got a letter from the EEOC because someone had complained about age-ism and favoritism. And they got a letter that was very specific stating that they were doing mass layoffs and about 85% of the people that they were laying off were older. And there was actually documented verbiage from the top people saying, we want to reduce our percentage of older workers and replace them with early professional hires. 

Also, I had a client that wanted me to look at their policies and procedures. They had been around for over a hundred years. They still had a policy on the books for mandatory early retirement. There's a lot of talk about all different kinds of diversity, but we must make sure that the policies aren't specifically discriminatory.

Jocelyn: Yeah. I have seen people use language like ‘young employee’ in written things. I think it's really interesting when we think about, what do you actually mean when you say “young employee”? You really just mean they're new at this career? Cause I could switch careers right now. Right. And be the same experience level as somebody graduating college and starting in something new. And so eliminating that age-related language is really important. And the other piece is years of experience when looking at job descriptions, studies have shown that years of experience aren’t predictive of success in a job.

Dee: Yeah. And that's interesting that you mentioned that because I know job descriptions have always been the Achilles heel. It's like this document that gets ignored and put away in a file and barely discussed unless you go to court and then everything that's in there is gospel. 

I think we restrict ourselves because people have a hard time making decisions. So they want something that will back them up. But so many good people that don't have that exact experience get eliminated. And then other people get put in just because they've sat in that chair for five years. It's tougher when you start using your head. You gotta slow down a little bit.

Jocelyn: For sure. Well, my next question for you is about the book that you wrote. You wrote a book called 28 Ways of Compassion and it's a guide for leaders. Tell us more about it and what inspired you to write a book. 

Book: 28 Ways of Compassion by Dee Borgoyn

Dee: The book is 28 Ways of Compassion: A Guide to Transformation and Leadership for a Relationship-Centric Healthcare Culture.

When I've been involved in a big issue, every time I've drilled down to the bottom of that issue in an investigation, I can tell you that there was a moment somewhere where somebody could have been a little more compassionate and this wouldn't have blown up. So I had all these years of working with problems and I realized that there wasn't really a definition of compassion that I aligned with. All the things I saw were really mushy. It started to be this idea that it's not about feeling sorry for people. It's also enjoying if someone's joyful and sharing that with them. 

So I just started thinking about it and it grew over the years and I couldn't find anybody talking about it. So I thought, well, I'll write a book. 

I read that the majority of leaders, 85% or so, that compassion's an important trait for them as a leader, but like 80% of those 85% also say they don't have the slightest clue how to start being compassionate. 

The book is really concrete. It says, do this, do this, do this. And by doing the things that are described in these 28 ways you get compassion.

I'm really proud of it and I really believe in every single thing that's in there. 

Jocelyn: Yeah. Well, thank you for that. Where can we get the book?

Dee: You can get it anywhere books are sold online:

Buy 28 Ways of Compassion here or here.

Or if people want to drop me a note I will send them a signed copy.

Jocelyn: What does the future of work look like for you in a post-Covid world? What are some upcoming projects you are working on? 

Dee: What's next? What I'm seeing is that I really, I really am enjoying working from home. I just recorded an online, on demand module for zoom that people can go in and buy, it's through an agency that I work with. And that was the very first time I filmed something on zoom with me overlaid on the slides.

And I see for everybody, there's going to be a lot more flexibility. And that opens things tremendously for people with disabilities. But I think there's going to be a lot more dialogue around flexibility. What about you?

Jocelyn: I'm working entirely virtually. It's been great for my business because I've had a few clients in New York and one potential client in Ohio. Some of my clients are in the Bay Area where I'm located but definitely it opens it up to being able to work with anyone, anywhere. 

Jocelyn: Well, the last question I have for you is can you give us a little rundown about where people can find you online and what types of things you're available for? If someone wants to hire you as a consultant, how do they contact you?

Dee: I have a website it's deeborgoyn.com, people can email me at dee@deeborgoyn.com, and I'm on LinkedIn. 

I work primarily with companies that want customized training. One of the things I did last year was a book club with 28 ways. They had gotten the book and they had taken it to their senior leadership team and they wanted me to run the book group. That was really fun. 

Jocelyn: Anything else you want to add?

Dee: I really appreciate you reaching out to me and I wish you all the best in your consulting work that you're doing. 

Jocelyn: Definitely. Well, thank you so much for joining.