May 2, 2022 • 45 mins
Since she was a little girl, Latisha M. Roberson was obsessed with her teachers in school and just knew that she was going to be a teacher. Through a chance opportunity as part of a mock trial team in middle school where she met an African-American attorney, the direction of her life was forever changed by that fortunate coincidence. As an HR executive and diversity and inclusion professional, Latisha M. Roberson has spent most of her career building, developing and evolving innovative talent programs for Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. In this episode, join us as we go on a journey from Capitol Hill to consulting for big corporations to providing coaching and career services empowering women of color in the workplace.
In this episode we cover:
- How to turn a career crossroads into a career pivot that propels you forward
- Why you should stop giving your genius away for free, and the power your network has in speaking up for you (especially when you’re not in the room)
- Why transparency about your parental boundaries and self-care time is critical not only for you, but also as an example for your team (hint: take a hookie day)
Check out Latisha’s career and coaching services at Lead with Latisha
About Latisha M. Roberson
Latisha M. Roberson is a dynamic diversity and inclusion professional with 15+ years of knowledge and experience in building and evolving innovative talent programs for Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations. She has specialized experiences across a multitude of disciplines: from government affairs to community relations and media relations, to strategic partnerships and executive stakeholder relations. Roberson’s generated a depth of experience and accountability in driving large-scale employee engagement programs and initiatives with significant ROI. Her passion for leading transformational culture change in creating a more diverse and inclusive environment for all makes her a highly sought-after speaker and workshop facilitator. Learn more about Latisha’s career strategy coaching and speaking opportunities at Lead with Latisha.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica Hartley (00:01):
Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite
podcast. I'm your host JessicaHartley. Join me on another
journey with amazing andtalented professionals of color,
laugh and cry and take notes.
But most of all be inspired allof this and more on our next
episode of hustles, grind,shine, and blisko Hello and
(00:23):
welcome to another episode ofhustle, grind, shine and
reignite. I'm your host, JessicaHartley, and it is my pleasure
to bring you another esteemedguest. My guest today is the
amazing and accomplished LeticiaRoberson. I had the opportunity
(00:47):
to get to know Leticia very welland also call her friend during
my tenure at Accenture. She is adynamic and when I say dynamic
that is with a capital D,diversity, equity and inclusion
professional with more than 15years of amazing experience
building and evolving innovativetalent programs for Fortune 500
(01:11):
companies and nonprofitorganizations. But Leticia as
you all know, every guest thatwill be on this episode, these
episodes will is so much morethan that. And so with that,
Leticia Welcome to the show,happy to have you.
Latisha Roberson (01:28):
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited for
this conversation.
Jessica Hartley (01:31):
Yes, yes, yes.
So let's dive in. And we willdive in where we get started
with all of our guests, which isto go back way back in time
always have that black streetsong in my head. But let's go
back to your childhood. And canyou talk a little bit about
where you grew up? Where do youcall home? And what did you want
(01:51):
to be when you were a kid andsometimes that changes over
time. But I find it veryinteresting, sort of the threads
and the sort of pieces of who weare as a child, how some of that
obviously changes and evolvesand matures as we get older. But
you always feel some of thepieces kind of that started in
(02:11):
our roots when we were little.
So can you start us there?
Latisha Roberson (02:16):
Yeah, so I actually I live in Washington DC
right now. And I live not eventwo miles from where I grew up.
So I grew up in Hillcrestheights, Maryland, which is in
Prince George's County,Maryland. We like to call it
pretty girl County, but it is asuburb of Washington, DC. It is
one of the largest and mostaffluent African American
(02:39):
counties in the country. But Iwill absolutely say that I am a
product of the public schoolsystem, the Prince George's
County Public School System, andI continue my undergraduate
education at Towson University,right outside of Baltimore. So I
am a DMV girl, through all theway through. So, you know, I
(03:01):
grew up here, I started mycareer here working on Capitol
Hill, and I'm a resident ofWashington, DC now, so DMV girl
all the way through. But when Iwas growing up, I was obsessed
with my teachers, like Iidolized all my teachers in
elementary school, like I willname every teacher that I had,
from kindergarten all the way upto fifth grade. So and I wanted
(03:22):
to be a teacher, like that iswhat I wanted to do. I loved my
teacher so much. And they werejust like, such an integral part
of my development those years.
And I just wanted to be ateacher. Let's see. So my mom
was a stay at home mom and oneof four siblings. I like to say
I'm more than middle because mybrother's the oldest, and then
my sister and then me and thenmy little brother who does not
(03:43):
like to be called My littlebrother anymore because he's
grown. Brother. And I was justalways like that nurturing, you
know, teaching everybody, youknow, bossy, some people would
say, but that was mypersonality, right? So I thought
I wanted to be a teacher until Igot into middle school. And I
was on the mock trial team. AndI met an African American woman
(04:05):
attorney, again, like I was justso enabled with her. And I
wanted to be an attorney then.
So all throughout high school, Iwanted to be an attorney. You
know, my major in college waslaw in American civilization,
political science, and my firstjob was on Capitol Hill. And I
was like, oh, yeah, like, I'mgonna go work on Capitol Hill,
(04:26):
and then I'm gonna go to lawschool. But then I started to
meet like, all these lobbyistsin heaven than go to law school.
And at that point in time, Ithought I wanted to stay in
politics. So I said, Okay, I'mgonna be a lobbyist. I don't
need to go to law school to be alobbyist or lawyer to be a
lobbyist, right? Like, I'm justgoing to do that. And that's
what I do. So I was on CapitolHill for about three years, and
then I went on to be a lobbyistfor United Negro College Fund
(04:48):
UNCF. Now, and that's actuallyhow I came into Accenture. So I
came into Accenture and theirgovernment relations office and
a lot of people don't know thatI'm a lobbyist by trade, which
is like the most interestingthing because, you know, I'm a
DI, professional, you know, I'mHR executive, and who would have
known that I got my start as alobbyist. But it works, right?
(05:09):
Like all the skills that Ilearned for, you know, being
persuasive. And people andadvocate, don't get
Jessica Hartley (05:17):
into an argument with
Latisha Roberson (05:21):
advocacy as a big part of DNI. And then, you
know, just HR in general, likeany type of people role or
people function is really aboutbeing an advocate for others.
So, you know, although I didn'tbecome an attorney, or a
teacher, you know, those are allroles in jobs that are huge
advocates for others. So it's inmy blood. So although I didn't
become a teacher, or lawyer, youknow, who thought I'd be where I
(05:44):
am. Now, those are all careersthat require people who are
passionate, and who areadvocates and who like to
educate and bring awareness. Soyeah, that's how you
Jessica Hartley (05:54):
talk to me about some of these transitions
that you made. So you went toschool, and you're like, Okay,
I'm gonna get this degree, I'mgoing to Capitol Hill, you went
to Capitol Hill. And then youwere sort of really at that
point where you're like, Okay,do I go to law school? Oh, I can
still stay connected, but justin a different way? How did you
make that shift from being onone side? And then moving into
(06:17):
the lobbying? And then how didyou then make that shift? Again,
we, I care about the glue inbetween? So how did you then
say, Oh, I'm going to go to thisplace called Accenture. And I'm
sure that, you know, maybe inyour interactions and dealings,
when I ultimately came toAccenture, I had never heard
either before, I didn't knowwhat management consulting was,
(06:38):
I haven't had a previousconversation on one of the other
podcasts. Someone else, youknow, a lot of people kind of
make their way in and sort ofthrough management consulting in
some way or another. But I'vefound out that a lot of us, it's
particularly people of color,and women of color. Management
Consulting is like this wholeother world that you've never
heard of, and experience, and itdefinitely is a whole nother
world. But we'll get to that.
