Tatianna Nicoale

I attribute my success to choosing to be the person who drives change when something isn’t working, guided by my parents’ advice, along with persistence and my focused study of psychological safety.

My mom and dad always told me that if something's not good, you're probably going to have to be the one that changes it. That advice really shaped how I approach challenges in my career. When I noticed the lack of true open-door policy and the scrutiny I was facing in my retail role, I remembered their words and decided to be the person to make that change. Instead of waiting for someone else to fix the problem, I took action and started my own company to train leaders to create psychologically safe teams.

I would tell her to take up space, even when you feel like you're not supposed to. Don't allow anyone to tell you that you're not allowed to. When I was younger, a lot of times I felt like I had to shrink myself or fit into the space that I was given. But now, as I've grown up and become an adult, I've learned that I allow myself to take up the amount of space that I need, and then others can conform around the space that I need. When you assert yourself in that way and show up and take up the space that you need, and you don't try and shrink yourself or take away parts of yourself - I'm also a neurodivergent person, so masking has been something I did younger, and I don't do that anymore. I just show up as my whole self, and people are going to appreciate that. If they don't appreciate it, then they're not supposed to be in your life and they're not supposed to be around you.

One of the biggest challenges is being a queer Black person and trying to get my voice heard, being able to come across on the same playing field as my other colleagues, and not having my race or my gender identity overshadow who I am as a person. Oftentimes, a lot of people see me as parts and not as a whole person. That's been something challenging, and it's one of the reasons why I started my company - to be able to break through those stereotypes and allow people to see people as whole people. I want to see people as human-centered, focus on the human and the whole person, and not always attribute somebody's frustration to a characteristic of them or a part of them. We need to really listen to people for who people are, take their concerns and ideas into consideration, and not overshadow them.

Honesty, transparency, compassion, and observance are most important to me. I feel like you can't do anything without being honest - good honest, bad honest, any kind of honesty in general. You have to be able to say when things are good, say when things are not good, say when things are okay. You have to be able to be brutally honest with people. I think that when you're your most authentic self, people are able to meet you where you are, and you're able to meet people where they are. My wife says that I'm very observant - I look at everything and take everything in before I make a decision. I notice different things that most people might not point out during a conversation. Compassion is also critical - you have to take care of people and meet their whole needs. A lot of times, if someone's personal life isn't okay, it's going to impact their work ethic. That doesn't mean you need to be friends with your employee or be super invested in their personal life, but them knowing that you care about what's going on with them, and not just caring about the numbers, will allow them to show up better at work. Being able to have those open and honest conversations is what I strive for with the small team that I manage.