Want to Move Up in Management? Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
By Jennifer Millman
March 26, 2008
Tired of waiting for review time for a shot at that coveted promotion? How do you step out and brand yourself as a leader? In a Q&A with DiversityInc, Elizabeth Cline, founder and president of leadership-development program iMPACT, talks about the skills you need to take your career to the next level.
Click the audio icon to listen to Cline briefly talk about her personal experience and get vital career-advancement advice. Or read the full transcript of the DiversityInc interview below.
For more great advice, check out the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of DiversityInc magazine, featuring a Q&A with Ronald Williams, chairman and CEO of Aetna (one of DiversityInc's 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2007), one of three Black Fortune 500 CEOs.
DIVERSITYINC: Tell us a little bit about your career and your organization--its mission, goals and what inspired you to found it.
ELIZABETH CLINE: I started iMPACT for Professional Development about six years ago. I got tired of hearing the phrases like "We can't find them, or "You're not quite ready" in referring to why we still do not have more women and minorities in top level positions. Prior to that, I was the community-relations director of a local NBC and ABC television affiliate. That position gave me such an in-depth eye-opener in terms of what it is we need in terms of diversity in the community and at the corporate level. My mission is to teach and inspire; the whole idea of transformation in terms of corporations is to help transform corporate culture through those people-centered strategies.
I was born in Trinidad but grew up in England. When I moved to America 28 years ago, the first thing that struck me was the whole idea of being a minority. I didn't come from a culture where I was referred to as a "minority," and even though I know that minority supposedly means numbers, I came to understand that somehow it meant "less than." There was an inference that there was something missing. That impression stayed with me all through. Coming from the Caribbean and speaking with the accent I had, I did notice sometimes the subtle difference. People will say "you're not really Black" because of my accent; you begin to understand the subtleties of race that are not subtle sometimes that play out in corporate America. The sad thing is you get it from both sides. You get it from the white side; you get it from the Black side.
DIVERSITYINC: Your organization first focuses on "self." How and why? Why is it so important to combine personal with professional development?
CLINE: If we're talking about changing organizations, that requires personal transformation or basic shifts in how we think and how we interact with each other. We could choose to stay in "victim mode" where we keep pointing the finger out there and say, "It's the system; they don't understand." We could continue pointing the finger outside all the time.
I'm not here to say we don't have racism or sexism or any other "ism" out there, but I believe we must come to terms with our own prejudices, our own nooks and crannies, our own fears and doubts, our own strengths and weaknesses, and be willing to look in the mirror.
DIVERSITYINC: What are some of the key skills necessary for advancement, and how do participants in your program develop them?
CLINE: Strategic thinking and conceptual thinking, quality decision making, presentation skills. Presentation skills aren't about just preaching a PowerPoint. It is about persuasion and influence. How do you access power? How do you leverage influence?
For all corporations, community impact and perception of that corporation is directly linked to customer satisfaction and how customers perceive you. We've got to get especially minorities thinking differently about getting out of their comfort zone and being a part of the community. That's how you meet people from other areas; that's how you begin to develop relationships, and quite frankly, that's how you may meet the greatest mentor you may ever have.
We also cover communication all the way through in terms of cultural frameworks, but the non-verbose, the body language, how you're coming across. Just the simple way you stand, and the way you turn your body slightly, what is that communicating? Do you do enough environmental scans? As you pick up the environment, you see this environment is not very friendly to me. I don't see pictures that look like me; it seems as though this is not my type of place. How do you begin to communicate once you've made those judgments? Those competencies are extremely important in moving up the ladder.
DIVERSITYINC: One of the modules in your program on professional development focuses on planning and dressing for success. What are some things NOT to wear?
CLINE: One of my pet peeves: I really don't want to know you are wearing thongs! Ditch the triple earrings. I am kind of old-fashioned and my British background comes into play here, but wearing stockings with a dress looks so classy. Regular heels instead of platforms look so classy. Casual office dress does not mean beach wear. Know your environment.
DIVERSITYINC: As a Black woman, have you had experiences where you felt you weren't heard or got frustrated by situations? What did you learn?
CLINE: I don't always have to be the one making the point. Painfully I learned that it is OK if I can get someone else to make the same point in a different way. Got to get the ego out of the way--hard, hard, hard. That is why it is crucial to build relationships within the organization. Understanding my personality style--I am Black, female and very right-brained--the whole emotion thing. "Feeling words" peppered my conversation and communication. I learned to say "I think" instead of "I feel."
I learned that I had to leverage influence. Here I am, community-relations director for local NBC/ABC affiliate TV stations owned by Gannett. I want us to cover fair and unbiased stories for the entire community. I was tired of seeing all the negative coverage of one part of the town; it's only guns and drugs; that's where Black people lived. Because I wasn't an insider (I didn't come from a media background, per se), I began to build relationships with the anchors and reporters so sometimes they could get across what I needed to get across.
The reality of it is, what's the bottom line? What is important? Do you need to get this particular issue out there? The other lesson I learned was to pick my battles and find the right timing. Timing is everything. In my position as community-relations director, I was the only Black person at that level in the organization and because of what I was seeing outside. I would come in and I would push and push and push and push for change, trying to push people to see something different. It's not easy. One day my boss said, "Elizabeth, you've got the worst timing." We laughed, but it was a serious learning moment for me. I realized, you know what, he was right. I was so passionate about wanting to create change, I just wanted to get my voice heard. I just wanted to keep pushing.
Sometimes you can nudge a boulder a very teeny little bit, not even an inch, sometimes a quarter of an inch, but the fact is that you still moved it and sometimes you need to be satisfied with it instead of moving it the whole inch because change is incremental.
DIVERSITYINC: What advice would you recommend for people in similar situations?
CLINE: We cannot be afraid to ask for feedback in terms of how we're doing. I am not talking about at review time. At strategic times I believe it is necessary to just go in and say, "Can we talk? How am I doing? What, where and how can I improve?" Then be prepared to accept answers about your personality and how you come across.
You need to seek out people who can mentor you, and I genuinely believe that if you directly ask for help, you will get it.
Show up. A friend of mine said the other day that they had this wonderful elaborate Black History Month celebration where one of their chief executive officers was speaking and introducing the guest speaker, and she looked out in the room and where were the African Americans? Volunteer for certain assignments. Building your brand is not enough. You have to ask yourself, "If the brand I'm building is not bringing added value to the corporation, then what am I doing?" You have to build your brand to make sure that you're adding value to the corporation and, of course, yourself.
Sit somewhere different when you go to meetings; you don't always have to sit with people who look like you. It's about stepping out of your comfort zone. If you are responsible for ensuring you have a different experience, you must be the one to be proactive. Racism, sexism, ageism, all sorts of "isms" are out there. Therefore, it is your responsibility, my responsibility, to find the tools to transcend those.
Know where you are going, because that will assist you in knowing how you will get there. It will be different for everyone. Once you know that, wear bifocals. Work toward that long-term vision, but you must act in the NOW. Have a solid core of ethics and values. That is what will guide you through those rough patches--and there will be rough patches. Make continuous learning and curiosity a core value and be prepared to invest in yourself. You don't always have to wait on the company to do it for you.
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