Let's go back to the glue inbetween going from one side to
(07:01):
the other. So,
Latisha Roberson (07:05):
like, for me, all my transitions are where
I've gotten to a crossroads,where I felt like I just needed
to do something else. And youknow, when you're on Capitol
Hill, there are you know, likethree integral roles of a
Capitol Hill staffer, right? Youcome in your entry level, as a
staff assistant, I did that. Youmove up, you're a legislative
correspondent, that's whereyou're responding to all all the
(07:26):
letters and causing things tocome in. I did that. And then
you our legislative assistant,which is when you're actually
working on like all of thepolicy things. And I did that
too. And I knew I didn't want tobe a chief of staff, because I
just felt like I would have nolife, right? Like, you will be
very busy, do other things. Butthen I started to meet like all
these lobbyists, you know,through my jobs and learn what
(07:46):
they did. And it seemed fun. AndI was like, that could be the
next step. And most people, theyare either career staffers on
Capitol Hill, or they come forthree, four years, like most
people I know. And then they gooff and do other things. They go
to law school, or they go to bea lobbyists. Like, that's really
it, or they go and get an MBA,and they go and work. You know,
in corporate America, like thoseare really the paths you don't
(08:08):
meet a lot of people who havespent their entire careers on
Capitol Hill, you have a lot ofboomerangs, you know, people who
go and then they come back. Butonce you hit like three or four
year mark, you really start toassess like what your next steps
are. And I said I wanted to be alobbyist. That's what I wanted
to do. And with Capitol Hill,it's all about connections,
right? Like, so I had to findlobbyists who worked and I'm
(08:31):
like, Okay, what do I want todo. And while I was on Capitol
Hill, I'm gonna date myself.
But, you know, one of thelegislations and bills that I
worked on was no child leftbehind. So that is where I
really started to think aboutand really bring awareness to
issues around inequities ineducation, which I'm really
still passionate about. Now. Youknow, we could talk about that
too. But you know, inequities ineducation, and they're really
(08:53):
starting to think about, like myown upbringing, and how there
could have been different ways Icould have gone or you know,
which good or bad had, I had theawareness that allows these kids
don't have or the opportunitiesthat a lot of kids don't have,
so No Child Left Behind, justopened my eyes to some of the
inequalities in educationsystem. And I said, you know,
(09:14):
what, I want to go work for anorganization that does that. And
you know, CF was headquarteredin the DC area at the time, and
I randomly applied randomly,like, and I got the job. And I
loved it there. And that's whenI really started to learn about
because I did not go to ahistorically black college and
university. So I started tolearn more about like the
history and the culture aroundhistorically black colleges and
(09:37):
universities. And then that'sactually how I got to Accenture,
which is random because I hadbeen a UNCF for a few years. And
I was at an event business highEducation Forum and Accenture
CEO at the time was there. Wow.
Right. And I was talking tothem. I was just talking to him
randomly and he said to me, Hey,you know, I really want you to
(09:59):
talk Two at the time, he's hername. And he said she is
government relations. And Ithink you should talk to her. So
I talked to her. And I told herI used to work on Capitol Hill.
She asked me if I knew a fewpeople that she knew. And I was
like, oh, yeah, absolutely knowthat I got a call from that
person. The next day, they werelike, Oh, she really likes, you
know, like, what are you gonnado? And I was like, I don't know
(10:20):
who they are.
Jessica Hartley (10:24):
I mean, talk about your network speaking for
you, right? I mean, we talk alot. You know, I know you
obviously, in addition to theday job, and the side job, we
all have a bunch of slashes andwe talk a lot about the
relationships and theconnections that you build
across your career. And we talkabout the value that your
(10:44):
network brings, but the valuecomes in what you have
contributed to that network. Andwe never know what's happening
behind the scenes and phonecalls and emails and say, hey,
you know, this person is thisperson. Great. I was just
talking to
Latisha Roberson (10:57):
this man, you know, he was sitting beside me,
and we were having conversationabout like, community colleges.
And you know, what we like thepeople like to call I'm saying
occultations underrepresented,right? I could go on about that,
too. But you know, we weretalking about that I was, you
know, telling them I was at UCF,he was talking about
partnerships. And he was justselling like, not a
conversation. He was like, youknow, and my first role when I
(11:19):
got to Accenture was supportinghim, the CEO, he was doing an
initiative called thespringboard project where
Accenture was working with otherorganizations through this group
called the Business Roundtable,where they were working with
community colleges to dopartnerships to really untapped
the potential and communitycolleges. So it was great. Like,
(11:39):
I stopped him, and it was fullcircle because I stabbed him on
Capitol Hill. I wrote testimonyfor him. Like, it was just
amazing that, you know, here Iam at this huge, huge consulting
firm that I've never heard of,until, you know, my friends on
Capitol Hill was like a leglessjet, you gotta, you know, if she
wants to interview you, you needto figure it out, like do your
research, like, here it is. AndI did. Alright, but you know,
(12:02):
who to know, just from me justhaving authentic conversation
with somebody that he was CEO oforganization and was like, let
me connect you with someone whoI think you should talk to, and
then just being able to reallyuse my skills and my network
back on Capitol Hill to do that.
And I was in GovernmentRelations at Accenture for about
because I served three CEOs togovernment relations center. So
(12:25):
the chairman's Yeah, right. I,
Jessica Hartley (12:31):
what is that, like, I mean, because, you know,
reporting into CEO or supportinga CEO, global CEO, company with
hundreds of 1000s, I talked topeople about, you know, as
you're moving through yourcareer, you're changing
altitudes and changing, youknow, but that's not altitude,
that's like, you know, flyingand then, you know, SpaceX like
(12:52):
stratosphere, that's a wholenother world and level, what was
that light for?
Latisha Roberson (12:57):
It was very intimidating at first, but, you
know, I had just had to do it.
And once I supported the firstCEO, and then you know, his
tenure was over, the next CEOcame in, and he was passionate
about something that I waspassionate about. So we
connected on that level, becauseat the point in time, we had
just really started to Accenturewas still building like their
inclusion diversity team. And hewanted to do work with HBCUs.
(13:19):
And guess what, guess what usedto work for you on TF, right? I
guess who can make thoseconnections? Yes, who can
educate you and tell you likewhat it is? And guess who can go
to these career fairs? And whocan really speak to these
students? You know, on behalf ofAccenture, right, I felt like it
was just all falling together.
But then it got to a place whereour priority started to shift,
(13:43):
and what we were focusing onetc. And then now the CEO came
in, and he was focused onsomething different. And I just
was like, Okay, well, maybe Ineed to focus on something
different. And that is how Istarted to transition out of
Government Relations atAccenture into other things. And
you know, this, but I've hadabout five different roles.
