Celebrating The Power
of People
Susan
L. Taylor Helps Us Find
Meaning in All That We Are and
All That We Do
If you're sitting at your
desk pondering your next move, angry at your boss, trying
to relate to your coworkers or employees, or searching
for meaning in the madness: Stop. Relax. Breathe and keep
reading. Susan L. Taylor, publication director of ESSENCE
magazine, has some insights to share with you that just
might help.
Taylor's message strikes a chord with all who
listen. Her monthly editorial, In The Spirit, is one of
the most popular features of ESSENCE magazine, and her
books "Lessons in Living" and "In the Spirit" are
bestsellers.
Taylor has guided ESSENCE through phenomenal
growth over the past 30 years, making it the largest and
most highly regarded magazine for African-American women
in the world. Her efforts have been recognized with
numerous honors and a monthly readership of more than 7
million, one-third of whom are men.
Taylor will join
keynote speakers Peter Block, Jim Kouzes and Mike
Singletary as they unite this March 19-21 in Chicago for
AQP's Spring Conference and offer ways to "Maximize
Performance and the Leadership Potential of
Everyone."
In a recent interview with News for A Change,
Taylor offers hope to those juggling the overwhelming
pressures of daily life, and inspires change to create
loving and spiritual environments in our hearts, homes,
communities and workplaces.
NFC: In your
leadership role, you have guided ESSENCE through
significant change and growth. What have been some of
your greatest challenges along the way?
Taylor: Some of my
greatest challenges have been on the advertising end
because the black female consumer market, especially in
the early days of ESSENCE, wasn't a quantifiable or
respected market. Our president and co-founder, Clarence
Smith, spearheaded making both of those things a reality.
We have never-especially if I go back years ago-gotten
the full complement of advertising that's commensurate
with the economic output of African-American women. The
challenge has always been making sure that we put
together a magazine that is rich in content and cohesive,
even though invariably we would have to pull pages out
because we didn't have the advertising support. When you
look through ESSENCE today, of course, you'll see all the
major categories of advertising. Those challenges, thank
goodness, are behind us.
In my new role, I have some very different
challenges. Mainly these include trying to work
throughout the organization with the leadership in
articulating a very clear vision and the values that have
guided the magazine the last 30 years. We want to make
sure that the new companies we're creating, the new
divisions we're developing and the new leadership we've
brought in to work with us buy into those values and
vision.
NFC: Your monthly column is one of ESSENCE's most
popular features and your books are best-sellers. What
inspires you to write so poignantly and meaningfully with
mass appeal?
Taylor: I write
what I'm trying to live. My concern is that many people
think, because I write about the power of the divine,
that I have it all together. The exact opposite is true.
No one walking the face of this earth is unchallenged. I
believe that everything, all the challenges that show up
in our lives, come to nourish and strengthen us, never to
confound or confuse us. What I've learned is that there
are principles that we can adopt to help us navigate what
can be a very difficult experience-this living. We need
to understand that we're more than we seem; we're human
and divine and we can use all of the gifts that have been
given to us.
NFC: Spirituality
and emotions are meaningful parts of life that are
sometimes overlooked or ignored in workplaces. Employees
are expected to come to work and leave their feelings at
the door. How can we shift this thinking to allow for
more incorporation of our spirit, soul and mind into what
we do?
Taylor: That's
exactly what I'm doing with our organization now in my
new role as publication director. It's really working
with leaders. You work with your management team. You
honor people. We don't have to ever mention the name of
God, Allah, Jehovah or whatever we may call the divinity.
That doesn't need to be mentioned in the workplace.
Creating an environment that honors spiritual principles
is what we're really talking about.
When you honor people, when you pay people fairly,
when you respect them and disallow any harsh or unfair
treatment; and let managers know that disregard or
disrespect to the people that report to them will not be
tolerated, you create that kind of loving, nourishing and
successful environment of which people want to be a part.
