by Elaine Meryl Brown

Being one of three co-authors of “The Little Black Book of Success: Laws of Leadership for Black Women” is an example of me taking the lead.  After an invitation to participate in a leadership class while working as a Creative Director at HBO several years ago, I had an ‘Aha” moment – leaders are not only born, they can be made.  While this may not be ground-breaking, earth-shattering news, for me the light bulb went off.  Leadership skills can be taught, and if I can learn how to become a better leader -  me – the girl next door, the average ‘everywoman’ - millions of other women can too.  Leadership is not only for those in the corporate environment, but for those in the public sector, government, healthcare, education fields, grass-roots community organizations, non-profits, companies large and small.  Leadership is required whether your goal is a promotion, to become head of a church committee, do volunteer work at a hospital or obtain a seat at the table in the C-Suite.

Leadership is important now for many reasons.  For one, recent studies indicate  that companies are going to face a massive shortage of employees that will last for decades as large numbers of baby boomers begin to retire and highly educated and successful women “opt out” of high level careers.  In the next decade companies will be more and more desperate to find and keep great employees at all levels.

In addition to work, leadership skills are transferrable to home, and all areas of our lives.  First, we must lead ourselves.  We must lead ourselves if we expect others to follow.  We have to lead our families.  We have to lead our children and teach them to become leaders.  The building blocks of true leadership - self-confidence, effective communication, collaboration and courage are as much life skills as they are qualities of good leaders.

Part of my leadership journey is to share the collective experience of my co-authors, Marsha Haygood and Rhonda Joy McLean, to help you maximize your leadership potential.  In fact, we bring almost 100 years of experience to Black women and we are prepared to up their game and take it to the next level. 

On a radio interview today, our host asked us why we started our book with the chapter titled, “Always Consider Yourself a VIP”?  Well. That’s because everything starts with the core of our being and self-reflection.  How we feel about ourselves will determine our level of success in whatever it is we chose to do.  Being referred to as ‘minority’, seeing negative images of ourselves in the media, misogynistic music videos, hearing racist comments about the President and First Lady, seeing others get promotions instead of us, even training those who on occasion will become our bosses, it’s easy to feel inferior and not consider ourselves to be VIPS.  Yet despite all this negativity, we can’t let the way others feel about us dictate how we feel about ourselves.  We should always consider ourselves to be VIPs and remember to treat ourselves that way.  This is not to say be arrogant or feel better than others, but rather feel good about ourselves at all times and above all, stay positive.

As I move ahead with radio, TV interviews, discussions, panels, events, and book signings, there are always interesting questions that come from the audience.  I’d like to address some of those questions and issues in my Taking the Lead column with hopes that some of this advice will help you along your leadership journey.

www.littleblackbookofsuccess.com

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