While I've been at Accenture,and they have all been through
word of mouth, or somebodyrecommended me. I like saying,
(14:05):
Oh, hey, let's he should begreat for this. Or saying to me,
you know, Rebecca is looking forsomeone to do this. I think you
should talk to her. So yeah,those how every role I've had an
adventure has evolved orhappening. For me, it's been all
about my network. And you'llnever get such a buzz where
people talk about all cometogether on the network. But I
can attest, your network is veryimportant to getting that role.
(14:28):
And all of these roles have beenlike you said, like so
definitive for me, you know, mygross was in my career. So I
mean, don't get me wrong. Iknow. We'll talk about the
hustle and grind because therehave been some bumps in
Jessica Hartley (14:40):
the road.
That's what we're going next. Soyou're previewing a little bit
of where you're going andnobody's career is perfect. And
some of us sort of some folkssort of meander along the way.
Some folks have a career planand it's our one pager as they
go from roll to roll to rollabout what they're trying to
achieve. Leave. But even withthe greatest intentions and the
(15:01):
greatest strategy that you canhave, sometimes things don't
work in the way you want, youknow, you don't get the role
that you want at the level thatyou want, you don't get
promoted, when you really thinkyou should. And you're looking
around at your peer set, sort ofadvancing past you. And these
are the things that we face aswomen in corporate America as
(15:22):
people of color in corporateAmerica. And so maybe talk about
some of the challenges that youhad in not just obviously, the
challenges in kind of what itwas like to navigate. But how
did you sort of move past thatsometimes you actually have to
just have acceptance, right?
There's a what are the thingsyou can change? What are the
(15:43):
things you can change? And whatare the things that are going to
take some time to change? So
Latisha Roberson (15:46):
I think I had to learn the hard way, the
importance of being vocal aboutwhat you want. Because the first
time I was passed up forpromotion, that I thought I
deserved, my leads at the timesay, Well, I didn't even know
you wanted to get promoted. Soof course, because they didn't
know I wanted to be promoted,they weren't fighting it for me
at the table for promotion, orgiven me stretch assignments
(16:08):
that were, you know, setting meup for promotion or given me the
exposure that I needed forpromotion. And at that point in
time, I say, Oh, well, you know,a lot of us think that we could
just put our head down, and wecan do great work, and it will
be recognized. But no, that'snot like you need to be
intentional about what you wantto do. I never said to him, Hey,
I'm looking to get promoted,like, what do I need to do, or
(16:29):
we've never had those types ofconversations. And of course,
these are things that happenedto a lot of people early on in
their career. But I think thatwas the first definitive moment
for me when I really understoodthe importance of having to take
control of my career. And then Iwas like, Okay, I'll start
telling people, but then I hadto learn the balance between,
you know, letting people knowthat you're interested in being
(16:51):
promoted, and then being reallypushy about it and setting it up
as an expectation. To, you know,your desires to grow within your
career without sounding like,Hey, I'm expecting to get
promoted. Alright. So I had toreally learn the messaging, and
you know, how to talk to peopleabout career growth and
appropriate way. Number one, Ihad to figure out that I'm used
(17:11):
to do that. Number two, I had tofigure out how to do that. And
then thirdly, I had to figureout who's a sponsor versus who's
a mentor, I know, we talkedabout this all the time, like
there.
Jessica Hartley (17:24):
But preach on it, come on to teach and preach
on it, because I preach on Ihave, you and I both have lived
these experiences where we'vehad tons of mentors, the love is
there, the support is there, theadvice is there, but they don't
control a darn thing. When itcomes to whether or not you get
from
Latisha Roberson (17:42):
people, they're not making those
decisions. And a lot of timesthey don't have the authority to
act on your behalf or to speakon your behalf. So that was the
third thing for me, that wasreally pivotal. And me being
able to navigate through thisthing called Corporate America
is really understanding who wasa mentor versus a sponsor. But
they also write understandingthat sponsors pick you, right,
(18:05):
like, sponsors have protegees.
Mentors have mentees. So if youwant to be somebody's protege,
they have to decide that they'regoing to commit to doing that
for you, a mentor menteerelationship is very 5050, I
believe, because you're investedin seeing that person grow, that
person wants to learn from you,like there's a lot of give and
take, but when somebody saysthey're gonna sponsor you, that
(18:28):
is very intentional. And a lotof times, they're putting their
reputation on the line for you.
And they're giving you a lot oftime that you need, where they
are teaching you and they'reexposing you and they're making
those connections like that is abig time commitment. So when
someone says to you, I'm goingto sponsor you, you have to live
(18:48):
up to the expectations, but youhave to make sure that that
person doesn't regret sponsoringyou. And I had to learn that
too. It took me a few years toreally understand that if I want
to get to the next level, I haveto have sponsors, it's great to
have mentors, but I have to havesponsors, I have to know who's
going to be at the table, I haveto know who has the authority, I
have to know who's going to beable to give me the
(19:09):
opportunities that I need. Soonce I figured out those three
things, I was able to navigate.
I'm not gonna say easier, butbetter, right, I was able to
navigate better because I alwaysthought about those three points
when I was at a crossroadswithin my career.
Jessica Hartley (19:25):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And so glad you
brought that up as a topic. Ithink about myself in my own
career. And the moments that Iultimately made decisions to
leave certain organizations wasbecause you get to hustle and
grind and get the work done. Andthen you realize, okay, that's
not enough. And then you lift upyour head and you speak out the
(19:45):
things that you want. And thenyou get to a point where you're
like I am doing all of thosethings that people have told you
to do. Not don't just do workand deliver great excellence
talk about it, be able tosupport yourself, be vocal about
what you want to eat, and eventhen and sometimes you don't get
it. And then what do you do?
And, you know, for some of us,we ultimately decide that we
need to find anotherorganization that will
(20:07):
recognize. And you know, one ofthe things that I learned in my
career was just also being veryclear about not what you want
now, but what you want in thefuture. And I think about the
role that I have now, inliterally, I think the first
conversation with the CEO, theorganization, I said, I aspire
to be in the C suite one day,that's an aspiration. So any
(20:28):
role that I take needs to moveme if not one step, multiple
steps closer, and I'm here tolearn not just into the role,
but I'm here to learn from you,and learn how you operate at the
C suite level, because I want totake all of those things in as I
continue to aspire up. And Ifind it interesting that you
talk to people, then you say,Well, what's your five year
(20:49):
plan? Or, you know, what's thetitle that you want to have
before you retire? And peoplearen't even that far out yet.
But when we think aboutstrategic intention, you got to
do that talk a little bit aboutmotherhood, and work. I won't
even lie in us as we'rebalanced. There's not there's,
I'm like, it is all sacrifices,it is just one of those things
(21:15):
that you can actually live with,and what are those things that
are non negotiables? Right, whenit comes to sacrifice, so talk
about mother that I mean, youhave a beautiful daughter, and
you also have sons in connectionwith your spouse, and just how
has that been navigating that incorporate America in these
spaces, and you've been in someinfluential and impactful roles
for very influential andimpactful people and you and I
(21:38):
know that comes with a level ofcommitment, but also stress in
navigating
Latisha Roberson (21:45):
that. So I will say when I started the
motherhood journey, it was apivotal point in my career, it
was actually a time where I feltlike I had been slighted within
my career, because, you know, Iwent out for maternity leave, as
most moms do. And someone had tobackfill me because I was in a
critical role. And I had totrain somebody, right, I trained
(22:08):
somebody to backfill me, and Icame back, it was all good came
back, and they were like, Youknow what, like, basically,
like, we're gonna find somethingelse for you to do, right, we're
gonna keep him in this role,we're gonna find something else
for you to do. And you knowwhat? He got promoted that
cycle. And I didn't. And I waslike, I trained him,
Jessica Hartley (22:29):
I trained him to do his job.