If you have leadership that is being honored and made to
feel as though they're valued, and also counseled as to
how to value other people, then you've gone the distance
in creating a loving, spiritual environment.
NFC: Oftentimes,
leaders are blamed for failures in the organization. How
do you think everyone can be aware of their
responsibility for the success or failure of their
organization?
Taylor: Leadership
certainly gets a lot of credit for the success and
therefore must withstand the criticisms for the things
that don't work. Leadership has to be visionary. Anyone
in a leadership position without a vision is an automaton
and is just following along with what has been done. As a
leader you have to empower people to be decision makers,
empower them to get the best out of their
employees.
You have to have the best people in place. You
treat those people fairly and you help them feel secure
about their own positions and reward them for identifying
talented people within the organization. When the leader
of an organization, the person at the very top, creates
an environment in which people feel they are really
sharing in the success of the company, then I think they
take responsibility for the things that are not
working.
NFC: Work demands a
majority of people's time and many things that are most
enjoyable and satisfying are pushed aside. How can the
pressures of life be balanced with the
pleasures?
Taylor: I think
that is the great challenge that we all share. I try to
do something that I wrote in my second book, "Lessons in
Living": You have to give yourself to yourself before you
give yourself away. You don't leap out of bed and right
into the work world. And this is what we usually do. Give
yourself 45 minutes in the morning that are just for you.
When you get up, thank God for the day. Then put your day
in order. We usually overload our agenda with too many
things that we will never complete. That creates
insecurity and then we feel bad at the end of the day
because we didn't do everything that was on an agenda
that wasn't realistic to begin with.
Get out of bed with an agenda, knowing what you're
going to do, and then work out for 20 minutes. Jog in
place, get on a treadmill, run around your house. Get
that cardiovascular stimulation that we all need not only
to balance our weight, but also to reduce yesterday's
stress so we're not adding to it. So we're not allowing
today's stress to be placed on top of yesterday's stress
and tomorrow's on top of that. From there, take 10
minutes to be reflective, to think about your life and
your blessings and to get still and in touch with your
breathing. This is 45 minutes before you have to engage
in the day. If you have youngsters at home, wake them up
ever so gently rather than screaming, "Get out of bed!
You're going to miss the school bus." Hug your beloved,
if you have a partner, and say, "Good morning. I love
you. Have a wonderful day." When you begin your day like
that, things fall into place. You really live your day
the way you begin it. We hold the reigns of our lives in
our hands. That's what we have to recognize. We might own
companies, we might work for companies, we may have
children and mates and bills, but those things don't own
us. Our lives belong to us and they are in our hands.
Only by conscious consideration for what is best for us
will we live a really fulfilling life.
NFC: What do you
say to older generations or people that have been in the
workforce for a long time that have sacrificed family to
pursue their career, only to find out later what really
mattered most to them? How do you help them come to terms
with that?
Taylor: In truth,
there are no mistakes in life-ever. Anything that we've
experienced,
even if it's painful or shameful, can serve us well. If I
were just becoming a parent
today I would be a very different parent than the one I
was. I thought that I had to
give all my time and energy to my career; now I would
give more to my child. But
I can't go back and live that over. What I do is have a
very real conversation with
my daughter about some of the choices that I wish I
hadn't made, and how I really
do value her. Sometimes we don't let our children know
our vulnerabilities and share
with them the mistakes we may have made. I think that
goes a long way in healing
any wounds that our children may have from feeling as
though we gave more to our business lives than we gave to
them. Also, I think it's important to speak to younger
people, to talk to them about living a balanced
life.
NFC: A recent Wall
Street Journal article reported on 20- to 30- something's
that are already burned out and suffering from an "early
midlife crisis." What does this say about where younger
generations are headed as they enter the
workforce?
