Episode 46 : Meet The Speakers - Lisa Anderson

Her Career Ladder

Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Michele Heyward. And per usual, I always bring y'all treats like Michelle. Really? Yes. Really? With me today I have Lisa Anderson. Lisa is an executive. She's also an executive coach, open women in the workplace, show up, show out and really drive their careers in the direction that she, they want to go. And so Lisa is back. I don't know, Lisa, you've done what three summits for me?
Yes. And this three?
If maybe this the third one, I think you've done a webinar or two with me, we've done a podcast episode. If y'all don't know Lisa Anderson, trust me, you are going to love her when I continue to bring people back is for a few reasons. Number one, the positive hire community are enjoying what she says or finding actual things from her. They're working with her to advance their careers. And I like Why y'all know us as engineers, scientists, analytical people. We like we don't like that many people like that. Especially not analytical like us. But I love working with you. Lisa, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me, Michelle and I, I have fun every time every summit, I like to educate, but we also have a good time. And we have some very juicy good discussions as well. Exactly.
Now, this, this year, we're talking about the from the glass ceiling to the glass cliff. But before we get into that, I want you to share with people a bit about yourself your career, and, and then we'll get into what you do in your organization.
Sure. So I am a Chief Human Resource Officer, and I've been in HR for over 25 years. So now I'm starting to date myself a little bit. But I grew my career. in HR, I started my career as a recruiter, and worked my way up the ladder through you know, becoming an HR business partner. They recall HR generalist back in the day. But now the new term is HR business partner, HR manager, director, VP. And now I'm a chief HR officer. And every step that I took on that career ladder, I needed to get some different things in my toolkit. And so I love just love working with women in particular, that are looking to move to their next level, whatever or however that looks, and just making sure that they have what they need in their toolkit in order to be successful as they're climbing. And everybody's not always climbing up. I work with a lot of women that are going lateral, and there are individual contributors, but they're still becoming experts in their field. So that's me, and I am also a leadership coach for women and I love to you know, help women find their voice, especially in male dominated environments, build their leadership, courage, and increase their leadership and executive presence. So that's my passion work. Love it. So
Lisa, business is positively in pursuit. Let's talk about that. That name. Why did you name your company positively in pursuit?
Yes. So that name came to me years ago, you know how you get that download. And it's like, came to me years ago, when I decided that I really wanted to help people. Back then it was really how to get jobs, you know, how to interview how to dress for success, you know, the unwritten rules of the workplace. That's where I initially started my work. And so that name came to me, because in everything that we do, if you have a positive attitude and a positive outlook, that's half the battle. And so that name came because I said, if whatever you're in pursuit of your dreams, your goals, your career, you want to be positively in pursuit of that. So that's where the name came from, and it stuck with me. And then when I started my coaching business, that name just there it is, came two years before. You didn't know why you came to you but all The stars align like, okay, that's the name I'm supposed to use.
I love it. I love it. We do vision start way earlier and calling start way earlier than we realize. And we don't know how much. I think it's like Atlas eventually holds up the world. But for for years Atlas was building the body, he needed to hold up the world. So you're often already doing the work, but you don't know really where it's going and where it's going to continue to go. So I love that. I love that. That story. One of the things that I think really resonates with the way you come into positive hire, because we're positive hires, she's positive, positively in pursuit. Yeah, y'all get that? Right. Because because it was funny what I'm just just beside my brand photographer. Her business, she's been in business 32 years, and her business called positive images. Because everything you would generally see a black people in the news, whether it's in print or on TV or hear on radio was negative. And she's she called her business positive images. When we met, and I'm trying to think of names it didn't even dawn on me when I came on positive height, that she probably like, oh, yeah, positive. Hi. And I'm like, Yeah, positive heart. She's like, Yeah, positive image. I said, Oh, I did. And she said, Yeah, you did. And it sounds good. So I hit No, I'm just saying I was first though I was hurt. So three of us, when we think about women, when we think about black, indigenous and other people of color, putting in that word positive is really important. Because we know the negative connotations, especially in the workplace, that happens to us. And so that's, that's an issue. I told you, I don't get along with like, I like a lot of people think, you know, I'm seeing the positive, the T in things. But the other part of that is you are always providing actionable steps. And that's what we have these conferences for women, we feel high, we feel good. And then you leave like, Okay, what do I do? There's just I was like, Yeah, but faith without works is dead. So what do we do? And so when you are in a Lisa Anderson conversation, when you're in a Lisa Anderson trading webinar, guess what you get? A it's not just for Anderson, it's for action.
