On Oct. 5, 2018, I presented during the 2018 PASSHE Women’s Consortium Annual Conference. I presented “Women, Gender and Social Media: Emerging African-American Female Thought Leaders” and discussed Luvvie Ajayi, Demetria Lucas, Tamika Mallory and Yara Shahidi.
If you are not familiar with these women, I suggest you follow them on social media. You will not be disappointed.
These women are indeed emerging African-American thought leaders. Other women can become well-respected thought leaders as well.
Following are nine strategies that we can use to do so:
- Be an ally and seek allies – To gain support from others, you must first offer support.
- Cast the net wide – When becoming a thought leader, embrace those with different demographics. Your whole world will positively change when you do.
- Consider running for office – Our country is in desperate need of ethical, inclusive, good, decent, knowledgeable, competent and WOKE leaders.
- Have courage – We must demonstrate courage – even when it makes us unpopular.
- Have substance – We must be women of substance. If not, what’s the point?
- Partner with like-minded women – While it is important to be open to different ideas, we thrive when we work with like-minded women.
- Say “no, I won’t” to misfits and say “yes, I can” to feelings of inadequacy – It makes no sense to align yourself with those who do not share your core values. They are misfits. It also makes no sense for brilliant women to experience bouts of self-doubt about their areas of expertise.
- Stick to what you know – If you do not have an engineering background, for example, stay out of that lane.
- Use your platforms strategically – Be wise about your causes and platforms. You should have passion for them and being willing to lose friends if it comes to that.
Leave a Reply