Our Areas of Expertise

Empowering Professionals

Leadership Training Focusing on Empowerment Unlocks Belonging in the Workplace

Research tells us that experiences with bias often cause professionals from communities that experience inequities to mask aspects of their identities in the workplace. bci has developed a suite of targeted training, practices, and strategies to empower professionals to stand in their power in the face of bias, feel more confident, and experience heightened authenticity and belonging.

We are Passionate About Empowering Professionals to Thrive

At bci, we are deeply committed to equipping Professionals of Color, women, LGBTQ+ professionals, and professionals from other equity-seeking communities with the leadership tools to thrive and experience belonging in the workplace. Our hands-on style of training combines deep expertise in leadership, skills development, empowerment, DEI, trauma healing, mental health, and wellness strategies — including the teachings from Ritu’s bestselling books We’ve Got This (also an award-winner) and The Authenticity Principle, guidebooks for those looking to live their best, both personally and professionally.

Why Choose bci for Empowerment Training

Empowering professionals – especially those who experience heightened inequities – is the heart of all the work we do at bci and we have built deep expertise in this area. We are committed to providing practical strategies around how to embrace and leverage cultural differences so that everyone can experience authenticity, belonging, and advancement at work.

We have facilitated hundreds of workshops in this space and have developed leadership and empowerment training that focuses on the specific opportunities and challenges that professionals face in the workplace. Our experts draw on their personal experiences navigating corporate cultures to tackle these issues in a direct, empathetic, and practical way.

We combine our extensive expertise in leadership, skills development, empowerment, DEI, trauma healing, mental health, and wellness, to bring a more nuanced approach to our programming.

We consistently receive excellent feedback that the vulnerable, transparent, empathetic, and inclusive ways in which we teach inspires professionals to excel and thrive.

Thriving and Claiming Belonging in the Workplace

Navigating the pressures and expectations of the workplace can be complicated and challenging for professionals at the best of times, let alone in the wake of rapidly changing work environments affected by challenges in greater society.

Our targeted empowerment training teaches professionals to leverage leadership, empowerment, DEI, and wellness strategies so that they can thrive personally and professionally during this difficult time. From bias awareness and claiming belonging to wellness and mindfulness strategies, our training equips professionals with key strategies for thriving in their career advancement, standing in their power, being authentic, and claiming belonging.

Did You Know?

The internalization of bias is a real thing.

When we grow up with constant messaging to change who we are, it can lead us to internalize the negative messaging coming our way and believe that there is, in fact, something wrong with us because we are different.

We can come to believe the negative messaging, the biases, the assumptions, and the judgment. We can stop believing in ourselves, and we start to feel unworthy, which can lead us to self-censor, to lean out as opposed to leaning in, and more.

Essentially it can lead to self-hate.

Leadership Coaching for Professionals of Color

We want to help Professionals of Color thrive as they enter and move through leadership ranks, which is why we offer a performance coaching program designed specifically for Professionals of Color.

This program, developed by DEI and empowerment coach Dr. Komal Bhasin, provides targeted coaching to help leaders of color harness their place, position, and identity in order to thrive in the workplace and beyond.

Shift Leadership Executive Coaching

We need a new paradigm for cultivating career advancement, belonging, and engagement – particularly for leaders who want to experience greater professional advancement, success, joy, and wellness. At bci, we’re calling this new paradigm Shift Leadership.

bci’s Shift Leadership Executive Coaching program was designed by Ritu Bhasin, drawing on her expertise in coaching over a thousand professionals and working with hundreds of globally-renowned organizations. Ritu has combined leadership best practices, strategies, and tools, to create this executive coaching program that provides leaders with strategic direction on how to strengthen their skills, cultivate greater belonging at work, create more personal and organizational impact, experience deep-rooted professional and personal joy, and more.

All of bci’s empowerment training can be offered virtually or in-person.

We’ve Got This

Unlocking the Beauty of Belonging

Many of us feel constant pressure to mask and curate who we are — to perform as someone we’re not rather than be who we are. And it hurts us. But we don’t need to live this way.

With Ritu’s bestselling and award-winning book We’ve Got This, she offers readers a roadmap for how to claim belonging so that you can thrive. And it also offers leaders an opportunity to become better allies by practicing empathy and learning about the barriers to belonging — all to unlock belonging for yourself and for others.

The Authenticity Principle

Resist Conformity, Embrace Differences, and Transform How You Live, Work, and Lead

Ritu’s story is a relatable one — it is the human story of our search for belonging. In her book, The Authenticity Principle, Ritu breaks down how it feels to be the “other” and introduces an innovative framework that acknowledges the systemic barriers that women, People of Color and professionals from other equity-seeking communities face, while also inspiring and empowering everyone to be the truest version of themselves that they can be. A must read!

3D rendering of the book cover of The Authenticity Principle by Ritu Bhasin

Empowerment and Leadership Resources for Professionals

TIP SHEET

5 Strategies to Thrive as a BIPOC Professional in the Face of Racial Bias

BLOG

How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace

by Minda Harts

COURSE

Empowerment Masterclass

BOOK

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

by Resmaa Menakem

Want to shift leadership, cultivate belonging, grow empathy,
and unlock psychological safety in your workplace?

Contact us to learn how we can help.
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Dr. Komal Bhasin, MSW, MHSc, DocSocSci

Komal is bci’s Senior DEI Consultant and Mental Health Expert-in-Residence and an accomplished DEI facilitator, coach, and strategist. Komal has over 20 years of experience in providing strategic and advisory guidance and program development across a range of sectors, with a particular concentration in mental health and racial inclusion. Komal is also the founder of Insayva Inc., a social enterprise focused on providing accessible DEI and health equity support to charities and non-profit organizations.

Komal has extensive experience in creating and delivering programming in a range of DEI areas, including unconscious bias, cultural competence, mental health inclusion, psychological safety, and allyship. She is passionate about driving transformational change in workplaces and has worked closely with bci clients — corporations, professional services firms, health care providers, and educational institutions — to embed cultures of DEI within their organizations.

Komal has provided one-on-one inclusion coaching to hundreds of senior leaders and brings a unique approach that is informed by her background as a therapist. She is able to expertly handle sensitive conversations and situations and works with leaders to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to advance racial/ethnocultural, gender, and mental health-related equity across teams and organizations. Komal also offers a performance coaching program designed specifically for BIPOC leaders. This program aims to help BIPOC leaders harness their place, position, and identity to thrive in the workplace and beyond. Komal is a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

As bci’s Mental Health Expert-in-Residence, Komal offers tremendous expertise around workplace mental health. As a doctoral trained mental health clinician, certified health executive, and registered social worker, Komal has assisted organizations looking to advance employee mental health inclusion and well-being through offering programming on inclusive dialogue, anti-stigma, burnout prevention, psychological safety, resilience, and self-care. Komal is committed to advancing mental health and wellness across the life course; she currently serves on the board of the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario and previously served on the board of Children’s Mental Health Ontario and the YMCA of Greater Toronto.

When Komal is not working, you’ll find her painting, cooking or snuggling with her cat.