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2024 –  A Year of Breaking the Mold

Leadership is the cornerstone of good business. It is a significant force that transforms industries and redefines success through resilience, innovation, and cultural understanding. By breaking down barriers and fostering inclusive opportunities, minority leaders offer unique viewpoints that challenge the status quo and inspire real change. These leaders not only create economic impact but also act as role models, mentors, and advocates, empowering their communities and future generations. As the Minority Business Review, we are thrilled to highlight the journeys, strategies, and contributions of these pioneers who are shaping a more equitable and vibrant business environment.

Leading with Intentions: Lessons on Leadership and Legacy

Leadership is not a one-size-fits-all it and Willow Blythe explored the fundamentals of leadership through the lens of Indigenous leadership 

Authenticity in leadership fundamentally represents being genuinely true to yourself and being vulnerable enough to uphold your own truths and values while leading others. Being uniquely you is how we inspire and encourage others around us. When we break free from the confines of expectations and demonstrate the ability to bring our authentic selves to work, we better achieve our shared goals and make lasting positive change by empowering others to do the same. Leading by example, we can naturally build credibility, honesty, and trust in others by simply staying true to ourselves. 

In Indigenous culture, authenticity in leadership is relational—our ability to honor our core beliefs and align with our truest self is how we support others and our communities. Leaders demonstrating the confidence, power, and commitment to staying true to themselves, model the change they wish to see in others by first doing so within themselves. By leading from our own truths, we create powerful lasting change together for the future.

When we cultivate an inclusive space and environment of encouragement, positivity, and acceptance——because people feel safe to be themselves—knowing their leader has demonstrated transparent authenticity, our teams grow and thrive.

We sat down with Rodney Bullard the Founder and CEO of The Safe House. We asked him how his leadership has evolved over time and who inspires him.

He answered:  “My leadership has evolved over time in a number of ways. One, is just a matter of comfort and confidence in my own leadership and understanding that I as a leader don’t have to have all the answers. Knowing that leadership is about bringing people together and that you get to the solution together. But the act of leadership is bringing people together, the convening and the vision and the strategy, but I don’t have to, I might know where I want to go, but I can bring other people together to say, how do we get to where we’re trying to go? When I was a kid, I didn’t understand that. And I also understand that leadership is about taking care of people. If you aren’t taking care of people along the journey, then the destination is not worth it. 

I’m inspired by a host of people. I’m inspired by those who I’m in the fight with. Dan Cathy is a big supporter of our work, one of the owners of Chick-fil-A, and really has learned and gotten this sense of giving back particularly giving back to less fortunate communities. So I’m inspired by that because he didn’t have to do it. I’m inspired by those who come before us. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, when I was a kid, about five or six years old, I got a chance to speak to him. My father went to Morehouse College and Dr. Mays was a legendary president of Morehouse College. And he told me, he said, “You know, Rodney, I want you to get as much education and experience as possible, but understand that you have to give that back… That education is not for you, it’s so that you can serve others, and so that you can inspire others to get education and experience, and they can serve others.” And so that is something that sticks with me.”

The first Native American Woman to serve the largest voluntary bar association in the world, Mary SMith shared why representation matters.

“The American Bar Association represents the nation’s legal profession, advocating for both the profession and the rule of law. Yet, much like the historical arc of this country, the ABA’s history has been fraught, pocked with past racial and gender and other forms of discrimination. Today, as a reflection of a transforming legal profession, and an association with very different values and goals, I am the ABA’s first Native American woman President. 

I hope that my position as the first Native American woman president of the ABA serves as an inspiration to young people that they should follow their dreams and that barriers are being broken down. It demonstrates that anything is possible for those who follow their passion.   

I will end on a personal note about why seeing diverse leaders matters.  Last year, I was at the National Native American Bar Association 50th Anniversary Celebration.  A young Native lawyer approached me and said that she used to think that the ABA had nothing for her, but seeing me in this role, she began to think that maybe – just maybe – there were things in the ABA that mattered to her. 

That is why representation and diversity – and importantly inclusion – matters.”

Mary elaborated on key challenges and opportunities she sees for the legal profession in the coming years, and how the American Bar Association plans to address them.

“There is a lack of diversity in the legal profession which has significant implications for the legitimacy of our profession. The law touches everything in society. It’s essential that there be diversity in all its dimensions.    The ABA has eloquently stated that “racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession is necessary to demonstrate that our laws are being made and administered for the benefit of all persons. Because the public’s perception of the legal profession often informs impressions of the legal system, a diverse bar and bench create greater trust in the rule of law.” 

The ABA is addressing these challenges with the lack of diversity in the legal profession through many programs.  For instance, the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy is a conference for diverse early-career attorneys to help them develop leadership skills.  For law students, the ABA hosts the Judicial Clerkship Program which is a three-day program during which judges work one-on-one with the diverse law students to assist them with advocacy and writing skills.”

Leon Prieto and Simone Phipps examined the importance of work-life integration while reflecting on Maggie Lena Walker’s legacy. 

In the annals of American history, arguably, few figures embody the spirit of purpose-driven leadership as profoundly as Maggie Lena Walker. Born in the tumultuous post-Civil War era, Walker emerged as a beacon of hope for African Americans and all who sought to rise above societal constraints and realize their full potential in all aspects of their life and work. Her legacy, marked in part by her unparalleled achievements as the first Black woman to charter and preside over a bank in the US, and a pioneer in African American Management History, stands as a testament to her unwavering commitment to economic and social empowerment.

Walker’s vision was not just about personal success but about uplifting an entire community. Her endeavors were rooted in a deep-seated belief that economic independence was the key to societal progress. But perhaps what set Walker apart was her forward-thinking approach to work-life integration and gender roles, especially in the context of her time. She championed the idea that women should have the autonomy to choose their vocation, just as men did. In her words, women should be allowed to “choose their own vocation… let them become independent.” This was not just rhetoric. Walker’s advocacy was grounded in action. At a time when a staggering 83% of employed African American women were relegated to domestic roles, Walker envisioned a different future. Her concerns about the limited job prospects for Black women translated into tangible initiatives. She actively sought to diversify employment opportunities for them, hiring them in clerical positions at her bank – roles that were, at the time, largely inaccessible to women of color. She wanted Black women to seek meaning in their vocations and professions not just in their households. Walker felt that women would achieve greater meaning in their lives if they pursued a career, which she felt would empower them, and strengthen their marriage, personal lives, etc.

In today’s age, where the rapid pace of corporate life often leaves many people disenchanted and losing themselves due to many not being able to take care of personal responsibilities, spending “quality time” with their loved ones (or even themselves), Walker’s legacy offers a timely lesson. 

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