#LeadershipTuesdays: Your First Move in Change Management...Aja Brown

"I recommend leaders tackle the hardest things first because they may take the longest for you to actually impact. And if you have a time limit as most people do, you need to be effective with how you deploy your time, your resources and your people. So it's critical to really work through those hard things quickly and early on so you can have a realistic strategy to be successful."*

--Aja Brown, Mayor, Compton, California

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. Today we profile Aja Lena Brown, the 18th mayor of Compton, California.

Brown made history in 2013 by defeating the incumbent Eric J. Perrodin to become the youngest mayor ever elected in Compton. She is currently serving her second term as mayor having been reelected in 2017.

Mayor Brown is an example of a home grown talent with vision and passion to make a difference. She went to school and grew up in the area where she serves as mayor and she is the embodiment of one who believes that change is not only possible and but doable.

Brown launched a 'New Vision for Compton’, a revitalization strategy centered on 12-key principles that focuses on family values, quality of life, economic development and infrastructural growth, and began her work in Compton. Her goal is to improve outcomes through policy reform, innovation and strategic partnerships. Since becoming Mayor, she has  accomplished the following:

• Decreased homicides from 2014 to 2015;

• Reduced the unemployment rate by 50 percent in Compton from 18 percent in July of 2013, to 9 percent in the month of December 2015;

• Executed policy that improves access to Compton City employment through the First Source Hiring Agreement, adopted in October 2013, which mandates 35 percent local hiring for city assisted and funded projects; and

• Eliminated hourly motel rentals and condemning businesses that incubate human trafficking, and other illicit activity.

Brown is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy, Urban Planning and Development and Master’s degree in Urban Planning with a concentration in Economic Development. She is married to her best friend Van Brown and they are the proud parents of their first child, a daughter named J'ael.

For more information on Leadership Tuesdays and WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.

*Quote from GLS Conference, Chicago, Illinois, August 2019

She's On Her Way To Change A Few Things

"She packed up her potential and all she had learned, grabbed a cute pair of shoes, and headed out to change a few things."

--Anonymous

Time...Faith Baldwin

Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations. 

--Faith Baldwin

Dress Up and Go Make It Happen!...Israelmore Ayivor

“Never be complacent about the current steps; don't agree and follow the status quo. Be determined that you are making an indelible impact with great change. Now, dress up and go to make it happen!”
 
--Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

One More Good Idea Could Change Your Life...Jim Rohn

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

--Jim Rohn

Leadership Tuesdays: Using Our Influence To Effect Change...John Maxwell

“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” 

--John C. Maxwell, Best-selling Author and Leadership Expert

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. At this very moment, I am moved by John Maxwell's quote listed above and another one of his quotes that states, 'everything rises and falls on leadership'. In a few short days, August 24, the United States will mark the anniversary of one of the most powerful Civil Rights demonstrations in its history.  On August 28, 1963, 50 years ago, an estimated 250,000 people of all races conducted a peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C. that began at the Washington Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial. The March was organized by Civil Rights leaders to bring attention to injustices and discrimination that the African American community was suffering. "The organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom also demanded decent housing, adequate and integrated education, a federal jobs program for full employment, and a national minimum wage of over $13.001 an hour in today’s dollars."(1)

Tomorrow I will publish the first of a two-part blog series that talks about my experience in attending the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington in 1983 as a young college student.  I will also share some of the subsequent civil rights experiences I have had.  In the second part of the blog, I will provide some key statistics that characterize African American life then and now. Although we have made major and significant advances that we should well be proud of, as the statistics and our current news headlines show, we still have work to do.

Going back to John Maxwell's quote, I will leave you with this: Martin Luther King's dream was one of a world where there would be equality for all and people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  If everything rises and falls on leadership and as Myles Munroe asserts, we are all called to be leaders, do we have a leadership problem?  Are we doing enough to effect change through our influence and actions.  Could "we" be both the problem and solution for what needs fixing in "our" community?

For more information on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, go to:
http://50thanniversarymarchonwashington.com

To read past features on leaders like Laurel Richie-WNBA President, Ruth J. Simmons-former President of Brown University, Toni Blackman-2012 Dove Role Model, and others, click here.

Note:
(1) Algernon Austin, The Unfinished March: An Overview, Economic Policy Institute, June 18, 2013 http://www.epi.org/publication/unfinished-march-overview/

Revolutionary Thinking...

Don't think outside the box. Think like there is no box.

--Unknown from @FamousWomen

To Change The World, Change Your Thinking...Albert Einstein

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

― Albert Einstein

Lessons From Mother: History Matters...Ursula Burns

“One of the things my mother told me is that history matters. …People’s memory – that matters. One of the biggest challenges we have in our transformation is that memory [at Xerox] is a very strong, very deep, and very long institutional memory. And that memory opens up opportunities, but if it’s not tuned correctly it closes down a whole lot of opportunities.”

--Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY presents Leadership Tuesdays, a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. The resource for this week is an article from The Glass Hammer on Xerox's CEO, Ursula Burns.  The writer, Melissa J. Anderson, shared highlights from a recent speech given by Ms. Burns at the Catalyst Awards Luncheon in New York where she discussed her perspective on "Impatience and Leadership".  

To read the story, click here. For more on Leadership Tuesdays, click here.

Managing Change Within Its Context...Vashti McKenzie

"What I've learned about change is really being able to look at the change within its context. And so that means your leadership style changes with the context you are facing." 

--Rev. Dr. Vashti McKenzie, First Elected & Consecrated Female Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Author, former Journalist and Radio Executive.  2011 Woman History Maker-DC, MD, & VA -- Honorable Mention

Twice a month on Tuesdays, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. In celebration of Black History Month and its 2012 theme: Black Women in American Culture and History, this week we feature Reverend Dr. Vashti M. McKenzie who is currently a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church. She is  responsible for leading the 13th Episcopal District (Tennessee and Kentucky) and she holds the distinction of being the first woman to be elected to the office of Bishop in the A.M.E. Church.  Her leadership accomplishments include leading large church organizations in both the U.S. and South Africa, creating entrepreneurial business projects, starting over 35 local churches,  growing a church congregation from 330 to over 1700 members, and managing multi-million dollar church real estate development projects.  To view her story, click here. For more information on LeadershipTuesdays, see here. 

Being A Change Agent...Kathleen Flanagan

"I had some butterflies. All along in my career I’ve been a change agent, and I think the big surprise is how difficult driving change is, and how important it is when you’re making change to have involvement from all levels of the organization; to be selective about what you’re going to change first out of the gate; to not overwhelm the organization, but to set your goal and keep driving toward it. There’s going to be resistance, and by definition not everybody is comfortable with change, but keep your eye on the goal, and be patient enough to be flexible." 

--Kathleen L. Flanagan, CEO of ABT Associates

Every Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage, and strengthen women leaders. This week we present, "Kathleen Flanagan: Want To Lead, Nurture The Butterflies", an article from The New York Times' column, Corner Office, written by Adam Bryant. Ms. Flanagan shares some important advice a mentor once gave her about taking on challenges. To read the article and an introduction, click here. For more information on LeadershipTuesdays, see here.