A Quote by Debra L. Reed

What I tell women who want to get on corporate boards is to get connected! Do volunteer work, network in business, join community organization where you can demonstrate your leadership capabilities and other people can see your skills being applied.
It's hard to get money to support your [non-profit] organization if you have no evidence. It's very much like the acting business: You need an agent and manager so you can get a job to get resources, but you can't get an agent and a manager unless people see your work.
Perhaps your quest to be part of building something great will not fall in your business life. But find it somewhere. If not in corporate life, then perhaps in making your church great. If not there, then perhaps a nonprofit, or a community organization, or a class you teach. Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.
Whatever community organization, whether it's a women's organization, or fighting for racial justice ... you will get satisfaction out of doing something to give back to the community that you never get in any other way.
The real development I've seen of people in organizations, especially in big ones, comes from their being volunteers in a nonprofit organization - where you have responsibility, you see results, and you quickly learn what your values are. There is no better way to understand your strengths and discover where you belong than to volunteer in a nonprofit. That is probably the great opportunity for the social sector - and especially in its relationship to business.
If you don't demonstrate leadership character, your skills and your results will be discounted, if not dismissed.
Don't focus on reaching the C-Suite. Focus on doing great work and serving your customers and community. That's how you can find the right opportunities and get the skills and experience to get to the top in your career.
Leadership is helping yourself and other people achieve goals. The ability to direct your life to get the results you want is leadership.
Get down to your local swimming pool or your local swimming club, join up and see what it's like. I can guarantee that you're going to meet some great friends. Just being involved in water makes me happy and I'd like to see that transferred across to other people.
I always tell people, 'Take a class or volunteer.' It really helps you get out of your own little pocket of people you always see and gets you exposed to a new group of people.
Business requires an unbelievable level of resilience inside you, the chokehold on the growth of your business is always the leader, it's always your psychology and your skills - 80% psychology, 20% skills. If you don't have the marketing skills, if you don't have the financial-intelligence skills, if you don't have the recruiting skills, it's really hard for you to lead somebody else if you don't have fundamentally those skills. And so my life is about teaching those skills and helping people change the psychology so that they live out of what's possible, instead of out of their fear.
Instead of trying to get work, focus on your network. People will play a huge part in directing your growth and investing in relationships is critical no matter what you want to do.
Helping other people develops your leadership skills, and people start to see you as a natural leader.
You create your own material to try to get it out there because a lot of people are multi-hyphenates, to use the corporate term. You're creating stuff to be in in order to showcase all your talents. I think the idea of using YouTube and the Internet, you don't have to wait around for a network to buy your show.
You better change your ways / And get really wild. / I want to tell you something / I wouldn't tell you no lie. / Wild women are the only kind / That really get by, / 'Cause Wild Women don't worry / Wild Women don't get the blues.
Join the bold, the brazen, the unintimidated. Join not having excuses. Join the idea that fun is the source of all joy. Join the unwillingness to give up. Join doing things your way. Join not joining. Join that purpose is stronger than outcome. Join your gut. Join the constant challenge of seeking greatness. Join play. Join the hunger to find what makes you happy. Join karma and nature and the effect you have on your world. Join your philosophy. Join something bigger than you. Join what you believe.
Leadership is creating an environment in which people want to be part of the organization and not just work for the organization. Leadership creates an environment that makes people want to, rather than have to, do.
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