Wisconsin Women of Color Network, Inc. (WWOCN)
Surviving a tough economy: Leadership
strategies
Surviving a tough economy: Leadership
strategies
| who entered the University of North Carolina in 1971. Her rich experiences from then on prepared her well for working with people. She now understands various cultures. “We’re living in critical times right now, and we really don’t know what’s going to happen or what to expect,” Fulmer said. “I think as women, we’ve always been challenged to do things differently or to really make things happen … doing something with the little bit we have, so that when times are tough, we can figure it out. We know how to make do while others don’t.” She told the story of a manager who met with her staff to talk about recession and directed her staff that they were not participating in it. Fulmer said that we should not use the economy as an excuse for poor performance, or as a reason not to take care of our personal needs, to prepare for today and tomorrow and enhance ourselves and our careers. She expressed how good it is to be in America than to be in other countries and quoted Pres. Obama, saying, “This is our time.” “But we need to make it better for ourselves as well as our children and this is in the midst of things that are out of control, like the economy, like company shutdowns, like the weather, etc.,” Fulmer urged her audience. “…This is an opportunity to demonstrate our values, our worth, and opportunity to share our talents and help others in a meaningful way.” |
Part 1 of 2
By Heidi M. Pascual
The Wisconsin Women of Color Network, Inc. (WWOCN) confronted head-on the most important
issue of the day — the economy, and how we can “survive” or, as tough as it seems, succeed amid
its difficult challenges. People are losing jobs — by hundreds of thousands — almost every week, as
America’s companies, including several state governments, wobble on their foundations. Many big
firms have closed shop, following the death of smaller, and most of all, minority-owned businesses.
The group met at Madison Area Technical College, a very appropriate choice of venue, on a beautiful
day in Spring, the 23rd of May.
The keynote speaker and workshop presenters are known for their expertise in what they do, and
they tackled their topics with passion and energy, really driving their messages across. For these
women of color, the hard times are trials of life that we all have to hurdle and overcome. The
presenters were: Malika Monger, Rose Jenkins, JoAnn Moore, and Gladis Benavides.
Keynote Speaker Daryl Davis Fulmer, Ph.D., is MATC’s Vice President for Learner Success. Her
previous positions include: interim dean for Liberal Arts and Sciences at Milwaukee Area Technical
College, associate dean for the Mequon campus, interim dean/associate dean for the Division of
College Transition, and assistant dean for advising and academic services at UW-Milwaukee. Her
expertise includes urban adult education, developing and managing diversity, affirmative action,
leadership development, and students’ first year experience. Among her many awards, Dr. Fulmer
was most recently named one of “Our Treasures, Our Jewels, Our Women” in education, by the
Milwaukee Community Journal. Originally from North Carolina, she moved to Wisconsin to challenge
herself some more. She co-founded the African American Women’s Fund that helped women affected
by the W2 program in Milwaukee.
Keynote Address
At the outset, Dr. Fulmer introduced herself not by recounting her educational background, but by
recalling her growing-up years in North Carolina. “I grew up during the civil rights movement,” she
said, “and that was an interesting time to grow up because we didn’t really know what our place was
in America. But we knew that we had a place and that we shouldn’t be in the place we were; that we
needed to make something happen so that we could have the further experience of being here in
America versus living in the Jim Crow era, where you can’t go through the front door but the back
door and you couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that.”
She stressed that during that time, living in such a way was not an oddity but the norm. It was the
“affirmative action” recruitment that paved her way through college, together with 199 other Blacks
By Heidi M. Pascual
The Wisconsin Women of Color Network, Inc. (WWOCN) confronted head-on the most important
issue of the day — the economy, and how we can “survive” or, as tough as it seems, succeed amid
its difficult challenges. People are losing jobs — by hundreds of thousands — almost every week, as
America’s companies, including several state governments, wobble on their foundations. Many big
firms have closed shop, following the death of smaller, and most of all, minority-owned businesses.
The group met at Madison Area Technical College, a very appropriate choice of venue, on a beautiful
day in Spring, the 23rd of May.
The keynote speaker and workshop presenters are known for their expertise in what they do, and
they tackled their topics with passion and energy, really driving their messages across. For these
women of color, the hard times are trials of life that we all have to hurdle and overcome. The
presenters were: Malika Monger, Rose Jenkins, JoAnn Moore, and Gladis Benavides.