Latisha Roberson (22:31):
Well, right, like all the processes and plans
and procedures and strategy, youknow, were in place for him. I
set those up, and I was gone. Iwas, you know, at this point in
time, we only got eight weeks,but I took 12. And, you know, I
was gone for 12 weeks, and Icame back and you still have to
go through the performancecycle, the performance cycle
ended, like maybe two monthslater. And I'm thinking to
(22:53):
myself, like, how's that evenpossible? Like, I left after
training him, right. So that wasthe first time I ever felt
slighted, like, you know,someone took something from me.
And that was also the time whereI was like, I got to get out of
here. My work isn't appreciatedhere, right? Like this, that
(23:13):
should have been me. Like, thatwas my work. I trained him,
right. So if he's doing arockstar job in it, anyway,
that's all interpretive,depending on who says it, but
like, that was the first timethat and it hurt even more than
when, previously when I didn'tget promoted, because they
didn't know because that wasmore of myself. I was like,
okay, he didn't know now heknows. Right. Right. And this
(23:34):
was not the same manager, butstill in the same office. So
everyone knew what my intentionswere. But you know, and that was
when I decided that you know,what, like, maybe I need to be
doing something else anyway.
Because anyone who has everlobbied or worked in government
relations know that it is a lotof early mornings and late
nights, you're going topractices you're going to
fundraiser, yeah, you know,before word afterward. You know,
(23:55):
I was running our PAC, ourpolitical action committee,
which is huge, right? So I washaving to go to all these events
and I was, you know, I was like,You know what, and it was hard
for me because I would sometimesleave out in the morning and I
wouldn't see my daughter until Iwas kissing her goodnight when I
was coming in. And that's when Istarted to think maybe I need to
switch what I'm doing to a rolewhere I'm not required to do
(24:16):
early mornings and late nightsmaybe I need something that's a
bit more you know, there's nevera nine to five within management
consulting or within roles weused to climb executive ranks
like they're very rarely nine tofive strict naturopath there are
now because I've learned how toset boundaries.
Jessica Hartley (24:36):
But even then, sometimes there's
Latisha Roberson (24:40):
kids are down now let me go back to work, but
you know, your time but for me,it was really hard because I
felt like I had to do somethingdifferent because I was a mom,
right? I felt like at the timelike I wasn't gonna be able to
advance within that team becauseI you know, it's mom. So I
started looking for Other rolesand again, like this was a
(25:01):
pivotal time because it wasanother somebody else was going
out on maternity leave. And wehad a new office managing
director in DC at the time whohad I had gotten to know, it was
one of those things where shetold him like, well, this he was
looking for something different.
He was like, Okay, were you okaywith it, and then let's just go
with her. Like, I trust her. Iknow her. You know who that
office manager director wastelling me I just
Jessica Hartley (25:29):
the incomparable Martin Rogers, the
ultimate sponsor, and mentor,all rolled in.
Latisha Roberson (25:35):
You know, it was one of those things where,
here I am doing somethingcompletely different, like, I
had been involved in a lot ofMetro DC stuff, and you know,
volunteer. And of course, likewith the HBCU stuff that I was
doing previously, so I hadgotten to know him. But I mean,
this was like, the ultimateopportunity, it was something
different for me. And I was ableto build my network a bit more
(25:55):
to a, you know, work for one oflike you said, the best mentor
sponsors, just like amazingpeople out here. So and that was
when I did that for nine to 10months before he recommended me
go work for the r&d team, right?
Jessica Hartley (26:09):
Yeah. And see, again, we're talking about these
connections, right? Yes, you'vegot to do the work and deliver
Latisha Roberson (26:15):
that. I will say, though, like, that was
another role that required a lotof time outside of normal
business hours, because it was amarket facing role. So it
required me to play in a lot oflarge scale employee engagement
events. And it required me to goto a lot of events with like,
our clients and our communitypartners. And I was struggling,
and with my time and mycommitment as a mom and feeling
(26:38):
like, I was sliding my daughterand my time there. And then you
know, like, okay, is this gonnabe another long night? So,
again, I said, maybe I do needto do something different. And
one of the things that I've beentalking about a lot lately, too,
is how there's this title ofworking moms, but there's no
title of working dad, right?
Like, as, you know, working momsor career women, like, people
(26:58):
expect us to do certain thingsor to be unavailable for certain
things. But there's never aquestion when it comes to men
who have children, as it relatesto their commitment to the job
or to the role or what they canand cannot do.
Jessica Hartley (27:15):
It just isn't or we celebrate, we give them
all, you know, when they do setboundaries, and I'm going to
take care of my child. Right,like, revolutionary, you know,
is it as if they're a saint? Andit's like, no, they're just
doing what they're supposed tobe doing? What we all actually
want to
Latisha Roberson (27:34):
do parenting, right? Just Burning Man is just
what why is there a title of aworking dead? Yeah. Why don't
men start off by saying I'm aworking there? Because it's so
relevant to anything that'sgoing on? Right? Nobody thinks,
Okay, well, he can or can't dothis, because he's a working
dad, or, you know, we shouldreward him for doing this
because he's a working dad, itonly falls on women. And I mean,
(27:56):
again, it's archaic. I mean, wecan do things about it. But I
did there was like that two yearspan in my career, where I found
myself making a lot of decisionsbased on my title was mom, and I
don't regret, right, because,you know, I had to do what I
thought was best for me and whatI thought was best for my
family, and what was best for mycareer. So maybe I did slow down
(28:19):
my career progression for a fewyears. But those were the
pivotal years of my daughters.
And, you know, everybody atAccenture know, Sydney, right?
Because I've never, ever feltlike I've had to compromise
that. Like if I needed to bringher to a work event, guess where
she was coming? Or if I neededto stay home, and I'm gonna dial
in, and she's sitting beside me,Hey, say hello. And that was
your pre pandemic,
Jessica Hartley (28:42):
pre pandemic, pre self care and all of these
things. And so actually, let'sjust touch on that briefly
around self care. How do youreignite reinvigorate yourself?
How do you make sure you'resetting those boundaries? I've
found that, you know, as wemature, in our careers, the
polls on you are different,right? Especially when you're a
(29:02):
people leader, and a manager ofother leaders. And it can still
bleed into a lot of things. AndI've even think last night,
we're waiting on takeout. And Ikept looking at my phone, and
the spouse was like, you know,you get and I'm complaining
about venting a little bit aboutsomething you'd like we'll stop
looking at your phone. I'm like,Oh, how do I do that? Yeah. So
(29:29):
how do you take care ofyourself? How are you you know,
refilling your cup. And becausein these roles, when you're
really laser focused and di isin your title, you are
constantly taking care ofothers. You are caretaker, I
don't want to just say Mother, aparent, but you are caretaker of
others, which means you alsocarrying their burdens, their
(29:50):
troubles, you're trying tonavigate things. How do you take
care of yourself? What does thatlook like?
