Black Paris Profiles™ II: Kathleen Dameron - Part 2

Part 1 of Kathleen Dameron’s Black Paris Profile™ presents an in-depth look at Kathleen’s professional activities and philosophy. In Part 2, we look at some of the choices that she has made about creating and maintaining her business and what living in Paris means to her. She also shares advice for anyone who is thinking of moving to Paris and starting a business here.

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Kathleen Dameron with Tannie Award
Image courtesy of K. Dameron
Kathleen chose to start KD Conseil as a solopreneurship (a single-person business) for the simple reason that it was the simplest way to do so. (She confesses that she hates paperwork and administrative tasks.) For anyone thinking of starting a business in France, she advises the following:

Have a great deal of patience and passion, a strong sense of humor and an ability to deal with ambiguity.

Then, hire a French CPA – called expert-comptable. Do NOT attempt to navigate the French accounting or administrative system yourself!

Attend a course on French business administration, especially to know that the laws and the rules CHANGE continuously. ONLY someone who is dedicated to it can be up to date and accurate. That is why you should not attempt to run the administrative side of your company yourself.

Business in France is even more relationship-oriented than in the U.S., so expect a lot of face-to-face contact with people to develop client relationships: get the business, get the deal, get paid, get the next lead. Americans I know always comment that they can do business on the phone and meet the client face-to-face the day of the intervention. That experience is highly rare in France. People need to eyeball you, to feel your presence.

When Kathleen first came to Paris, she fell in love with the city straight away:

I love the architecture; I love the feeling of the city; I love being a woman in Paris. I love the art, the mixture of cultures, the intensity of intellectual life and of having a good street event…

She settled in the Strasbourg-Saint Denis area, a crossroads among the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, and 10th arrondissements. She loves it because the cultural and socio-economic diversity is great in this neighborhood. It abounds with theaters and restaurants, yet the banking industry is represented there as well. Beautiful architecture triggers the feeling of really being in the city of Paris. In fact, her apartment building lies in the shadow of the magnificent Porte Saint Denis, a Roman arch built by Louis XIV in the 17th century.

Porte Saint Denis
© Discover Paris!
Kathleen is an active member of Democrats Abroad. “What drives her passion about American politics, given that she is a long-time French resident?” I asked. She replied:

I have met Asians (Indians & Chinese) who have this incredible energy that can make one believe this century is THEIRS. Investing in yourself AS WELL AS your country is the light they see for their countries. I have begun to believe that the United States will continue to have a leadership role in the world for a few more years only, and I have an inherent interest that it fulfills that role as responsibly and as constructively as possible.

Given the talk I hear in Asia and what I witness in Europe, the American people seem to have lost critical reasoning AND medium-term self-interest in making social / collective choices. Examples include sub-prime loans, gulf wars, pushing OGM’s, and no health care system. I want to contribute to creating a sustainable world with economic and social justice for all. I would like to contribute to the U.S. becoming an effective world-centered, more multi-lateral participant in a world that has multiple axes.

France is actively struggling with the increasingly multicultural nature of its population. Because Kathleen focuses on multiculturalism at work, I asked her how she views French politics with regard to the various populations of people of color in France. She replied:

In some ways it is much easier for me as a Black American: I am seen as OK because I am American. There has been a low tolerance for open discrimination in the business world for Blacks like me. However, to be of North African origin is to live in the corporate world of discrimination closer to that Blacks experienced in the 1960s in the U.S. I fear that the tolerance level for difference is decreasing as “fear” becomes more acceptable as a political discourse in France.

I have witnessed that corporate opportunities for French-speaking Blacks and North Africans are low, few, and far between. I feel a need for inclusion work in French business to maintain a vibrant and diverse workplace.

Regarding the possibilities for equal opportunity employment, higher education, etc. for the young people of color in France, I feel sad for France as a country every time I read in Le Monde that bright West Indian and North African youth are enrolling massively in Canadian schools so that they can fulfill their potential. I believe that getting to the top of a corporate organization is highly unlikely for them, so the path to success for “visible minorities” may well be “Succeed abroad and then come home to Paris.” Maybe . . .

From attending social events at Kathleen’s home, I know that she loves belly dancing. So I was inspired to ask her about some of her other favorite pastimes. She lists them, in order of importance, as follows:

1) DANCING.

2) Belly dancing and 5 Rhythms dancing.

3) Hosting network exchange events and parties.

4) Meditation: both silent and active. Feeling joy in all that I do.

Finally, I asked Kathleen what advice she would give to those who are considering moving to Paris and working in business. Here are her words of wisdom:

The city is beautiful. The cultural life is awesome.

• Learn to talk about wine, food, and current events in the world intelligently—this is the basis for business networking.
• Learn about what makes French culture great – high value on expertise, excellent technology, and a passion for good food and wine.
• Learn the activities where French companies lead in their markets and in their fields. To know the names of key French and European companies is essential. To know the names of the great French and European business leaders & inventors is also a way to establish your credibility as an international business person.
• Open your mind, to creating success in a way different from the U.S. Actively let it penetrate your way of looking at the world, living, and doing business.

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Black Paris Profiles™ II: Kathleen Dameron - Part 1

This Black Paris Profile features Kathleen Dameron, a long-time African-American resident in Paris, business owner, and winner of the 1st Tannie Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013. Kathleen is an active member of the African Diaspora community, bringing Blacks together to energize mind, body, and spirit at events she hosts in her home. She has a great ability to integrate her French-ness, her American-ness, her Blackness, and her curiosity for other cultures. Kathleen invests in her two countries, the USA and France, with love and passion.

In this era where France is attempting to come to grips with its increasingly multicultural identity, I found it fascinating to learn about Kathleen’s work as a cross-cultural coach and trainer in the French corporate world. Part 1 of her profile delves into this aspect of her life in Paris.

