essence 10 principles of power (oct. 2011)

8/3/2019 Essence 10 Principles of Power (Oct. 2011)

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1 36 E S S E N C E | OCTOBER 2011

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A TRUE LEADER? TO START,YOU MUST BE WILLING TO EMBRACE YOUR STRENGTHS.

APPLY THESE TEN ESSENTIAL TRAITS OF POWER PLAYERS,FOR A SWIFT CLIMB UP THE LADDER OF SUCCESS

BY LONNAE ONEAL PARKER

MICHELEBOOTH COLEEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,SAFE SHORESPower is aboutsharing leadership andcultivating others to getthings done with a realsense of excellence.


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OCTOBER 2011 | E S S E N C E 1 37

THEY KEEP THE END IN SIGHT Six months into her job as executive director o Sa e ShoresThe DC Childrens Advocacy Center, a nonproft that works withabused children, Michele Booth Cole was tasked with negotiat-

ing with the city to acquire a new building. We wanted a spacethat would serve more amilies and be more child- riendly, saysthe 46-year-old. The idea was always to own the building. Butwhen city o cials told her that owning was out o the question,Cole had to reassess. As she weighed her options, she realized thatthe overarching goal was securing a larger space. So Cole made acountero er. Her organization would lease the new space romthe city, but Sa e Shores had to have a central role in its designand layout. The proposal was a turning point in the negotiations.Taking a exible approach allowed the project to move orwardand demonstrated sel essness on our part , she says. We had oureyes on a higher goal o being able to serve children in a acility thatwas worthy o them. Last year Sa e Shores moved to a newly reno-

vated 37,000-square- oot building with separate waiting roomsor clients, o ces or medical and legal personnel, and a mentalhealth suite. According to Katherine Tyler Scott, a managing prin-cipal o the Indianapolis-based company Ki ThoughtBridge, whichspecializes in leadership development, Coles ability to ocus onthe nonprofts mission was a key actor in using her power: A leader whos sel -aware and knowledgeable about a companys core values can guide critical decisions and enable the organization tobe prudent under pressure.

THEY COLLABORATE In 2010 Danielle Torain was working ull-time while

attending law school. One week be ore exams, she was asked tocoordinate Baltimores citywide response to a national grant com-petition designed to provide educational services to low-incomecommunities. Torain, 27, contacted a large number o individualsand organizationsprivate, nonproft, government and philan-thropic. The goal was to get stakeholders who dont normallyinteract to come to the table and share resources, says Torain,who now works as a senior director o Strategy & Developmentat the Center or Urban Families in Baltimore. As a result o Torains e orts, the 340-page document was submitted with 49public and private partners and 58 letters o support rom o cials.Torains accomplishment exemplifes what Ginny Clarke, presi-dent and CEO o Talent Optimization Partners, describes as theability to empower others, get the best out o them and give themwhat they need to be success ul.

THEY ARE SERVANT LEADERS Whether it comes rom spirituality or a belie in the

social good, there is power in recognizing a purpose greater thanyoursel . As a practicing social worker at a childrens hospital inPhiladelphia, Liz Horsey, 53, says shes had to rely on her aith tocarry her through tough situations. In the ER, she saw exampleso children who had been mistreated and o ten had to com ortparents as they came to terms with the knowledge that the abusersmight have been amily or riends. I had to think o words o

encouragement to ease their pain, Horsey says. Being a socialworker in a medical set ting requires both resilience and authority,which Horsey says God has given her. I am able to advocate in themidst o those who disagree, she says. I can point out peoples

strength when others see weakness. I understand all too well whenpeople see aws and write you o as useless. That is why I have somuch compassion. Leadership development expert Scott notesthat while technical skills may keep the trains running, its not theultimate characteristic o a good leader. It takes personal securityto be able to stand in that place o con ict, where people di er,and still be able to listen respect ully, question yoursel and stillcome out whole, she says. Such leaders have done enough innerwork to make their outer work e ective.

