From Survive to Thrive: Women of Color in Corporate Leadership | DeRetta Cole Rhodes | TEDxUGA

[Music] why do I feel diminished with no voice is it often time it's because I'm the only female in the room or is it because I'm typically only the black female in the room there are times that I look and say can you hear me I matter when I think about my journey it's been a very bittersweet road that I think about all the things I've experienced in both my personal and academic career it's interesting and lean in Sheol Sandberg said that twenty-one women are CEOs of corporate organizations and that number is only 4% of women of color who hold top corporate jobs I am one of those statistics women in leadership are vital for both our organizations and our communities but if we don't have that voice we've lost half the world dualism is shifting is when women of color have to look at being in two cultures and have to shift between the two to make others feel comfortable and what happens in that particular environment is that you either feel isolated or diminished so in my experience I decided to go back and get my doctorate and I did that it's interesting those that I thought that would support me and help me in that journey told me that I either wouldn't graduate or that I wasn't committed to the program at the time I was a single black mother with two sons so guess what I didn't have to try I didn't have a choice I had to persevere I had to show up every single day and show that yes this matters in lean in again is stated between 1978 and 2006 households will be led by women and the proportionate number will be much higher from 1 to 10 to 1 to 5 and the proportionate number would be much higher in black families and Hispanic families and again I had to make a choice I had to make sure that I persevered and it was so important for me to thrive in that experience although there were situations where I didn't feel supported but I had one professor who told me you have a voice you can write you've got to stay with it and I did graduate with my doctorate and in my doctorate studies my actual dissertation is courage purging fire women black women who survived corporate America and the funny story around that is that they went back and forth and said oh we need to talk about success but it wasn't about success it was actually about survival in my study the research also stated that between 1992 and 2012 the workforce of black women would raise by 46% and that is a number way too large for us to ignore and for two only before percent that is actually being represented so when I finished with my undergraduate I went to work for a corporate organization I'm so excited the same experience that I have had throughout my journey I had a leader who told me that I would never have a leadership role and that I had I didn't have the capability of being a leader so what I do I go back to school because for me it's always been around the importance of not an only education but trying to persevere and that's the legacy that my parents taught me so I go back to school I get my MBA I come out and I have opportunity to work for another organization and I had a leader that poured into me and he told me you have a voice and you're not invisible and I need for you to be bold the other thing that I didn't mention is that in that doctoral program again I had others that did porn to me through that timeframe but again I went to another role I ended up having an individual who was my peer that I worked for and she said to me you really aren't capable of being a leader I remember that conversation and I remember another individual coming to me who was an amazing mentor and she said to me you can't worry about what people say about yours none of your business what you actually need to do is use your voice you have a choice you need to you need to use your voice and at that moment what I decided is that I didn't want to just survive I wanted to thrive so the irony of this is that I have a career in human resources and human resources to support we're supposed to ideally be the conscious of organizations we're supposed to help support individuals leaders organizations teams to be better and have an opportunity to make sure and every individual has a voice they're not invisible in that they're seeing so the reality is that I actually live my mantle every day so the research that was so important to me the things that I do it was just so clear that that's where I need it to be having food that I also get the same thing all the time I've missed opportunities I've been laid off I've missed promotions I've had to fight for equity in my salary as most women and others have to do but it's never deterred me to continue on and to thrive as I mentioned before I always tell the story so you know the thing is the mantle of of what I do my research my education has been so important to me so it's funny I have people that always want to say so okay how did you get here what did you do so I always talk about the story about going back and getting my MBA and I'm so proud of that because I went back to historically black college and university and they'll say oh so what what college was it and I said Clark Atlanta University and they'll say to me so where is that which what that means is that I'm constantly having to come back and say what is the reality of the fact that I have to tell my story and help others statistics say that Asian black and Hispanic women host 17% of corporate jobs in corporate organizations however fewer than 4% of those women of color are executives are in leadership roles the number is still only 4% so the interesting thing to all of this is that the gender race voice phenomena is not a women's issue it's everyone's issue go back to what I said about the fact that if we have that voice that's not there we've lost half the world I have had amazing opportunities to lead and be with teams and the picture that you're seeing there is the team that I had the opportunity to lead and what was so important to me for everyone on that team was that they had an opportunity to have a voice but they didn't feel diminished and that they weren't invisible and it was an amazing diverse team and to a person they have moved on to better and amazing opportunities and they too are providing a voice to those that also need it so I say to you you think about the barriers and they're there but what's the answer so I've told you I've given you examples of mentors that poured into me and made a big difference and it's not about the fact that women need women Mentors I have had all sorts of mentors that have poured into me and have told me the importance of my voice and what I can do and I have fought against every one of those statistics that have come up and yet I'm still one of those at four percent so it's funny in my role today I still deal with individuals trying to diminish me in some sort of way doesn't matter that I'm a HR executive they really don't care about that and I just was recently in a meeting with two men and we were talking and they said well who's the decision maker I said well it's me they said Oh we'd love for you to bring in your peer who's a male to have a conversation him and can you schedule that meeting how to choose to make at that point I could have said it's me or nothing so although I've gone through my career and I think about the advantages that I've had and those people that have poured to me I also remember the fact that all of us each one of us are responsible for ensuring that we're moving things along to better than four percent I have been so blessed in things that have happened to me in my career from a standpoint that although I've had people tell me I wouldn't graduate with my doctorate I wouldn't be a leader I wouldn't be able to actually lead teens but I'm here so the important thing about that is that I am that 4% but I asked you all to work with me to fight for it to become 46% you

Channel: TEDx Talks

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Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Business, Feminism, Race, Women in business

Id: TPzhQP1u8gI

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 10 2018