Latisha Roberson (29:54):
Oh, I do this and I tell everybody, they
should do it, but I take onehooky day a month, right. So And
it's not really a hooky daybecause it's paid time off.
Like, it's my time I should useas I choose. But I pick one
random day each month. It'susually like a Tuesday or
Thursday, and I do whatever Iwant to do. So if I want to do
(30:14):
school drop off and come backhome asleep, I'm asleep. If I
want to binge watch, I bingewatch, if I want to go treat
myself to a manicure pedicure, Ido that if I want to have lunch
with a friend, I want to go fora walk. I don't deviate from
that. Like, you may not knowwhat day it is, I may look at my
schedule one week and be like,You know what, this Thursday is
a really light day. I'm gonnatake my hooky day on Thursday.
(30:35):
Right? So and I started doingthat about right before the
pandemic, like, maybe about twoyears ago, I started doing that
because I was scheduling timeoff. And then I would let people
schedule over it like I youknow, it'd be one of those
things where I would, you know,schedule a half a day off and
had a teacher, you're the onlyperson that's not available at
this time, like, are youflexible, and I would say you
(30:57):
know what I am because I'm notreally doing anything. And I had
to stop doing that. So I had tolearn to make sure that I'm
dedicating some time, the timethat I earned to myself, so I do
a hooky day, like once a month,whether you know a few other
friends may play hooky with me.
And we go just have a fun day,we might have a picnic, we might
go out on a boat, like whateverit is, we might go shopping, but
(31:18):
I do that I don't deviate awayfrom that, I do that. The second
thing is, I am a stickler on myexercise time because it is a
stressful for me. So I'm apeloton enthusiast. Yes, I drink
the Kool Aid. But I say that soserious. But I do that at least
four times a week. And I'm alsolike, as a leader, right, we
(31:39):
talked about that important thatI like to say good examples for
my team. So I'm very transparentwith them. So you know, I'll let
them know, Hey, I'm gonna beaway for about an hour and a
half because I'm about to ride.
And you should do the samething. Like, if you want to go
for a walk, do it if you wantto, like go ride your bike for a
mile, like you should do it. I'mtransparent, because I want them
(32:01):
to be transparent with me. Idon't want them to feel like
they can't live their lives ordo things to take care of
themselves. And tell me aboutit. Like, you're gonna go walk
your dog great. You don't tellme that enjoy the time where
you're out, right? Like walkingthe dog, right? Or, you know,
you want to leave a little earlyto go pick your son up early.
Great, right? Like, I'm surehe'll be happy, go get pizza,
(32:23):
something. So I'm verytransparent about like, what I'm
doing so that they feelcomfortable enough being
transparent about what they'redoing. So we have a culture of
we have life outside of work,and we embrace it. Yeah. Right.
And yes, for me, I not gonna sayI didn't really have leaders
that were that way. But when Isaw people around me who were
(32:44):
being transparent about thebalance part of their life, I
felt comfortable enough to doit. So I felt comfortable enough
saying I was gonna leave at 330because I wanted to catch, you
know, a soccer match or, youknow, hey, I'm meeting or
whatever, but we have to get outof this culture of, you know,
setting expectations aroundpeople that they have to, from
manufacturing, just sittingthere doing whatever, because a
(33:06):
lot of things can happen, or,uh, you know, outside of work
hours, so we just have to be abit more flexible, and you have
to be transparent about what'sgoing on. So when it comes to
self care, like, I'm justtransparent about it, and I
schedule that time. So that'show I stay sane. With the and
then like you said, like, set aboundary. So when I sign off at
530, to go to school pick upbetween 530 and 930. Like, I'm
(33:30):
just not going to be available.
Like that's my family time. Likewe're cooking dinner, we have a
bath, I might be you know,catching up with my husband,
like, you know, and if I decideto answer email at 10 o'clock,
then, okay, I decided to dothat. I decided to do that. But
overall, like, you probablyshould expect a response from me
in the morning. Yeah, no, I tryto be very conscious of people's
time, because I don't want themto think that if I send them an
(33:51):
email at 1030, that they shouldrespond immediately. Right,
right. Yeah, I try not outsideof working hours, because I
don't want, you know, my team tofeel like they have to too. Now
again, there are some timeswhere there's a fire or
something's burning, orsomething comes up, and you have
to have to do it. But I try tomake them more of you know, like
a one off type of thing. Andthat's not the culture. It's not
(34:13):
a culture of aspect that we'reworking all day, every day,
unless we have to Yeah,sometimes we do.
Jessica Hartley (34:21):
My thing that's so critical that we as leaders,
in that manage teams, we knowthat when I look up or when they
look up at us, or look sideways,they are looking at
representations and we'resetting the tone and setting the
stage for for what it means tobe a leader and to be a leader
is to set boundaries. And to bea leader is to I mean, sometimes
(34:45):
I even have them you might youknow, everybody's calendars are
ugly and particularly ugly. Andnow they're starting to encroach
like later and earlier and I'vegotten to the point where I'm
like, if that's critical, I'mhappy to do it, but if it's not
critical, I need you to move itand not even tomorrow or
Thursday, like, can you move tonext week? Can we talk about
this into wheat? Like, do youneed me to make an answer or
(35:08):
response right now? And I thinkthere's also this other place,
probably a little bit of hubrisof just like, we care so much so
that you want to be ineverything and you need to be
connected. And it's like, no,actually, you should chill if
they make a mistake, or it's notdone exactly the way you wanted
it to be. It's okay. That's allright. People also have to
learn. Yeah, absolutely. So talkto me a little bit about lead
(35:30):
with Leticia. I mean, in thisworld where work can be great
and be fulfilling our day job,or nine to five, whatever we
want to call it. But I'm findingmore and more particularly women
and women of color, we'reventuring outside of the four
walls of work, and pursuingadditional passions. And so that
(35:51):
doesn't mean you're walking awayfrom those things that you do
every day. And we like to eatand we like roof over our head
and all of that. But we'refinding not only other ways in
which to leverage our passions,but also I'm finding a lot of
women contributing andsupporting others in their
career. So talk to me, what wasthe catalyst to say, Now is the
time for lead with Leticia.
Latisha Roberson (36:11):
So this is a funny story. But I had a friend
who actually like called me outon it, and she was like, you are
giving away your genius that youneed for free, like, you are out
here getting people jobs, youare out here making connections,
like you are out here,counseling people, there are
people who do this for a living,and you need to be one of them.
(36:35):
I just looked at her and I waslike, Girl, like, autonomy,
knowing I do this out of thekindness of my heart. Because
people will reach out to me andyou know, hey, they will ask me
for advice. They would, youknow, ask me to make connections
or offer to make connections.
You know, I was talking topeople constantly, like helping
them think through likedifferent situations and
providing strategies for them.
(36:56):
And she said it to me, and Ididn't really think anything of
it when she said it, but then Istarted to be more conscious of
it. And I was like, You knowwhat, she is absolutely right.