THEY CHART THEIR OWN COURSE Angela Petitt has always loved the ollowing quote by

author Jim Rohn: Time is more valuable than money. You canget more money, but you cannot get more time. A veteran o thein ormation technology industry, Petitt, 43, was working on aproject in 2009 when she had her aha moment. The avid trav-eler was daydreaming about touring Greece when an idea cameto her: I realized that I would rather take a chance on mysel tosee the world than continue on the daily grind. Despite the reces-sion, this single woman, then 41, took a leap o aith. She startedmassively saving and paying o bills. A ter our months she quither job. I really had no clue what was next, she recalls. But a

ew days a ter my last day at work, I was on a plane to Italy! Ithas now been two years. While on her sel -assigned sabbatical,Petitt has learned to play gol ; ride a horse; y a small airplane;climb the Great Wall in China; dive in caves in the DominicanRepublic; and experience reezing cold temps in Siberia. To makeit work, she says, she had to come up with ways to travel in luxurywithout breaking the bank. Her mantra: Set a $1,000 budget orany trip, no matter where she was going or how long the stay. Youhave to be diligent, says Petitt. Search or cruises on sale, airlinetickets on special, hotel discountsanything thats going to giveyou an experience at a great value and cost. She also blogs abouther travels at sabbaticalscapes.com to motivate others to createthe lives they want to lead. Dont be a ra id o the space betweenyour dreams and reality, she says, quoting another mantra. I you can dream it, you can live it.

THEY REINVENT THEMSELVES Growing up poor in Kansas City, Missouri, Sheila Brooks,

55, watched her mother work two jobs while instilling in her twodaughters the value o education. Inspired by her mothers example,Brooks made it her goal to mentor young people, create jobs orpeople o color and leave an entrepreneurial legacy. Im verydemanding o mysel because I set a high standard o excellenceand quality, says Brooks, an Emmy Awardwinning news pro-ducer and ounder, president and CEO o the media company SRBCommunications. A ter starting out as a news reporter in the lateseventies, she opened a home-based video surveillance business inPrince Georges County, Maryland. Ten years later the business .

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C O L E :

P H O T O

, H O S E A J O H N S O N

. H A I R

, A D E L I N E C H A R L E S F O R N O L N E W

Y O R K

. M A K E U P , J A I W I L L I A M S / B A R B O Z A

A G E N C Y

. G I L B E R T : P H O T O

, C F R E E D O M P H O T O G R A P H Y

. M A K E U P

, E L I S E T D A V I S

. B R O O K S

, G A R T H A I K E N S

.


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1 3 8 E S S E N C E | OCTOBER 2011

SHEILABROOKS

PRESIDENT ANDCEO, SRB

COMMUNICATIONSAs you strive

for excellence, youhave to stop to

conquer andyield to win.

had grown to 73 employees, and annual revenues in excess o amillion dollars. Then 9/11 happened. Overnight, Brooks lost 60percent o her business, as contracts with police departmentsand high-level security agencies dried up. It was time to diversi y.Strategically fguring out where we needed to go took courageand determination, she recalls. You have to be a risk taker. Shecreated a board o advisers and went a ter longer-term contracts,branching out into webcasting, advertising services and mediaplacement. As the company grew, Brooks remained true to hermission o empowerment. That laser ocus put her on billboardsin the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area earlier this year, aspart o Jones New Yorks Empowering Your Confdence campaign.The clothing campaign showcased real people who wielded power,including heavy hitters such as ormer President Bill Clintonspress secretary, Dee Dee Myers. Today Brooks is once againevaluating her next move. She aims to continue to provide qualityservices while creating media plat orms or people o color. Andshe intends to take some time to enjoy her e orts. My goal is tosell the business in the next seven years, she confdes. As Blackwomen we must always know when to reinvent ourselves. We haveto be wil ling to reengineer.

THEY HELP OTHERS ACHIEVE Kimberley Greenfeld Al onso, 53, had always been good

at connecting the dots between her grand ideas and the peoplethey would serve. When she le t her position as senior regionaldirector at Merck & Co. nine years ago to care or her visuallyimpaired 3-year-old daughter, she ound hersel thinking, Nowwhat am I going to do? I was so connected to being a corporate

woman, she explains. I had gotten to where I wanted to be. Ihad arrived. At the same time Al onso, then 45, realized thatshe had met a lot o pro essional women in their orties who wereat pivotal points in their lives. Some were married, pregnant ordivorced or the frst time. Others were trying to make decisions

around starting businesses or becoming stay-at-home moms.These women needed help laying a oundation or their secondacts, and Al onso decided to lead the way. A master networker,she invited 65 o the most accomplished women she knew to gettogether. I wanted them to come into the warmth o my homeand eel ree to share, she says. As an icebreaker, she gave eachwoman a plastic butter y and challenged them to fnd the otherthree women who shared the same butter y. Her goal was to helpthe women realize the resources they could o er one another.Now, nine years later, the group is known as the Butter y Cluband hosts quarterly meetings where Washington, D.C.areawomen discuss their latest business or philanthropic ventures. Al onso, whos now the chie operating o cer o the Columbia

Lighthouse or the Blind, says the power o the group comes romthe women asking or supportand receiving it.