Keynote Speaker Daryl Davis Fulmer, Ph.D., is MATC’s Vice President for Learner Success. Her
previous positions include: interim dean for Liberal Arts and Sciences at Milwaukee Area Technical
College, associate dean for the Mequon campus, interim dean/associate dean for the Division of
College Transition, and assistant dean for advising and academic services at UW-Milwaukee. Her
expertise includes urban adult education, developing and managing diversity, affirmative action,
leadership development, and students’ first year experience. Among her many awards, Dr. Fulmer
was most recently named one of “Our Treasures, Our Jewels, Our Women” in education, by the
Milwaukee Community Journal. Originally from North Carolina, she moved to Wisconsin to challenge
herself some more. She co-founded the African American Women’s Fund that helped women affected
by the W2 program in Milwaukee.
Keynote Address
At the outset, Dr. Fulmer introduced herself not by recounting her educational background, but by
recalling her growing-up years in North Carolina. “I grew up during the civil rights movement,” she
said, “and that was an interesting time to grow up because we didn’t really know what our place was
in America. But we knew that we had a place and that we shouldn’t be in the place we were; that we
needed to make something happen so that we could have the further experience of being here in
America versus living in the Jim Crow era, where you can’t go through the front door but the back
door and you couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that.”
She stressed that during that time, living in such a way was not an oddity but the norm. It was the
“affirmative action” recruitment that paved her way through college, together with 199 other Blacks
(Above) Keynote Speaker Daryl Davis
Fulmer
(Below) Presenter Malika Monger
Fulmer
(Below) Presenter Malika Monger
| Some of the WWOCN participants at the MATC gathering |
Reinventing Ourselves
Fulmer stressed that we can either let the recession win or take advantage of the time to reinvent ourselves and to better the world we
live in. However, she admitted there’s another side to this positive outlook. “If you are a person of color, circumstances often help dictate the
control,” she said, “and the less control you have over your own life, the higher the stress, and more likely you would end up in an unhealthy
situation, further creating less control of what happens to you.” She explained how daily stress for people who don’t have control over their
lives results in many diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and a shorter lifespan. Problems of acquiring medication, coupled with job loss
and lack of health insurance aggravate the situation. “On top of that, we have racism … and when you are on guard for it, that creates further
stress!”
Fulmer cited a PBS documentary commentator who said that the economy will recover, but we will recover differently. The hope is, we will
be more humane, take care of each other better, and America will no longer be just about the money. She also pointed out to her audience that
the economy that brought hopelessness to people who used to be very high up in the economic ladder. While poor people, particularly people
of color, have also been hit, we are more used to doing something out of nothing, Fulmer emphasized.
Fulmer’s tips to survive this tough economy & some leadership strategies:
• Service –we must do that in order to change things and make life better for the masses versus a few.
• Reinvent yourself and invest in education – go back to school, like MATC, to enhance your current skills (employers like employees who
can critically think and problem solve); use the Internet as a resource to learn new things; go to the library.
• Keep a positive attitude and a positive image – hang out with people with positive vibes; look at the recession as temporary and an
opportunity to improve yourself; live incrementally (apartment instead of a house, low salary versus none).
• Stay healthy – eat right, have enough sleep, exercise.
• Go to church, find ways to develop spiritually.
• Learn to smile and develop a healthy ego.
• Concentrate on what you can control and don’t try to change the things that you can’t.
We should have Plan B and Plan C, in case things don’t happen the first time we try, Fulmer added. “There’s no substitute for hard work,”
she said matter-of-factly. “Accept that you’re not perfect … be prepared to make mistakes and recover from it.”
Quoting Thomas Friedman, an educator and author, Fulmer said, “We need to be prepared to be great communicators … orally and in
writing, because we cannot lead if we cannot tell people what we want them to do. We need to be great collaborators; we need to be able to
work together and join others to work together. It is no longer ‘I’ but ‘we’ pulling together.”
Fulmer encouraged her audience to “pull together” as women of color, to help each other make things better so that many will benefit. The
result, she said with certainty, would be, these women feeling good for giving back to our community.
Other qualities that we need, according to Fulmer, are to be great synthesizers, mobilizers, to be able to transfer our skills, to be great
explainers, adapters; be flexible; be passionate in our professional lives; and pass our good fortunes forward.
Presentations on Employment and Educational Opportunities
Malika Monger – “Where are the Jobs-Public Sector?”
Starting with a positive outlook, Monger said, “Even with the present economy ;… there are still jobs out there. You just have to be patient
(because) sometimes it is taking a little longer, as people try to work on their budgets.”
She encouraged attendees that if a job is really something that they want, they should go for it. She said technology is great nowadays that
a lot of jobs are posted on career websites, such as careerbuilder.com, monster.com, and yahoo.com; as well as job-specific websites for
different professions and skills. The email is also a great tool for people to learn about current employment opportunities, Monger said, adding
that joining a listserv and being part of a mailing list are also an advantage.
“Networking is a great tool because a lot of times, it’s not what you know; a lot of times it is who you know,” she explained. “Being able to
talk to people, being able to put your foot in the door, (and) getting to know the people in the area you’re interested in working in.”
