An advocate for inclusion & empowerment

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Whatever role Nita Henry is in next time you come across her name — as panelist, speaker, board member, director, advocate — you can count on her as someone who is dedicated to inclusion and service to the community, and who won’t hold back from speaking truth. She’s also the new Vice President of Human Resources for Colorado Children’s Hospital, with over 25 years of experience in human resources management and operations and an extensive leadership background in community, corporate and academic arenas. She ran for city council, is on the board of One Colorado, and has consulted with over 30 nonprofits across the state of Colorado.

Where does your drive to be better come from?

My drive really comes from my father. My father passed away when I was a very young woman and I always tell the story of my dad. He didn’t finish high school. He dropped out of high school at tenth grade and worked really hard and probably taught me everything that I knew about being educated, given he didn’t even have a formal education. It was clear to him that the key to my success, particularly growing up in the segregated south as a black person, was going to be through education. It was my dad that provided that initial fuel for me to do well.

But at the same time he talked about education, he also talked about how you measure success. It was my dad that said don’t spend your time comparing yourself to other people because you’ll always be disappointed, there will always be people that will be better than you are at something. Always compare yourself to yourself. I’ve lived by that since the time that he shared that philosophy that I think is really important.

As a human resources professional, what are your thoughts on diversity in the workplace and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)?

I will say to you from a human resources standpoint that in some cases I think human resources will lag behind the real needs of an employee base and that’s where the opportunity is. If you think about the sweet spot in HR it is making sure that you’re not lagging behind what your workforce demands. When I say that I mean, for most organizations, whether we’re talking about public or private sector, we spend a lot of time on this topic of diversity. That’s not where we’re lagging. Where we’re lagging is when it’s time to talk about inclusion. What you do with your diversity is where the lag is.

I don’t know that organizations, private or public, have really figured out what to do with the richness of the diversity that it has. When you start to see the groups that you’ve described, I think it is the initial attempt to figure out what you’re supposed to do to leverage the diversity that exists in an organization. That’s where the real work is.

How did you know that it was time for you to move on to become the Vice President of Human Resources for Children’s Hospital Colorado?

I didn’t really know. I was blessed that this opportunity came knocking, and it comes sometimes at a time when you least expect it. I wasn’t sure that it was the right time initially. But I’ll tell you what I did. I actually went to Children’s Hospital and spent thirty minutes sitting in the lobby. Part of what I was attempting to do was to feel the space. I wanted to feel the space, I wanted to see the patients, I wanted to see the kiddos and their parents, I wanted to see the employees and how they moved. It was that thirty minutes in the lobby of Children’s Hospital that convinced me that it was time. It was time for me to be there and it gave me an opportunity to begin to think about how my gifts would work in a system like that.

You were recently presented with a 5280 Award by Mayor Michael Hancock, being celebrated as someone who makes this city and county of Denver the best place to live. What is your favorite thing about our Mile High City and why should LGBT people consider visiting us?

What I love about this city is it allows you to be authentically you. There really aren’t that many cities across the country that allow you to be legitimately you. I have found that that is exactly what I’ve been able to be in this wonderful city. It does not force you to conform to any particular thing. And that is a lovely way to grow in a city. So there’s something for everyone, and even where there is nothing, there is opportunity to carve it out for yourself and you’re a great example of that. I just don’t think you can beat it. I also think we’re a well-kept secret. Shhhh, we can’t tell everybody.

What is the best piece of career advice you have learned?

Authenticity is very important in your career. We go through these stages when we start out in our 20s where we’re just learning how to navigate the politics and in some ways you start adopting behaviors that may or may not be your own. That’s just a normal part of what happens in our 20s.

When we get to be in our 30s, you get settled into what an organization stands for and you begin to learn, probably for the first time, a little bit more about what you like and what you don’t like. When you get in your 40s, you’re clear about what you do like and what you don’t like and for the first time you might go out on a limb about what you will be doing next and it’s not going to be defined by the organization. It will for the first time be defined by you.

When you get to be my age, in my 50s, what you decide is the answer is yes or the answer is no. You have absolutely no tolerance for things that don’t bring you joy. It’s an interesting evolution that I think we go through. I would like to impart that all of those stages are very natural decade to decide about how we see career. Staying authentic is really important through that process.

One more thing I’ll add is unlike what a lot of our colleges and our textbooks teach us, I think it’s important to be vulnerable. Every textbook says ‘don’t let them see you sweat and you shouldn’t let people know you’re vulnerable’, and I would argue that a part of joy at work and joy in profession has everything to do with how vulnerable you will allow yourself to be in it. When you allow yourself to have those vulnerabilities — that means admitting that you don’t know everything. That means admitting that that thing you’re supposed to like you really don’t like. It means that admitting that maybe you need to lean on somebody else for a part of your talent. That vulnerability will ultimately bring you the joy that makes work a fruitful place to be.