So, yes, I love it. So yes, we you gotta take action, you have to have some movement. And sometimes we get overwhelmed, because the movement may be so big. And, you know, I encourage people break, break it down into baby steps. And if you can do a baby step that's movement, at least is one step further than you were, you know, before, but a lot of us get overwhelmed when because we're looking so far down the road, that is like, wow, look at the big giant thing I have to get to. And that whole thing sometimes just overwhelms us shuts us down. And then there's no movement, because we're overwhelmed. So yes, action steps are very important and small steps. They don't have to be conquering the entire thing in one movement. And so I strongly, strongly encourage that you break that thing down, and let's get some baby steps in there. And then celebrate the baby steps. That's the other thing. Sometimes we don't celebrate until we get to the end. Know the journey is all about that celebrate the baby step. That's gonna take you to the next step. I don't want to forget that.
Absolutely.
I am horrible with with cheering on at every step of the way. And being on a call, I was on a call with another business owner. And she was like, Well, I only had three people sign up for this. And then out of the three, only one showed up. She didn't even stay but she bought and I'm trying to figure out that hole up. So I ran out like let's run this back. Let's run this back. You didn't get 30 that you want it. You got three out of three. And when you know once one show and bought that's a win, win. It's a win. It's a win. win is a win. I need you she was like it. So sometimes for us what we're downplaying or not really seeing as an accomplishment. We need to go tell a three year old or five year old like but that's a good job. Mommy did good. It really have some else give perspective on because we're looking for the milestone, and sometimes just making to the grocery store or ordering the groceries. Right? Is the biggest thing for you is finding that time you like Yeah, but who gonna cook like whatever. But the hardest part was finding the time to or and you have to say, You know what, let me just have a glass of wine or something and let me sit down and rest. It really taking those wins. So I love that. I love that. I absolutely agree. Yeah,
I mean, it is it is Avex experienced it personally, you know, I've always been a goal, achiever. And, you know, I forget, I used to be like, forget the baby steps, I can't celebrate until I check the box that it's done. And I had a coach tell me, like, whoa, you know, let's let's back and back up a little bit. Because look at all the things it took for you to even get that baby step. And so let's not discount that. And really gave me a different perspective. Like, wow, you know, how many times have I have done that where my eyes on the prize way up ahead. And all the juicy nuggets, is, you know, is the within the journey within the baby steps and I'm missing all of that looking way down the road. So absolutely.
I love that. Yeah, we're too action oriented, and absolute in, you know, product driven. And sometimes you gotta wait, you're like you got you got unhearable you know, the herring done yet, but you get there. So I want to bring us back to one other thing people may not know about you, which is you're also an author, and you released a book. So I want to talk about a bit about your book, and then we'll get to the glass cliff.
Sure. So my book came out in October of 2020. So during the pandemic, when I had the time, when you know, when the world shut down, and things slowed down, I finally had the time to finish a book that I had started writing like the year before, the name of it is invisible professional to influential leader. And it's a tip book for women leaders. And it was very therapeutic for me to write that book. Because all of the experiences that I had coming up the you know, coming up that corporate ladder, I wish I had a book that could have shared some things with me that I wasn't number one comfortable and talking to anyone inside the organization that I was working in at that time. And so this tip book is really about where at one point in my career, I felt invisible. And for me, in particular, it showed up for me in meetings, where I felt invisible. And a lot of times I was the only woman in the room. And nine times out of 10 I was the only person of color in the room. And I went through this experience in this phase where I was like, wow, you know, I had something to contribute to that conversation. But yet I set kind of silent. And so a lot of the tips in the book. The first about the book is the action book. Michelle, we just finished talking about action. So for each tip, there's an action and a reflection. So there's something for you to do around each tip. And it really is to sort of force you to sort of think about you and your experience and where you are and then to give you some nuggets of okay, let's reflect upon it. But then what's the action? What are you going to do to go forward? So yes, so I'm very proud of finally getting that getting the book finish. And I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from it because of course I share some stories in the book. And I had people call me Did that really happen yesterday it I've taken out names to the you know, as people, but in the world of HR It is never a dull moment.
