The greatest opportunity one can receive is being given the honor of service to your community. I am proud to be in the role of Chief Executive Officer of the National Women’s Council (NWC), a non-profit organization, dedicated to developing and empowering women of all backgrounds, classes, and ages. The NWC was founded with a vision to be the premier organization for women’s equality. It is my goal to promote economic, political, and workplace equality. The NWC serves to advocate, empower and educate with an eye towards future viability. The workplace environment today is constantly changing.
You graduate from high school, go to college, graduate from college and start your job search, in search of money because, well, that’s what you need to maintain a certain lifestyle — the fine car you drive, the nice place you want to live and the stylish clothes you wear. So you look for the job that pays well, not thinking about starting a career. After sending out hundreds of resumes, staying up all night drafting cover letters and making phone calls to Fortune 500 companies who have no idea who you are, you wait in anticipation of someone returning your call to schedule an interview, so you can tell someone who you are. Somewhere along the way you discover you are not what you thought you were because you lack the skill sets needed for the job or the experience required for the work you are hoping to do.
In the modern era, employee recruitment and retention is a major concern for organizations. The most valuable resource of any businesses is its people; employee pride is a critical factor in the success of any organization. Pride is a psychological construct, intangible in nature. Pride is not a new concept. In general terms it is a positive emotion that accompanies personal or professional experiences and has the capability to impact motivation both positively and negatively. .Richard Lazarus in his book Emotion and Adaptation (Oxford University Press, 1991) suggested that pride entails the enhancement of an individual’s ego-identity by taking credit for a valued object or achievement, either our own or that of someone or a group with whom we identify such as a compatriot, a member of the family or a group (p. 271).
There is no doubt about it; unconscious bias is a huge problem in the workplace. It is the invisible sand in the gears of nearly every corporation that I have consulted with over the last 35 years. In fact, most of my work coaching women to successfully lead at the highest levels directly deals with the invisible forces that marginalize women’s strengths in hierarchical organizations. After all, most large organizations are led by white heterosexual men, and leaders that do not act a lot like white heterosexual men are not usually considered executive material. Most often this is not intentional. It is the result of how our brains work.
September 22, 2015 Maryland Women in Leadership Symposium
September 24, 2015 Washington D.C. Women in Leadership Symposium
September 30, 2015 Minnesota Women in Leadership Symposium
October 7, 2015 Southern California Most Powerful and Influential Women in Technology Dinner
October 9, 2015 Florida Women's Conference
October 13, 2015 Houston Women's Conference
October 21, 2015 Wisconsin Women in Leadership Symposium
October 22, 2015 Nebraska Women in Leadership Symposium
October 22, 2015 Colorado Women in Leadership Symposium
November 3, 2015 Tulsa, OK Women in Leadership Symposium
November 4, 2015 Oklahoma City Women in Leadership Symposium
November 10, 2015 Dallas Women's Conference
November 10, 2015 Bentonville, AR Women in Leadership Symposium
November 11, 2015 Little Rock, AR Women in Leadership Symposium
November 17, 2015 Washington Women's Conference
November 18, 2015 Alabama Women's Conference
December 4, 2015 London Women in Leadership Symposium
Over the last twelve months, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the world’s greatest technologists. These amazingly talented individuals are not only industry leaders in their respective professions, but they are world class leaders. Every day I’m amazed by how well their teams work together to solve some of the world’s most complex problems. As a new leader in my organization, I’m very mindful of creating an inclusive and innovative environment. Since I’m the youngest and the least experienced leader in my area, I devote a lot of time and attention on developing my leadership style. As I think back to some of my previous leaders and look across my current leadership team, I notice that the good ones left lasting memories. They actually left a legacy. Even though I may not report to them anymore, I often find myself remembering and teaching the principles they taught me.
Here I sit — at the top of my game. Corner office in a mostly white, male-dominated industry. Consulting to companies whose brands are well known throughout the country. Yet I’m not out — on a global basis at least. For, you see, while I am lucky enough to live and work in a state with protections for workers against sexual orientation bias, many of my clients aren’t even aware that such protections are even an issue are even necessary. To be sure, there has been a sea-change in attitudes toward the LGBT community in my lifetime. For goodness sake, we just celebrated the Supreme Court decision to make same-sex marriage a right in EVERY state. But marriage is not synonymous with acceptance. I can’t tell you how many clients of mine fought tooth and nail to keep benefits from same-sex workers, and only now, begrudgingly, are they forced to treat all spouses like any other spouse. But in the workplace, it is still a mixed bag. Most states do not have specific protections for LGBT individuals (HRC: http://www.hrc.org//resources/entry/why-the-equality-act). And even when there are protections, at-will employer laws can perpetuate under-the-radar discrimination. Showing your Pride at work can still be a tenuous proposition.
Several years ago, I was at my first national diversity conference, when I heard a Chief Diversity Officer talk about the company’s progress vis-a-vis gender diversity. He said the company was on a diversity “journey” and that ten years after setting forth a strategy, they were now beginning to see progress when it came to advancing and retaining women. He reported that the percentage of women in their firm had grown by almost 40 percent and women represented almost 18 percent of their C-Suite. At first, I was encouraged. It was good to know that companies were making progress, setting strategies, and measuring success. Yet, as I listened, I became more and more disheartened. It had taken that company A DECADE to drive a 40 percent increase, yet women were still less than 25 percent of the leadership. Something else dawned on me that day; it was that diversity officer’s use of the word “journey.” That word was echoed by many of the people in attendance that day—brilliant, hard-working diversity practitioners defining their effort in advancing more women and minorities as a “journey.” I still hear that word used today to describe how companies are undertaking their gender diversity initiatives.
