S4 E52 | Moments That Matter with Tara Amaral

In this episode, Tara shares with Melissa a few pivotal moments she had growing up in a multicultural neighborhood and the importance of understanding the community you are in.

Announcer 0:04You're listening to Moments That Matter, a special CXR podcast series, where leaders and telling professionals share their own experiences with varying aspects of discrimination and inequality. Hear on Moments That Matter, we are dedicated to creating connected conversations around specific moments. These are moments that matter.

Melissa Thompson, Nielsen 0:26Hello, everyone. I'm Melissa Thompson, and I'm the SVP of talent acquisition at Nielsen. I'm delighted to have this quick chat with Tara Amaral, who's the Global Head of talent at MMC. Tara and I are taking part in quick conversations for this CSR sponsored series called moments that matter where leaders connect to share an instance in their lives where they have experienced or witnessed discrimination or inequality, and have the realization that something in their lives or work environments needed to change, basically, a pivotal moment that matters to them. So Tara, can you share a little bit about yourself, and then tell us about a moment that you've decided mattered to you?

Tara Amaral, Marshall McLennan 1:12Thanks, Listen, it's a pleasure to chat with you today. And all the other CXR members. So I just back up a little bit, because I think I was very naive when I entered the workforce. I am one of three children. And if you believe in birth order theory, I'm in the middle surrounded by two brothers. And we're very close in age, there's three years between the three of us. My mother who did not work, but manage the household incredibly well. She never raised us with gender differences of I'm happy to say that I was fired from doing the laundry because I didn't do it well enough and it was passed on to one of my brothers who's much more meticulous than I am. And so you know, growing up, we all learn to do the same things. We learned how to plaster we learned how to cook, we learn how to do the laundry, you know, we had equal shared responsibility. And so when I went to college, and in high school in college, I never really thought about it because it wasn't part of how I grew up. But you know, earlier in life, it did come to light. The other thing I would say is I grew up originally in Queens in a very multicultural neighborhood. And so I also didn't think much about having people with different backgrounds as part of my life. We lived on a street in Queens that was integrated. We didn't even use the word integrated because it was just life. And then at some point, we moved from the Queens to the east end of Long Island, which was not integrated back in the 70s. And I had some pretty crazy realizations that I clearly had different thoughts and other people, some of which stick with me today. And and my friends remember a some some of you on the call. No, I mean, once I was beaten up because I defended somebody who was black. And I was like 12, and my mother stormed into the school because I was the one being expelled. And my mother was adamant how, why is she being expelled, she's, you know, sticking up for somebody who was being undermined. And that sticks with me in a lot of things. Because I heard something, I did something. I was not in good shape after this, I got my I guess, punch very much. But you know, it was one of those experiences that I remember coming home and I said, I don't get it. Like Why didn't anybody else stand up. But it wasn't a very integrated community at the time. And when I talked about it with my parents, it was one of those things where like, I don't get it. And I think that, that and some other things that my parents did, when we were much younger, that were just part of our life. It is really how I approached living and life. And you know, I think it's knowingly impacted why when somebody says you can't do something, I'm like,