Now whatsoever So, I want to talk this, this year's theme for the virtual Summit is a little bit different, but it is very, I think, timely. But what we've seen since the murder of George Floyd, with so many women and black women getting jobs at mid management executive level. So this year's theme is talking really about women of color, specifically in STEM, because that's where we focus at positive hire. And Lisa, of course, has a crossover focusing on women leaders. We're talking about from the glass cliff, to the glass ceiling, breaking barriers and achieving leadership goals, and lead. And so when we talk about and think about navigating the glass cliff, Lisa's talk is focused on how to leave on your terms. Can you tell us why you decided to focus on that particular topic? Sure.
That topic stood out for me, because a couple of things. Number one, and Michelle, I'm gonna have to kind of define glass cliff in order to kind of talk through this. But what a glass Cliff situation? Well, let's talk about glass ceiling glass ceiling is when you know, a woman gets to a certain level in her career, and it's hard to break through to get to that next level. For a lot of women of color, sometimes you hear it referred as concrete ceiling, because with a glass ceiling, you can at least look through it, sometimes concrete ceiling, you can't even see on the other side of it. So that's glass ceiling, then you have glass cliff, where you do get the opportunity to move into a higher position. But normally, it's a challenging position with a high risk of failure. And sometimes, as women or women of color, we don't want to let opportunities pass us by because we may not get as many opportunities. So we may take that project or that challenge or that assignment to get that experience. But we're walking into kind of a glass cliff, where there's going to be a lot of challenging challenges there. So the reason why I picked the topic, how to leave you on your own terms, because sometimes we find ourselves in a glass Cliff situation. And sometimes we stay in that situation longer than we probably should, or stay in it. And it becomes detrimental to us personally. And that could be burnout, stress, or mental health. So when Michelle presented the topics, I was like, Oh, my goodness, I would love to do the topic on exit, you know, exiting and leaving on your own terms. But then how do you take that experience, and use it as an opportunity to get your next experience? Because a lot of people, especially women were like, Oh, we weren't successful in that glass cliff, a roll. So now it's going to be hard for me to go and try for the next opportunity. So that is why this is like who I yeah, I love to share some strategies around. Okay, you've had this experience? How do you really store it? You know, we talk about your brand, storytelling? How do you flip this because now you get ready to go interview for the next opportunity. And believe it or not, even though it might not have been fun when you were in it, the glass, roll with all the challenges, you really need to be able to articulate what you got out of that. And it's not always failure. There's a lot of lessons learn that you would take from that experience to your next. And so we're going to talk about that next week on Tuesday.
I love is pm Eastern time. So the glass Cliff can be looked at negatively and it is not necessarily a good thing. But I think it's important as analytical women as women in highly male dominated areas on how to leverage it, how to survive if you fall over, or maybe not. Maybe you gotta hook Good and you climbing your way back up, it is really important that we take different perspectives on how to do this. And I want to give a shout out to my friend Denise, she's like, Michelle, this is what you need to be talking about when it comes to the glass cliff. And like, literally, she jumped on a call for 2030 minutes with me. And I was like, ooh, ooh, I gave her an outline of similar what I shared with you, Lisa, and some in other speakers. And this is where we are like, literally somebody and she's like 25, about 28 years into her career in tech and engineering. And so she's seen a lot as well. So I really, I really think this topic, even if you're not, and you're still an individual contributor, maybe you still want to be a Smee. You know, like managing people and advancing isn't where you want to go. But I think it is still very, is still something that will help you in your career. So I have put into the chat, where you can register for the glass cliff, virtual Summit. It is free if you watch it live, and then you have another 24 hours afterwards to catch us up. And you definitely don't want to miss Lisa's. Because she is about that life. She is going to definitely definitely share with you actionable things that you can do in your career right now. It starts on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. And it's one speaker at night. So you don't have to like I gotta Carver like one hour a night. And you can come join us over for the virtual Summit. We will love to have you join us. And I'm speaking for Lisa. Right. Lisa, anything else you want to say? Because you've done the virtual summit before? You've done some other things with positive hire as well. Anything else you want to add?