Taylor: I'm also
seeing something on the other end. I'm seeing a large
group of critical thinkers who are suggesting that they
don't want to live like their parents. They don't
need to have three homes and four cars. I'm hearing women
and men say, "I really
" want a family life. I want to become a mother. I'm not
looking to become president
of the company. I want to have a fulfilling career, but
even more important than that
for me is having a family, my health and my sanity." They
got to watch the generation before them that maybe had
the ability to achieve things in business that their
parents
only dreamed of. That generation believed that they had
to go full throttle in order to
have them. As I look back I can see clearly how I
could not only have done as well
as I have, but perhaps even better, by being a more
critical thinker and by working smarter, rather than as I
hard as I did.
NFC: What is a
leader's primary role in empowering their employees to
get the best out of them?
Taylor: I think the
primary tenant of leadership is service-learning to
serve. Caring enough about the people who report to you
to see how you can get the best from them. That means
giving them what they need to be comfortable and to
thrive. Be willing to sit with people and ask, "How can I
make this environment more productive for you? How can I
make you feel more valued in our company? These are the
things that I can't do-budgetary demands don't allow me
to do such and such. Or, we can't move the plant to make
you feel happy, but what can we do? What are the changes
we can make? How can we make more efficiency,
productivity and joy among you and in your department?" I
think that's what real leadership is about-taking that
feedback and coming back with a vision of how you can
make it happen.
NFC: How can
employees hope to understand the differences that exist
between themselves and their coworkers to create a better
working environment?
Taylor: We have to
do more than pay lip service to honoring diversity. This
country is not what it was even 50 years ago. In any
workplace there are going to be different languages and
religions, people of different colors and ethnic
backgrounds. What we have to begin to do is really
appreciate our differences. It's this willingness to love
that is going to create the world that we're all
hungering for no matter what our color, class or race.
It's a world that is peaceful.
There are more than 100 wars being fought on the
planet right now. Every one of them is about difference
and somebody believing that what they have and who they
are is superior to someone else. I think the lesson that
the divinity is trying to teach us is that we really are
one. All the differences we have created are fears of our
invention. We speak different languages; we are different
colors, sizes and shapes. These are false divisions that
we've used to separate ourselves from people. I think
they really speak about the genius of our maker. What a
variety we are. That there are six billion people walking
the face of this earth and no two of us looks alike
speaks about the genius of our maker. How dare we take
those amazing things that speak to our remarkable
differences and make them things for which we penalize
others.
NFC: How do you see
fear hindering and limiting people? How can they overcome
that?
Taylor: The flip
side of fear is faith. We want to know the unknown:
whether we're going to get that job, or that raise or
promotion. You can't know. It's the unknown that makes us
fearful. What we have to do is live in this present
moment. Be present where you are. Make the best of this
moment. Do your best work in this moment because how you
live this moment is creating your future. You may not
achieve what you're aiming for but you're going to
achieve something that is so magnificent because the aim
is in the right direction-you're aiming forward and
upward. Truly, life has a better plan for you then you
could ever have for yourself. You have to trust life when
things come up. The challenge is to not settle into a
painful place. Whether it's work, a health issue or a
relationship issue, any pain that shows up in your life
is for your instruction. It's not meant for you to live
with and it's not meant to punish you.
NFC: Your column in
the December ESSENCE challenges the reader to look
inside, identify areas for change and make that their
goal for the new year. What types of resolutions are you
making for yourself and ESSENCE for the upcoming
year?
Taylor: I'm really
committed to putting in place a company-wide vision and
values, and do the critical work of having those meetings
and those retreats that really help people to understand
them and hopefully buy into them.
Personally, I want to do some new business
learning, moving from the creative side to the business
side. I'm really looking at gaining greater prowess in
the financial arena so that I can work more fully with
budgets and numbers. I'm also looking at some management
skills that I need to adopt and at how I can begin to get
even more leadership training.
On a very personal level, I really want to do what
we've being talking about, and that is make time for me,
so I can bring the best of what I have to give-my clear
thinking and creative mind to everything that this
company does.
January
2001Homepage
Celebrating the Power of
People
I Will
Survive
