So how do you live comfortably with diversity in the corporate boardroom, in the university, in the local sales office, in the nonprofit organization, or in the government today? The first step is a basic one: Put yourself in the other person's place.

Other people are living, breathing human beings just like you are. They have pressures at home. They want to succeed. They want to be treated with the same dignity, respect, and understanding that you do.

What's important, says Thomas A. Doherty, the chairman of Fleet Bank, "is the way in which people are treated on a daily basis. People want to be treated and recognized as individuals. That was true when I first came into banking thirty years ago, and I think one hundred years from now it's still going to be true," And Doherty is clear about the reason: ''Because we're all human beings.''

Most successful people have learned over the years that making others feel important is seldom accomplished by a single or even a few grand gestures. It's a process made up of many little touches.


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