Women of Color in Leadership
On May 15th I had the opportunity to attend the Women of Color in Leadership panel at NYU. This panel, made up of four women at various levels of success in the media industry, touched on adequate representation in media and how to best navigate your career. As someone who is constantly thinking about her career, I thought it’d be interesting to attend and hear what they had to say. I hoped, at the very least, I could impart some of their wisdom to those in my life who come to me with questions.
The room was filled from wall to wall, with a great deal of people who had come out to hear the knowledge and insights these women had to share. At one point, they brought out additional chairs, but even after having done so there still remained a group of about 30 attendees standing at the back of the room.
The women on the panel all came from various backgrounds but noted the importance of being your most authentic self, even when it doesn’t seem easy or like the best choice. Zenitra Barret, the director of POS Strategy and Education at HBO, noted that “having an advocate and a support system is very important. An advocate will be that person who speaks up for you when you’re not in the room.” Having people who will advocate for you, she said, can help open those doors that you would not necessarily have had access to. Many times we act the way we think we’re expected to in our careers, not realizing it may actually be doing us more harm than good; by being authentic and being ourselves, we come off as credible to those around us, thus opening up doors on our own. This is something that I’ve struggled with in the past, and hearing these successful women speak about how it helped them further themselves made me feel better about the decisions I’ve made. When it comes down to it, people will value someone being true to themselves much more.
Josephine Pamphile, the President and CEO at T. Howard
Foundation, said it best: “Whatever you’re going to do, do it well.” This
resonated with me because I’ve always been a believer that if you’re going to
put something out there, it might as well be something well thought out and useful
because if not, then what was the point? In anything we do in life, whether it
is academic, career related, etc. we should always strive to put our best work
out there. This, I’ve learned, serves as a reflection of ourselves and can help
distinguish ourselves in our careers. In relation to being your most authentic
self, this will allow us the ability to make business decisions about our
careers in the same way that businesses do to us. Mrs. Barret also touched upon
this, noting that if a company no longer needs you they have no problem making
the decision to get rid of you. We need to learn to be in control of our
careers and be able to make these decisions for ourselves and for what will get
us where we want to be in life.
Overall, the women on the panel had great stories and advice
to share from their combined years of experience. Being able to hear them speak
opened my eyes to certain things that I had not realized, and moving forward I
plan to take their words with me as I advance in my career.