No? Well, yes, one thing. So I strongly encourage you what I love about the virtual Summit is that the ladies are all interactive. So you know, we do the presentation, but we also leave enough time. And Michelle and I are famous for going over our time limit. Because we will stay until we get all questions answered. So I Yeah, so I love that's what I love about the positive hire summits because it really is about you coming and being able to interact, give us feedback, you know, from the content that we're presenting, and really just being able to answer any questions or even help or elaborate. So I love that about the women of color and STEM Summit. So yes, hopefully we will see a lot of folks and that will participate. Absolutely.
And if you need a shorter link, you can go to bit dot L y forward slash glass Cliff Summit. Yes, glass Cliff Summit. So yes, we stay on most of our speakers stay on and we try to answer most of the questions. Some of you will navigate it. I generally don't say your names during the recording to have privacy. And so we will work through that if you want to join and have questions if you want to join earlier, if you want to join that earlier. But if you want to come every night or if you're like Hey, I can't remember you have about 24 hours little bit more than 24 but at least 24 hours to catch the replay. So everybody, you got the links, you know where to go, you know where to show up. We are excited to have you and we will see you on Sunday 7pm. Eastern Time, up until Friday. So, so many y'all want to know, do y'all really want to know what the other topics are? Okay, now, what I know I forgot, I guess that's a good thing to share. Okay, so how to choose the right manager for you. Oftentimes, when we're interviewing for jobs into a new organization, we aren't asking the right questions like will who I got a new opportunity, I need to show up shiny, brilliant, and absolutely the best No, guess what they need to show up, shiny, bright, and absolutely the best to get you. You are the prize. So it's really important to go in and understand the questions to be asking, and how to assess an organization, because it may be a great opportunity. But now you have a manager that is setting you up to fail. And so what are the things you need to be asking for and how do you pre plan going into an organization pretty much known as the glass cliff and is not maybe the manager that is hiring you that you'll be reporting to has a different style.
And so we have Giselle Ben Azula, who is who is a software engineering manager at mail Jim, she's been in tech 25 years is going to be talking about this on Sunday. Then on Monday, we have creating your strategy to navigate the glass cliff, you're broke through the ceiling. Now you're walking on the glass ceiling and it ain't going too well. So how best can you navigate it? We have Evany Travis. She is an HR F. Austin scientific. She's the director of Global wellbeing and HR employee policies. She's done many roles at at Boston Scientific. She's been there over 20 years. So you definitely, definitely want to check us out. Y'all know who we got on Tuesday, y'all don't know. We have Mrs. Lisa Anderson, HR executive executive coach, she's going to be taught by NASA navigating the glass cliff to leave on your terms. Then we have my girl y'all like hold up? In my head. She is she's Afro Latina, Dominican, born and raised. She's a civil engineer.
She is a licensed professional engineer. Her name was Gladys Felix, she's gonna be talking about a little bit different. What happens when you can't get that job? Right. And you like what? Yeah, and so she is going to be talking about breaking barriers, Afro Hispanic Woman's Journey to the top. And it's a different viewpoint. And oftentimes during recessions and layoffs, it can be it takes a black women especially longer to get jobs. So what do you do in between, in between that time? And so she'll be talking about that. I'll be coming in on Thursday, February 23. How about embracing the glass Cliff turning a challenge into an opportunity? You know, they trying to set you up? You know what it is? But how do you set take the opportunity, that that negative and make it a positive? So I'll be talking about that. And then on Friday, I get asked these questions. So I do I know Lisa, United career coach, I do some business coaching, too. But I do it in a very niche specific way. And so somebody that literally DM me while I was planning out the virtual Summit, and it's like, how do I escape the corporate jungle to start my own business? I know. So I added this on the back end, on a Friday session is real chill, y'all come hang out. I know I have it on Zoom webinar, I may switch it to meetings. So you can ask more questions. But it's called the corporate jungle escape plan. You get out and how I found success as a woman of color business owner. And so really talking about what are some struggles? What are some things I would have done differently? Because I definitely would have done some things differently.
And what do I advise other women? And so we'll go through some five things that I have, you probably want to do before you get started. And you jumped ship, or if you've already jumped ship and you're trying to wade your way through the waters. Let's talk about or the jungle and see what that's about. And so we'll have that conversation on Friday. I added as a Friday session because I knew it wasn't gonna be a lot of women, but it's an opportunity for you to still ask your questions, and we can talk about it. So love it, and I'm really excited to have your joy. All right, Lisa, we ready? We're ready. All right. We will see you on Sunday. February 19 at 7pm. Everybody have a great week and we'll see you soon.