Monger talked about how to prepare oneself for jobs, which is actually “working with what you have.”
“Reinventing yourself, as Daryl said (in her keynote), is the keyword,” Monger said, “especially if you’re moving from one job to another or
you’ve been home (stay-at-home moms, for example) for many years. There are lots of ways to do that.” For moms who have gaps in
employment, for instance, Monger suggested finding volunteer or internship opportunities at first, because that will give you the work
experience you need.
Monger enumerated other ways to reinvent oneself, as follows: participate in training, if you already hold a job, to develop yourself further
professionally and help move up in your career; network to connect with other people; hone in to transfer your skills, like teaching; and really
work with what you have.
“Working with what you have”-resume and interviewing skills
“With your resume (it’s really important to) be able to tighten up your resume in what you’re looking for,” Monger explained. “I always say,
‘Know the purpose of your resume.’ I have seven or eight resumes, depending on the job I am applying for. Your resume is really tailored to
that job. For example, if it’s a management job, you really have to focus on the responsibilities you had in management positions.” There are
keywords that are in job descriptions, she said, that should be used in your resume to show work experience, accomplishments in the line of
work you’re applying for, and names of coworkers in your team. “Align your work experience … (and to answer the question ‘How far do I have
to go back to?’) the standard rule of thumb is 10 years … but you can go beyond 10 years to show that you have other experiences, that you are
well-rounded.”
“When you’re preparing for an interview, do your mental rolodex,” Monger strongly recommended. For instance, if the job requires that you
have to develop and implement programs, go back to your resume and find out what you’ve done in developing programs. “In the interview, a
person would say, ‘Give me an example of a time when you were able to …’ and you can only think of one example, even if it were a 10 of 15-
year span … so if you’re doing your mental rolodex, you’re saying exactly ‘What did I do on this job? What did I accomplish on this job?’ and
you do that with every job.”
Another question that may come up in the interview would be, ‘Tell me about a weakness that we as a company should be concerned
about.’
“As employers, we have gotten savvy,” Monger said. “It is not good enough for you to say, ‘I have a big heart and I love people, that’s
really a weakness for me.’ Here’s a good answer, ‘You know what, I realize that when I’m working on projects, I get tunnel vision. I have a
tendency to really get focused on what I do. What I’ve learned is that if I develop a to-do list, then that helps me out of my tunnel vision,
because I’m looking at that to-do list periodically during the day. And I’ve really learned that this helps me. So I’ve told you about what my
weakness was, and I told you what I’ve done to address it.’ You let your employer know, ‘Oh, she recognized that she has a weakness and
she put some steps in place to address it.’”
Monger answered questions from her audience, stressing in addition, to know about the company you’re applying for by going to the
website of the company, and find out who they are, what they do and what’s important to them through their vision. Lastly, she advised them,
“Study the job description, because I guarantee you, there will be questions related to the job description.”
Next issue will report on the presentations tackling self employment, educational opportunities and mentoring.
Fulmer stressed that we can either let the recession win or take advantage of the time to reinvent ourselves and to better the world we
live in. However, she admitted there’s another side to this positive outlook. “If you are a person of color, circumstances often help dictate the
control,” she said, “and the less control you have over your own life, the higher the stress, and more likely you would end up in an unhealthy
situation, further creating less control of what happens to you.” She explained how daily stress for people who don’t have control over their
lives results in many diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and a shorter lifespan. Problems of acquiring medication, coupled with job loss
and lack of health insurance aggravate the situation. “On top of that, we have racism … and when you are on guard for it, that creates further
stress!”
Fulmer cited a PBS documentary commentator who said that the economy will recover, but we will recover differently. The hope is, we will
be more humane, take care of each other better, and America will no longer be just about the money. She also pointed out to her audience that
the economy that brought hopelessness to people who used to be very high up in the economic ladder. While poor people, particularly people
of color, have also been hit, we are more used to doing something out of nothing, Fulmer emphasized.
Fulmer’s tips to survive this tough economy & some leadership strategies:
• Service –we must do that in order to change things and make life better for the masses versus a few.
• Reinvent yourself and invest in education – go back to school, like MATC, to enhance your current skills (employers like employees who
can critically think and problem solve); use the Internet as a resource to learn new things; go to the library.
• Keep a positive attitude and a positive image – hang out with people with positive vibes; look at the recession as temporary and an
opportunity to improve yourself; live incrementally (apartment instead of a house, low salary versus none).
• Stay healthy – eat right, have enough sleep, exercise.
• Go to church, find ways to develop spiritually.
• Learn to smile and develop a healthy ego.
• Concentrate on what you can control and don’t try to change the things that you can’t.
