Everyone has preconceived biases, but business leaders must recognize them and ask whether they’re being fair, Lencola Sullivan said Thursday at the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce’s first CEO Luncheon of the year.
Sullivan works at the Royal Dutch Shell headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, as an office manager, founding member of its Diversity & Inclusion Action Team and the team’s focal point for the tax department.
But she’s also from Morrilton and, in 1980, was the first African-American to be crowned Miss Arkansas. She was the first African-American to win preliminary awards in the 1981 Miss America pageant and to place in the top five, as fourth runner-up.
Sullivan was also a reporter for KARK-TV, Channel 4 in Little Rock and graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Sullivan was interviewed at the luncheon at Central Baptist College by Christina Madsen, UCA’s associate vice president of communications, public relations and marketing.
“What I see from afar is that, if you don’t agree with me, you can’t be my friend or you can’t work for me,” Sullivan said. “That’s not the way we get along, folks. It’s like we are stronger together. And I’m not trying to quote a campaign slogan. I’m just saying we really are stronger together. The more diverse the population is, the better we will do, the better your company will do.”
Sullivan talked about what it’s like to break ground as an African-American.
“What I’m very conscious of is that I don’t just represent my color; I represent more than color,” she said. “I represent everyone who looks like me. I know that what I do affects not only me, but affects other African-Americans.
“So, if I act crazy, it’ll become like, ‘Well you know those black people.’ You hear those things. I’m just being honest,” Sullivan said. “We need to be open with each other and talk to each other.”
She also asked the audience to think about how she would have been received had she walked in with a “scarf” on her head.
“Ask yourself, because sometimes we don’t recognize those hidden biases we all have. I have them, and, yes, you all have them as well,” she said. “It’s about recognizing those biases and saying, ‘Are we being fair?’ Are the CEOs of your companies or organizations being fair? Is everybody getting a fair shot?’ “
Sullivan said statistics show hiring managers might discriminate against applicants with names that indicate they are of a certain race or ethnicity.
“All of you here have influence, or you wouldn’t be here. I challenge you all to just be open and receptive. Let’s not judge people by their last name, what race or background or culture they come from,” Sullivan said, adding that we must listen more to people who are different from us.
She encouraged attendees to perform small acts of kindness and take time to connect with others, especially young people, because it can make a big impact.
Sullivan also talked about how she got involved with pageants. A member of her town’s Rotary Club asked her to compete in her first event.
She entered it and soon learned that she could fund her college education through scholarships awarded to pageant participants — even those that didn’t take home first place.
Sullivan said she competed for Miss Arkansas after college because, not only did her community push her to do so, but she became upset while listening to a man being interviewed on a national television. He was talking about how backward the state was.
Sullivan said, when she gets mad or upset, she asks herself what she can do to change the situation. She said she entered Miss Arkansas and wanted to win so she could show Arkansans and the world how far the state had come.
She said she was working for a Dutch nonprofit in New York City and was sent to the Netherlands to thank the people who had raised money to help victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack. She said she met her husband on that trip, and that’s how she ended up so far from home.