THEY TAKE THE INITIATIVE A year ago, real estate broker Sharon McLennon, 50, was

an incoming board member or a real estate trade organization. At her frst meeting, the 12-member group discussed the need ora Web site and reached what appeared to McLennon to have beena consensus. But a ter two more months o meetings, no work hadbegun on the Web site. I got so rustrated by the act that nothinghad been done on a relatively simple project, she recalls. ButMcLennon re used to play the blame game; instead she decidedto take matters into her own hands. When the agenda item cameup in the next meeting, she says, I said, Weve got a Web site, thecontent is written, weve got a designerI just need the board toapprove this and we can get this up and running today. The groupwas shocked. All things being equal, the best o the best will haveemotional intelligence, sel -awareness, sel -management, socialskills and motivation, notes leadership expert Scott. Recognizingthe sel -starter in their midst, the board voted McLennon to anexecutive leadership position earlier this year.

THEY LOVE TO LEARN While interv iewing hundreds o people on the subject o

love as part o her work as a writer and editor, Charreah Jackson,26, recognized the need or more education and resources or Blackwomen. She went back to school to become a certifed amily li eeducator, trained with top relationship experts, and establishedthe consulting agency Studio Social in Harlem. Jackson now travelsthe country speaking about relationships and womens issues atsuch venues as the 2009 Women & Power Con erence, headlinedby Gloria Steinem. Good leaders read everything, network withpeople at the level to which they aspire, and go back to school oradditional training, says Washington, D.C.based career coachJackie Jones. Jackson care ully mapped out her strategy. As parto her planning process, she sought out resources and signed up orno less than 15 relationship and entrepreneur- ocused newsletters.

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As Black women, we dont ask our lawyer riend or legal advice;we dont ask our media riend or PR help, she observes. Wehave to surround ourselves with that power ul energy so we cannetwork and build together.

THEY FIGHT FOR A GOOD CAUSE Raised in a small town in Alabama, attorney Francesca

Danielle Allison, 30, learned the importance o giving serviceby watching her minister ather and her mother, who oundedan arts and cultural enrichment nonproft. Serving has been apart o my abric, explains Allison, who says she attended lawschool to change the world. Even though I work in a corporateenvironment now, I want to fnd ways to use the resources andskills Ive acquired to give back. She o ten looks or chances to dopro bono work. All ison handled two appeal cases based on a provi-sion that allowed Georgia children to receive Medicaid beneftsregardless o parents income. She represented two kids who were

being blocked rom the benefta 12-year-old with a debilitatingbone disease and 10-year-old whod been born with no eyes andextreme hearing loss. The work was painstaking: Allison spentnearly 200 hours securing a davits rom teachers, physiciansand therapists, and driving long distances to v isit with one o thekids. She ultimately prevailed. In both cases, the previous deci-sions to deny them benefts were reversed. This case required aperson who was not just doing what was necessary, she says. Itrequired a person who was wil ling to sacrifce.

THEY ARE CHANGE AGENTS Linetta J. Gilberts name isnt as recognizable as

her impact. As senior program o cer at the Ford Foundation ornine years, Gilbert doled out millions to worthy causes world-wide. Primarily responsible or grantmaking in the Gul Coast, the

62-year-old New Orleans resident helped und reconstruction e ortsa ter Hurricane Katrina, spending a great deal o time listening towhat grantees thought about change and provoking them at times tohigher ideals. Sometimes people are in positions because they hadthe right credentials or knew the right person, but they are not neces-sarily committed to the mission, she says. I try to get inside theirheads about their own leadership. I expose them to opportunities torefne their skills, recommending books, meetings and training ses-sions. I urge them to think about who they are, whats next and whothey are developing to keep their agenda going. As a grantmaker,Gilbert understands that judgment is a quality o leadership thathas to be honed. You have to learn how to read reality truth ully,she says. It is not something people are born with. You have to have

opportunities to develop and ask yoursel , Is this real? Or is it only real from my point of view? Last year Gilbert was hired to help lead thenewly ormed Declaration Initiative, which aims to end deep povertyin the U.S. within the next 15 years. Everybody has an ability to dosomething wonder ul, she says. I believe that leaders have to havea higher power to call upon, some larger connection outside o work.That source, Gilbert says, is her power. [

Lonnae ONeal Parker writes for The Washington Post .

LINETTA J. GILBERTCOLEADER,

THE DECLARATION INITIATIVEIm always looking for new ideas

and to see who I can bring alongwith me, to help them understand

the urgency of the work and therole they can play.

The 10 Principles of POWER

essence 10 principles of power (oct. 2011)

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