We should have Plan B and Plan C, in case things don’t happen the first time we try, Fulmer added. “There’s no substitute for hard work,”
she said matter-of-factly. “Accept that you’re not perfect … be prepared to make mistakes and recover from it.”
Quoting Thomas Friedman, an educator and author, Fulmer said, “We need to be prepared to be great communicators … orally and in
writing, because we cannot lead if we cannot tell people what we want them to do. We need to be great collaborators; we need to be able to
work together and join others to work together. It is no longer ‘I’ but ‘we’ pulling together.”
Fulmer encouraged her audience to “pull together” as women of color, to help each other make things better so that many will benefit. The
result, she said with certainty, would be, these women feeling good for giving back to our community.
Other qualities that we need, according to Fulmer, are to be great synthesizers, mobilizers, to be able to transfer our skills, to be great
explainers, adapters; be flexible; be passionate in our professional lives; and pass our good fortunes forward.
Presentations on Employment and Educational Opportunities
Malika Monger – “Where are the Jobs-Public Sector?”
Starting with a positive outlook, Monger said, “Even with the present economy ;… there are still jobs out there. You just have to be patient
(because) sometimes it is taking a little longer, as people try to work on their budgets.”
She encouraged attendees that if a job is really something that they want, they should go for it. She said technology is great nowadays that
a lot of jobs are posted on career websites, such as careerbuilder.com, monster.com, and yahoo.com; as well as job-specific websites for
different professions and skills. The email is also a great tool for people to learn about current employment opportunities, Monger said, adding
that joining a listserv and being part of a mailing list are also an advantage.
“Networking is a great tool because a lot of times, it’s not what you know; a lot of times it is who you know,” she explained. “Being able to
talk to people, being able to put your foot in the door, (and) getting to know the people in the area you’re interested in working in.”
Monger talked about how to prepare oneself for jobs, which is actually “working with what you have.”
“Reinventing yourself, as Daryl said (in her keynote), is the keyword,” Monger said, “especially if you’re moving from one job to another or
you’ve been home (stay-at-home moms, for example) for many years. There are lots of ways to do that.” For moms who have gaps in
employment, for instance, Monger suggested finding volunteer or internship opportunities at first, because that will give you the work
experience you need.
Monger enumerated other ways to reinvent oneself, as follows: participate in training, if you already hold a job, to develop yourself further
professionally and help move up in your career; network to connect with other people; hone in to transfer your skills, like teaching; and really
work with what you have.
“Working with what you have”-resume and interviewing skills
“With your resume (it’s really important to) be able to tighten up your resume in what you’re looking for,” Monger explained. “I always say,
‘Know the purpose of your resume.’ I have seven or eight resumes, depending on the job I am applying for. Your resume is really tailored to
that job. For example, if it’s a management job, you really have to focus on the responsibilities you had in management positions.” There are
keywords that are in job descriptions, she said, that should be used in your resume to show work experience, accomplishments in the line of
work you’re applying for, and names of coworkers in your team. “Align your work experience … (and to answer the question ‘How far do I have
to go back to?’) the standard rule of thumb is 10 years … but you can go beyond 10 years to show that you have other experiences, that you are
well-rounded.”
“When you’re preparing for an interview, do your mental rolodex,” Monger strongly recommended. For instance, if the job requires that you
have to develop and implement programs, go back to your resume and find out what you’ve done in developing programs. “In the interview, a
person would say, ‘Give me an example of a time when you were able to …’ and you can only think of one example, even if it were a 10 of 15-
year span … so if you’re doing your mental rolodex, you’re saying exactly ‘What did I do on this job? What did I accomplish on this job?’ and
you do that with every job.”
Another question that may come up in the interview would be, ‘Tell me about a weakness that we as a company should be concerned
about.’
“As employers, we have gotten savvy,” Monger said. “It is not good enough for you to say, ‘I have a big heart and I love people, that’s
really a weakness for me.’ Here’s a good answer, ‘You know what, I realize that when I’m working on projects, I get tunnel vision. I have a
tendency to really get focused on what I do. What I’ve learned is that if I develop a to-do list, then that helps me out of my tunnel vision,
because I’m looking at that to-do list periodically during the day. And I’ve really learned that this helps me. So I’ve told you about what my
weakness was, and I told you what I’ve done to address it.’ You let your employer know, ‘Oh, she recognized that she has a weakness and
she put some steps in place to address it.’”
Monger answered questions from her audience, stressing in addition, to know about the company you’re applying for by going to the
website of the company, and find out who they are, what they do and what’s important to them through their vision. Lastly, she advised them,
“Study the job description, because I guarantee you, there will be questions related to the job description.”
Next issue will report on the presentations tackling self employment, educational opportunities and mentoring.