Different by Design, Stronger Together
Written By: Dr. Fred Hicks, CEO, Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County
The Leadership Tampa Class of 2027 gathered for a Day of Belonging built around a deceptively simple idea: people do their best work when they know they can bring their authentic selves into the room. Through conversation, reflection, favorite foods, social identity, and plenty of laughter, classmates discovered that differences do not have to divide a team. In the right environment, they can become the very things that help a team see more, understand more, and solve more.
The workshop created space to move beyond titles and organizations and listen to the experiences that shape how people show up. Belonging was not presented as sameness. Instead, the day reinforced a leadership practice: create enough trust for people to speak honestly, listen with curiosity, challenge ideas respectfully, and still know they are accepted.
The day's inclusive-leadership panel - Mike Smith, Fifth Third Bank, Nancy J. Faggianelli, Carlton Fields, and Chris Claytor, The Beck Group - extended that conversation into the realities of leading organizations. The lesson for any workplace was clear: when people feel seen and heard, teams are better positioned to bring different perspectives to the challenges in front of them.
The debrief captured the spirit of the day. It was thoughtful without being stiff, serious without losing the fun, and full of the kind of moments that make classmates more comfortable being themselves around one another. Comparing favorite foods, finding unexpected common ground, and listening to experiences different from one's own made belonging feel less like a corporate phrase and more like a daily choice.
A special thank-you goes to the Tampa Bay Chamber team for doing the invisible work that made the day feel effortless. If belonging had a logistics department, the Chamber team would clearly be running it - probably with a color-coded agenda, extra coffee, and a backup plan for the backup plan.
Day of Belonging left LT '27 with a lesson worth carrying into every boardroom, team meeting, and community conversation: the strongest solutions rarely come from rooms where everyone is the same. They come from rooms where differences are welcomed, people are heard, and leaders make space for authenticity. LT '27 did not leave less different; it left more connected.
That is the kind of belonging that makes teams stronger.