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Kathleen Dameron with Tannie Award
Image courtesy of K. Dameron
Kathleen Dameron is the owner of KD Conseil, a cross-cultural training, coaching and advisory-consulting company that she founded in Paris in 1992. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois and spending her childhood there and in southern California, she came to Paris after two years in college and never left. Her penchant for exploring how members of social groups define their boundaries and treat “out-groups” differently than themselves led her to embrace her line of work.

Kathleen coaches, facilitates, and trains in companies that are experiencing cultural change through internationalization and/or through mergers and acquisitions. She is adept at working on an individual, team, or organizational level and relies on a group of senior bi-cultural consultants to assist her with providing services to corporations such as BNP Paribas, Heinekin, Pfizer, and LVMH (Louis Vuitton). Her support network includes trainers, coaches, facilitators, colleagues, mentors, and an extraordinary assistant who has worked with her for 13 years. She cultivates people who are successful and passionate about what they do as well as people who are continuously searching out emerging trends and ways of working in organizations.

Kathleen is certified as a professional coach by the International Coaching Federation and holds certificates in Team Management Systems©, Situational Leadership II©, Coaching & Modeling, and Self-Relations (Ericksonian Hypnotherapy). She has a Master level in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a discipline that has created new ways of understanding how verbal and non-verbal communication affect the human brain. Kathleen defines NLP as the science of observing peak performance and excellence, then creating a model of it so that individuals can model high achievers to easily acquire similar peak performance as well as to apply their own excellence in one area of their lives to another.

In addition, Kathleen has taught at ESSEC (the leading business school in France) for over 15 years in the Executive MBA, General Management (MG), and Specialized Master in Strategy and Management of International Business (MS SIAI) programs, as well as in programs specifically designed for individual companies.

No two work weeks are ever the same for Kathleen as she regularly spends time within different companies providing one-on-one coaching and in-company training sessions, working with co-development groups, delivering presentations to large groups, and running team seminars. She often attends seminars and workshops to stay on the leading edge, so she generally spends only two days in her office per month. She is passionate about her work, dedicated to the individuals / teams that she serves, and committed to excellence in motivating and coaching individuals and teams to achieve excellence.

Kathleen frequently travels abroad as well – working with clients, attending workshops, speaking at conferences, and interviewing people about work place practices & values in their country. She works primarily in Europe and less frequently in the U.S. and Asia. This year (2013), she was fortunate to have spent three consecutive weeks at home in Paris for the first time in four years!

I was curious to learn about Kathleen’s certification in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy (Self-relations) and how this discipline applies to cross-cultural leadership & teamwork training. She gave the following explanation of the technique and how it works:

This approach to making maximum use of the range of one’s levels of consciousness provided me with an articulate scientific link between the magical African/Native American world and the linear, Western Anglo world.

This approach is useful since success in the business world comes from hunches, insights, visions, and ‘magical’ encounters as often as from logical, linear thinking and action-oriented planning. A leader’s presence—his or her ability to be centered, to read/feel weak signals that indicate future trends—can be developed and trained.

To create success in today’s paradigm-changing world of business, one must be able to manage two very different mental states:

This approach to making maximum use of the range of one’s levels of consciousness provided me with an articulate scientific link between the magical African/Native American world and the linear, Western Anglo world.

This approach is useful since success in the business world comes from hunches, insights, visions, and ‘magical’ encounters as often as from logical, linear thinking and action-oriented planning. A leader’s presence—his or her ability to be centered, to read/feel weak signals that indicate future trends—can be developed and trained.

To create success in today’s paradigm-changing world of business, one must be able to manage two very different mental states:

1) Being intensely focused, staying in-the-flow, and maintaining a state of minimal stress while remaining highly focused

2) Observing large amounts of data, absorbing it, listening to it, and allowing the patterns to emerge

A key skill for highly effective people is the ability to create a centered, attentive, relaxed inner state so that the right questions appear and the appropriate solutions emerge. I use Ericksonian hypnotherapy techniques to help my clients attain this level of skill and integrate it as a practice in their working life. Related names for this practice are: mindfulness, leadership presence, in-the-flow, and embodied leadership. (See www.siyli.org* for a similar program that Google created for its employees.)

When leaders and team members have integrated these practices, these two ways of working create breakthrough moments for the individual, the team, and the organization. This is conducive to innovation, to effectiveness, to keeping pace with change without inducing stress.

Because Kathleen works in French, English, and Spanish, I asked how this affects her thought patterns. She replied:

Being multilingual is a vital part of my life. I am attracted to expressions in a particular language that convey a concept differently than in other languages. An example is Weltanschauung in German: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint (welt=world).

There are some things that are much better said in a particular language. Because it’s important for me to express myself in that language, there are situations when I find myself going back and forth between languages.

I am fascinated by how the world can be so different—the political and cultural issue non-existent—when you change languages. For example: am I a black woman or woman who is black? In French it is all in ONE word, noire, so the long debate in the U.S. community seems a moot point.

Then there are the words “hero” and “history” that have “sexist” connotations in English that do not exist in French.

Spanish is a very affectionate, complimenting language. And American English can be exceptionally supportive, encouraging, pushing you forward.

So I like learning and changing languages to get different perspectives.

Kathleen says that the understanding of cross-cultural differences impacts her personal choices on a daily basis. She is ever curious, asking questions all the time. She feels the importance of being in her comfort zone and at the same time challenging herself to go outside that zone. While she is demanding, she is also fair with herself, knowing that there is always more than ONE right way.

*SIY (Search Inside Yourself) Core Program is the 16-hour course that was developed and refined at Google. The program focus is on the five key domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills – with mindfulness practice, science, and leadership applications fully integrated at all levels.

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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

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