But then also right, I wasstarting to do more, you know,
like speaking engagement andpanels and things like that, on
behalf of my role at Accenture.
But a lot of times I wanted tospeak on behalf of myself right
my opinions may have beendifferent, or you know, what
(37:18):
they wanted me to say may havebeen different than what you
know, I was actually gonna say,and I just really wanted to
establish like a personal brandfor me. And that is how legals
the t shirt got started. Butthen as I was thinking about my
business plan, and my idealcustomer, my ideal customers me
so I started to think about likeall of the different
(37:41):
opportunities and all thedifferent trainings and all the
different TED Talks and all thedifferent conversations that
I've had with people or that Icould have had with people or
had I had them with people a lotearlier in my career, how it
could have helped me like how itcould have helped me advocate
for myself champion for myself,however, would have helped me
advance a bit so my brain juststarted turning so that is how
(38:04):
leaving fussy she came about andleave because he she is my
business so my grind right myhustle and my grind and my shine
I will say
Jessica Hartley (38:13):
and your shout out to you till you said it
before I am.
Latisha Roberson (38:17):
In my and I don't like to call it a side
hustle because to me it's not aside hustle. Like it's just
something that I'm doing. AndI'm hustling on it but I just
hustler life in general. I thinkwe all do like we hustle as
parents, you know, we have alist friends, you know, we
hustle as colleagues like we'rejust having a grind and a
husband. So this is the perfectname for a podcast. But you
know, with a teacher, you don'thave to strategy services. So
(38:40):
you know, I help people thinkthrough like what is their next
step or where they want to do? Ido speaking engagements. So I do
podcasts like this amazing onehere. You know, I serve on
panels for conferences, I dokeynotes, I will you know, guest
speak at different employeeresource group events. I do
speaking engagements. But then Ijust also serve as a voice like
a thought leader in the space asit relates to black women in
(39:04):
corporate America. So I do thatthrough my Instagram page and
through LinkedIn and throughdifferent articles and things
that I do and my blog and mywebsite. So it's really just
leave with the seashell is abrand. But it's also a business
where I support women throughtheir career growth and not just
career growth. But I supportentrepreneurs as well, you know,
just women through light. Sothat is what led me to lead with
(39:25):
Leticia.
Jessica Hartley (39:26):
I love it. And you've been producing such great
content. And I very much likeit's the right rule for
everybody. Black is a river byAlba black woman, and especially
all of those in my network thatare out here, just shining as we
wind down Teesha share with mesomething that you consider to
(39:46):
be a highlight of your career.
Just something that it just madeyou incredibly proud. Just as
you think about life and workand career and all those
Latisha Roberson (39:57):
things.
They're like two or three onesthat I you know that, okay, if
you want to write, you
Jessica Hartley (40:01):
can run out a lift, it's okay. Because, you
know, this is the shower curtaineverything, but I just always
want to make sure we're justjust, you know, I could talk to
you for five hours and
Latisha Roberson (40:14):
I'm coming up, but so I will say the first one
is so when I talk about, youknow, my work with, you know, at
the time global co2 Senator BillGreen, but one of the pivotal
moments is when I was preppinghim for his testimony. And, you
know, I told him, I said, Bill,you only have three minutes,
right? That's it, right? That'swhy I wrote it for three
minutes. And he's like, youknow, and stuff. And he's like,
(40:34):
they're not gonna cut me off.
Okay, great. So we're in thecommittee hearing room, and
guess what, he gets cut off,light comes on. And he gives me
this look, alright, so he looks,give me this look, and kind of
shakes his head. But thenwhenever, like, for the next
couple of weeks, whenever wewere in the room with other
people, you know, he will alwaysmake this run and joke about,
like, if he says, You're gonnaget cut off, you're gonna get
cut off, or like, wheneversomeone was talking over time,
(40:55):
or whatever, like, he would justlook at me, like, are you gonna
let them know? But for me, Ifelt like, Hey, I told you what
was gonna happen, right? Andit's happening. So that for me,
I had some validation. Right?
Like, I know what I'm talkingabout. And at that point, like,
my confidence really skyrocketedfrom that, right, because, you
(41:17):
know, had the Congressman lethim go on, then he was like, I
told you so right. I mean, oneof those moments, but like, I
was right, in that instance. Andyou know, and that stuck with
him about me, right. So that wasa pivotal moment for me. And
then I was never ever, and Ididn't want to tell him, like
somebody was like, you can'ttell him that like, oh, like, I
know, the procedure. Right? Iworked with him. And I know, and
(41:40):
I was afraid to tell him that,but I had to tell him that to
protect him. Right. But thatreally helped to elevate like,
my confidence, right? That wasone point. And then to the
second point is just being inthe IND space. It's like the
relationships that you make, andlike, you know, this because
this is how we connected toAccenture. But you know, a big
(42:02):
part of my role was planningthese Employee Resource Group
summits, every year, I wouldjust meet so many people and
just learn about their storiesand their journeys, and just be
able to make connections andhelp to elevate them propel
them, you know, throughout theircareers. And just to see, like,
where they started, when I firststarted doing them to how
they've grown, and scale, like,so large. And to be like, I did
(42:25):
that just to look at the programand know that like, this was my
signature program. And I forfive years, you know, I built
this program, I you know, it wasa very grassroots program. And
now it is fully supported, youknow, by the organization. So
just to really look back at someof the programs or things that
I've done that have made atremendous impact on so many
people. Those two are twomoments are that were very
(42:47):
definitive in my career toreally show that, like, Hey, you
can do this, you should do this,your voice is important, it
should be heard, but just theimpact of the programs that are
created and the hard work thatwent into them. So I would say
those are two pivotal points inin my career.
Jessica Hartley (43:02):
Well, I love that and such a great point to
end on Lutetia sharing those twomoments one around confidence, I
think, in both ways, one sort ofthat sort of external
validation, right of theconfidence that you had. And
sometimes we have to tell ourleaders things that they don't
necessarily want to hear. Butthe other piece of just, I think
(43:24):
the hustle and grind at the endleads to shining in you starting
this year, the National almostglobal, you know, in a lot of
ways influence ERG program, anda large global multinational
corporation like Accenture. Imean, that is definitely
something tremendous that a lotof people don't get, but to your
point around impacting so manyother people, I think of all the
(43:46):
work that we did together, andjust you know, in the last
couple of weeks, you all goingthrough your performance cycles
and just seeing the youngpeople, promotion them mix. It
did it promotions, and man, Ijust feel so good. And I'm
texting people congratulations.
Because they obviously had to dothe work. But we were able to
impart a lot of advice andguidance that we didn't
(44:09):
necessarily get when we werecoming up. So let's say Keisha,
I thank you for joining me forthis conversation probably will
have you back on again. Soexcited to see you continue to
shine and grow in your ownright, I can't wait to continue
to watch you with lead withLeticia and all of the things
that are going to come fromthat. So just thank you for
(44:31):
joining me today and sharingyour world and your life and
your career with all of ourlisteners today.
Latisha Roberson (44:37):
Thank you so much for having me. And again,
as you know, I love talking topeople hit me up, Lea, Felicia
leaves a teacher.com That's howyou can connect with me. So I
look back with you again. Soon.
