Welcome to Episode 6 of Building My Legacy.
In this episode, Denise Hummel , J. D., and Lois Sonstegard discuss why a process of inclusion is essential for the health and well-being of an organization and its employees. Without inclusion employees lack a sense of hope and become disengaged from the workplace. On the other hand, as inclusive work environments are created, leaders emerge who passionately work to improve the lives of not only their employees but of their communities, both near and far. This is the essence of legacy building.
So if you want to:
- Understand the concept of “belonging” in an organizational context
- Know the single most essential ingredient for organizational connection
- Understand the importance of hope for the sustainability of a thriving organization
- Prevent spending time shutting people down (you’re different from me) rather than helping people to open up
- Know the 3 basic and foundational ingredients for inclusion in organizations
Tune in now!
In this Podcast we will discuss:
- Why is hope the essential ingredient underlying engagement and inclusion.
- The three R’s of inclusion:
- Receptive—the ability to accept and be curious about one another
- Reflective-the ability to be self-aware of our own biases and the ability to be transparent about our decision-making based upon our biases
- Revitalizing—the ability to be our best selves so that we can inspire others based upon their observed behavior of us
- Re-What can Executive Teams do to get the most out of their Boards of Director?
- The essential ingredient to legacy building: impacting people’s lives for the better.
About DENISE PIRROTTI HUMMEL, J.D.
Denise is the Chief Executive Officer of Lead Inclusively, Inc., a consultancy dedicated to the connection between inclusion and business performance. An attorney, with a history of landmark cases, she is a serial entrepreneur and business consultant who built and sold her cross-cultural business to Ernst & Young (EY), joining them as a Principal. Her global expansion strategy model is intellectual property that she retains and that is being used throughout the world by EY, Deloitte and Aon Hewitt, as well as companies from pre-IPO to global enterprise. She is the author of two books, a Ted Talk finalist, an HBA Board member, the Chair of Athena’s Life Sciences Committee, the Co-Chair of Education for the National Diversity Council and a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches ™ Legacy team, chosen from over 16,000 applicants.
Highlights of her career include establishing Ernst & Young’s (EY) Talent, Diversity, Innovation and Culture Transformation offerings, leading Aon-Hewitt’s international M&A people integration and building Deloitte’s candidate assessment, training program and success analytics for Global Mobility. Additionally, Denise has consulted with the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, helping them to develop the cross-cultural readiness of intelligence advisors and diplomats. She has designed global expansion and strategy programs for organizations and government delegations in over 25 countries, from developed nations to developing nations, with issues spanning from driving inbound Foreign Direct Investment to cross-border conflict resolution.
At EY, she won their Innovation Award in 2015, led a major global M&A integration for a high-tech client merger and developed EY’s client-facing methodology for Diversity & Inclusion client engagements. As the Chief Executive Office & Founder at Universal Consensus, LLC, she implemented her cross-border business optimization model to generate double digit profit increases for clients, designed and executed the people integration for AIG’s operating companies in Japan and increased cross-cultural process performance for clients including FedEx, Roche, State of California Tourism, and EY’s shared services. She is now executing engagements for clients under the banner of Lead Inclusively, Inc. where she helps clients to use inclusive leadership as a means to accelerate innovation and reduce risk. She is also an EIR (CEO Entrepreneur In Residence) with CONNECT, a San Diego based organization that prepares high tech and life sciences inventors for first round financing competitions with Venture Capital.
Earlier in her career Denise was a practicing attorney, a Law Clerk in the U.S. House of Representatives, General Counsel for the Overseas Education Association with a jurisdiction of Western Europe, Bermuda, Cuba and Icelend. She also tried and won the first class action under the Americans With Disabilities Act. She received her Juris Doctor from American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Columbia University, Barnard College in New York, N.Y.. She also participated in international studies in advanced literature at the University of Florence in Italy. She has lived in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy and executed for clients in every continent. She is fluent in English and Italian with conversational skills in French and Spanish.
Thanks for Tuning In!
Thanks so much for being with us this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Please leave a note in the comments section below!
If you enjoyed this episode please share it with your friends by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates.
And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get.
Please leave a review right now.
Thanks for listening!
Mike Saunders, MBA
Recent episodes from Mike Saunders, MBA (see all)
- Interview with Vincent Virga, Founder of PFS Wealth Management Group Discussing Fee and Risk-Efficient Investment Planning - July 3, 2025
- Interview with Don Hanifin Founder of DH Retirement Solutions Discussing Guaranteed Income & Tax Risk - July 3, 2025
- Interview with David Flores Wilson, Managing Partner at Sincerus Advisory - July 3, 2025
