{"id":24459,"date":"2023-04-04T06:38:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T10:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=24459"},"modified":"2023-04-05T12:32:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T16:32:32","slug":"when-wise-women-lead-advocacy-and-action-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/when-wise-women-lead-advocacy-and-action-follow\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When Wise Women Lead,\u2019 advocacy and action follow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago, at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), Debra Hammond met a young colleague just starting out in higher education. Today, Franklin Ellis said, his trajectory to the position of associate dean and director of Furman\u2019s Center for Inclusive Communities<\/a> started with Hammond\u2019s friendship and encouragement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a wise woman who led me to where I am today,\u201d said Ellis, who brought Hammond to Furman during Women\u2019s History Month to share her perspectives on leadership at the intersection of gender and race.<\/p>\n

Hammond, executive director of CSUN\u2019s University Student Union<\/a>, has more than 40 years of experience as a leader in higher education and serves on the faculty of CSUN\u2019s Michael D. Eisner College of Education. She\u2019s received several leadership honors and been on many nonprofit boards. Her CLP presentation, \u201cWhen Wise Women Lead,\u201d borrowed its title from a poem by Jan Phillips.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a wise woman leads, she calls a circle and makes a space for stories to be shared, hopes to be uttered, revelation to unfold,\u201d recited Hammond. \u201cWhen a wise woman leads, she leads from stillness \u2013 where she gathers herself, mines her experience and turns her wisdom into story.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the traits of wise woman leaders \u2013 particularly women of color \u2013 is the ability to unlearn some of the things they have been taught, including deflecting praise, Hammond said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say words like, \u2018That was nothing,\u2019 or \u2018No big deal,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve often been taught to be humble, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with an appropriate amount of humility, but that humility has to be coupled with an appropriate amount of self-love, self-acceptance and self-worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Go out and get busy\u2019<\/h3>\n

An anecdote from early in Hammond\u2019s career illustrated the importance of self-advocacy. After noticing she was getting paid less than she expected based on her expertise and the responsibilities of her position, she brought the issue up with her human resources department. The initial results were discouraging.<\/p>\n

“I was starting to suffer a little bit of impostor syndrome,\u201d she said. \u201cI started to doubt my accomplishments and felt like they were paying me less because maybe I wasn\u2019t as competent or capable. I had this internal war going on inside of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her doubts, \u201cI knew the only way out of this was to walk through it,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cI had to employ the four W\u2019s and a D: What would a wise woman do? She would consult, she would consider, she would research, she would reflect, she would self-advocate and she would take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a persistent series of letters and meetings, she soon received a full paycheck, followed up by back payments. The incident was pivotal in how she handled future difficult situations, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it,\u201d she said, quoting Dale Carnegie. \u201cGo out and get busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding the \u2018why\u2019<\/h3>\n

Other experiences taught Hammond more valuable lessons, such as maintaining composure, relying on previous learning, collaborating and asking for help when needed, and embracing uncomfortable change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWise women are comfortable being a little bit uncomfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will always be responsive change makers, focusing on producing quality while also taking care of hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most critically, said Hammond, a wise woman who leads focuses on her \u201cwhy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy have you been chosen to lead? Why do you want to do this? What\u2019s your inspiration? What motivates you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What\u2019s your purpose of being here on the Earth?\u201d she asked. \u201cOnce you understand your \u2018why,\u2019 the \u2018how\u2019 and \u2018what\u2019 become so much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debra Hammond, executive director of the University Student Union at California State University, Northridge, shared lessons from more than 40 years of leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":24600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-center-for-interpersonal-connection","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}