I'm sure it'll be sooner than wethink because I'm sure
Jessica Hartley (44:55):
but thank you Thank you for listening to
another episode of hustle,grind, shine and reignite. If
you liked this episode, like,subscribe and share on all your
favorite podcasts. I hope you'lltune in to the next episode
featuring another amazing andtalented professional. In the
(45:20):
meantime
Welcome to the hustle grind shine and reignite
podcast. I'm your host JessicaHartley. Join me on another
journey with amazing andtalented professionals of color,
laugh and cry and take notes.
But most of all be inspired allof this and more on our next
episode of hustles, grind,shine, and blisko Hello and
(00:23):
welcome to another episode ofhustle, grind, shine and
reignite. I'm your host, JessicaHartley, and it is my pleasure
to bring you another esteemedguest. My guest today is the
amazing and accomplished LeticiaRoberson. I had the opportunity
(00:47):
to get to know Leticia very welland also call her friend during
my tenure at Accenture. She is adynamic and when I say dynamic
that is with a capital D,diversity, equity and inclusion
professional with more than 15years of amazing experience
building and evolving innovativetalent programs for Fortune 500
(01:11):
companies and nonprofitorganizations. But Leticia as
you all know, every guest thatwill be on this episode, these
episodes will is so much morethan that. And so with that,
Leticia Welcome to the show,happy to have you.
Latisha Roberson (01:28):
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited for
this conversation.
Jessica Hartley (01:31):
Yes, yes, yes.
So let's dive in. And we willdive in where we get started
with all of our guests, which isto go back way back in time
always have that black streetsong in my head. But let's go
back to your childhood. And canyou talk a little bit about
where you grew up? Where do youcall home? And what did you want
(01:51):
to be when you were a kid andsometimes that changes over
time. But I find it veryinteresting, sort of the threads
and the sort of pieces of who weare as a child, how some of that
obviously changes and evolvesand matures as we get older. But
you always feel some of thepieces kind of that started in
(02:11):
our roots when we were little.
So can you start us there?
Latisha Roberson (02:16):
Yeah, so I actually I live in Washington DC
right now. And I live not eventwo miles from where I grew up.
So I grew up in Hillcrestheights, Maryland, which is in
Prince George's County,Maryland. We like to call it
pretty girl County, but it is asuburb of Washington, DC. It is
one of the largest and mostaffluent African American
(02:39):
counties in the country. But Iwill absolutely say that I am a
product of the public schoolsystem, the Prince George's
County Public School System, andI continue my undergraduate
education at Towson University,right outside of Baltimore. So I
am a DMV girl, through all theway through. So, you know, I
(03:01):
grew up here, I started mycareer here working on Capitol
Hill, and I'm a resident ofWashington, DC now, so DMV girl
all the way through. But when Iwas growing up, I was obsessed
with my teachers, like Iidolized all my teachers in
elementary school, like I willname every teacher that I had,
from kindergarten all the way upto fifth grade. So and I wanted
(03:22):
to be a teacher, like that iswhat I wanted to do. I loved my
teacher so much. And they werejust like, such an integral part
of my development those years.
And I just wanted to be ateacher. Let's see. So my mom
was a stay at home mom and oneof four siblings. I like to say
I'm more than middle because mybrother's the oldest, and then
my sister and then me and thenmy little brother who does not
(03:43):
like to be called My littlebrother anymore because he's
grown. Brother. And I was justalways like that nurturing, you
know, teaching everybody, youknow, bossy, some people would
say, but that was mypersonality, right? So I thought
I wanted to be a teacher until Igot into middle school. And I
was on the mock trial team. AndI met an African American woman
(04:05):
attorney, again, like I was justso enabled with her. And I
wanted to be an attorney then.
So all throughout high school, Iwanted to be an attorney. You
know, my major in college waslaw in American civilization,
political science, and my firstjob was on Capitol Hill. And I
was like, oh, yeah, like, I'mgonna go work on Capitol Hill,
(04:26):
and then I'm gonna go to lawschool. But then I started to
meet like, all these lobbyistsin heaven than go to law school.
And at that point in time, Ithought I wanted to stay in
politics. So I said, Okay, I'mgonna be a lobbyist. I don't
need to go to law school to be alobbyist or lawyer to be a
lobbyist, right? Like, I'm justgoing to do that. And that's
what I do. So I was on CapitolHill for about three years, and
then I went on to be a lobbyistfor United Negro College Fund
(04:48):
UNCF. Now, and that's actuallyhow I came into Accenture. So I
came into Accenture and theirgovernment relations office and
a lot of people don't know thatI'm a lobbyist by trade, which
is like the most interestingthing because, you know, I'm a
DI, professional, you know, I'mHR executive, and who would have
known that I got my start as alobbyist. But it works, right?
(05:09):
Like all the skills that Ilearned for, you know, being
persuasive. And people andadvocate, don't get
Jessica Hartley (05:17):
into an argument with
Latisha Roberson (05:21):
advocacy as a big part of DNI. And then, you
know, just HR in general, likeany type of people role or
people function is really aboutbeing an advocate for others.
So, you know, although I didn'tbecome an attorney, or a
teacher, you know, those are allroles in jobs that are huge
advocates for others. So it's inmy blood. So although I didn't
become a teacher, or lawyer, youknow, who thought I'd be where I
(05:44):
am. Now, those are all careersthat require people who are
passionate, and who areadvocates and who like to
educate and bring awareness. Soyeah, that's how you
Jessica Hartley (05:54):
talk to me about some of these transitions
that you made. So you went toschool, and you're like, Okay,
I'm gonna get this degree, I'mgoing to Capitol Hill, you went
to Capitol Hill. And then youwere sort of really at that
point where you're like, Okay,do I go to law school? Oh, I can
still stay connected, but justin a different way? How did you
make that shift from being onone side? And then moving into
(06:17):
the lobbying? And then how didyou then make that shift? Again,
we, I care about the glue inbetween? So how did you then
say, Oh, I'm going to go to thisplace called Accenture. And I'm
sure that, you know, maybe inyour interactions and dealings,
when I ultimately came toAccenture, I had never heard
either before, I didn't knowwhat management consulting was,
(06:38):
I haven't had a previousconversation on one of the other
podcasts. Someone else, youknow, a lot of people kind of
make their way in and sort ofthrough management consulting in
some way or another. But I'vefound out that a lot of us, it's
particularly people of color,and women of color. Management
Consulting is like this wholeother world that you've never
heard of, and experience, and itdefinitely is a whole nother
world. But we'll get to that.
Let's go back to the glue inbetween going from one side to
(07:01):
the other. So,
Latisha Roberson (07:05):
like, for me, all my transitions are where
I've gotten to a crossroads,where I felt like I just needed
to do something else. And youknow, when you're on Capitol
Hill, there are you know, likethree integral roles of a
Capitol Hill staffer, right? Youcome in your entry level, as a
staff assistant, I did that. Youmove up, you're a legislative
correspondent, that's whereyou're responding to all all the
(07:26):
letters and causing things tocome in. I did that. And then
you our legislative assistant,which is when you're actually
working on like all of thepolicy things. And I did that
too. And I knew I didn't want tobe a chief of staff, because I
just felt like I would have nolife, right? Like, you will be
very busy, do other things. Butthen I started to meet like all
these lobbyists, you know,through my jobs and learn what
(07:46):
they did. And it seemed fun. AndI was like, that could be the
next step. And most people, theyare either career staffers on
Capitol Hill, or they come forthree, four years, like most
people I know. And then they gooff and do other things. They go
to law school, or they go to bea lobbyists. Like, that's really
it, or they go and get an MBA,and they go and work. You know,
in corporate America, like thoseare really the paths you don't
(08:08):
meet a lot of people who havespent their entire careers on
Capitol Hill, you have a lot ofboomerangs, you know, people who
go and then they come back. Butonce you hit like three or four
year mark, you really start toassess like what your next steps
are. And I said I wanted to be alobbyist. That's what I wanted
to do. And with Capitol Hill,it's all about connections,
right? Like, so I had to findlobbyists who worked and I'm
(08:31):
like, Okay, what do I want todo. And while I was on Capitol
Hill, I'm gonna date myself.
But, you know, one of thelegislations and bills that I
worked on was no child leftbehind. So that is where I
really started to think aboutand really bring awareness to
issues around inequities ineducation, which I'm really
still passionate about. Now. Youknow, we could talk about that
too. But you know, inequities ineducation, and they're really
(08:53):
starting to think about, like myown upbringing, and how there
could have been different ways Icould have gone or you know,
which good or bad had, I had theawareness that allows these kids
don't have or the opportunitiesthat a lot of kids don't have,
so No Child Left Behind, justopened my eyes to some of the
inequalities in educationsystem. And I said, you know,
(09:14):
what, I want to go work for anorganization that does that. And
you know, CF was headquarteredin the DC area at the time, and
I randomly applied randomly,like, and I got the job. And I
loved it there. And that's whenI really started to learn about
because I did not go to ahistorically black college and
university. So I started tolearn more about like the
history and the culture aroundhistorically black colleges and
(09:37):
universities. And then that'sactually how I got to Accenture,
which is random because I hadbeen a UNCF for a few years. And
I was at an event business highEducation Forum and Accenture
CEO at the time was there. Wow.
Right. And I was talking tothem. I was just talking to him
randomly and he said to me, Hey,you know, I really want you to
(09:59):
talk Two at the time, he's hername. And he said she is
government relations. And Ithink you should talk to her. So
I talked to her. And I told herI used to work on Capitol Hill.
She asked me if I knew a fewpeople that she knew. And I was
like, oh, yeah, absolutely knowthat I got a call from that
person. The next day, they werelike, Oh, she really likes, you
know, like, what are you gonnado? And I was like, I don't know
(10:20):
who they are.
Jessica Hartley (10:24):
I mean, talk about your network speaking for
you, right? I mean, we talk alot. You know, I know you
obviously, in addition to theday job, and the side job, we
all have a bunch of slashes andwe talk a lot about the
relationships and theconnections that you build
across your career. And we talkabout the value that your
(10:44):
network brings, but the valuecomes in what you have
contributed to that network. Andwe never know what's happening
behind the scenes and phonecalls and emails and say, hey,
you know, this person is thisperson. Great. I was just
talking to
Latisha Roberson (10:57):
this man, you know, he was sitting beside me,
and we were having conversationabout like, community colleges.
And you know, what we like thepeople like to call I'm saying
occultations underrepresented,right? I could go on about that,
too. But you know, we weretalking about that I was, you
know, telling them I was at UCF,he was talking about
partnerships. And he was justselling like, not a
conversation. He was like, youknow, and my first role when I
(11:19):
got to Accenture was supportinghim, the CEO, he was doing an
initiative called thespringboard project where
Accenture was working with otherorganizations through this group
called the Business Roundtable,where they were working with
community colleges to dopartnerships to really untapped
the potential and communitycolleges. So it was great. Like,
(11:39):
I stopped him, and it was fullcircle because I stabbed him on
Capitol Hill. I wrote testimonyfor him. Like, it was just
amazing that, you know, here Iam at this huge, huge consulting
firm that I've never heard of,until, you know, my friends on
Capitol Hill was like a leglessjet, you gotta, you know, if she
wants to interview you, you needto figure it out, like do your
research, like, here it is. AndI did. Alright, but you know,
(12:02):
who to know, just from me justhaving authentic conversation
with somebody that he was CEO oforganization and was like, let
me connect you with someone whoI think you should talk to, and
then just being able to reallyuse my skills and my network
back on Capitol Hill to do that.
And I was in GovernmentRelations at Accenture for about
because I served three CEOs togovernment relations center. So
(12:25):
the chairman's Yeah, right. I,
Jessica Hartley (12:31):
what is that, like, I mean, because, you know,
reporting into CEO or supportinga CEO, global CEO, company with
hundreds of 1000s, I talked topeople about, you know, as
you're moving through yourcareer, you're changing
altitudes and changing, youknow, but that's not altitude,
that's like, you know, flyingand then, you know, SpaceX like
(12:52):
stratosphere, that's a wholenother world and level, what was
that light for?
Latisha Roberson (12:57):
It was very intimidating at first, but, you
know, I had just had to do it.
And once I supported the firstCEO, and then you know, his
tenure was over, the next CEOcame in, and he was passionate
about something that I waspassionate about. So we
connected on that level, becauseat the point in time, we had
just really started to Accenturewas still building like their
inclusion diversity team. And hewanted to do work with HBCUs.
(13:19):
And guess what, guess what usedto work for you on TF, right? I
guess who can make thoseconnections? Yes, who can
educate you and tell you likewhat it is? And guess who can go
to these career fairs? And whocan really speak to these
students? You know, on behalf ofAccenture, right, I felt like it
was just all falling together.
But then it got to a place whereour priority started to shift,
(13:43):
and what we were focusing onetc. And then now the CEO came
in, and he was focused onsomething different. And I just
was like, Okay, well, maybe Ineed to focus on something
different. And that is how Istarted to transition out of
Government Relations atAccenture into other things. And
you know, this, but I've hadabout five different roles.
While I've been at Accenture,and they have all been through
word of mouth, or somebodyrecommended me. I like saying,
(14:05):
Oh, hey, let's he should begreat for this. Or saying to me,
you know, Rebecca is looking forsomeone to do this. I think you
should talk to her. So yeah,those how every role I've had an
adventure has evolved orhappening. For me, it's been all
about my network. And you'llnever get such a buzz where
people talk about all cometogether on the network. But I
can attest, your network is veryimportant to getting that role.
(14:28):
And all of these roles have beenlike you said, like so
definitive for me, you know, mygross was in my career. So I
mean, don't get me wrong. Iknow. We'll talk about the
hustle and grind because therehave been some bumps in
Jessica Hartley (14:40):
the road.
That's what we're going next. Soyou're previewing a little bit
of where you're going andnobody's career is perfect. And
some of us sort of some folkssort of meander along the way.
Some folks have a career planand it's our one pager as they
go from roll to roll to rollabout what they're trying to
achieve. Leave. But even withthe greatest intentions and the
(15:01):
greatest strategy that you canhave, sometimes things don't
work in the way you want, youknow, you don't get the role
that you want at the level thatyou want, you don't get
promoted, when you really thinkyou should. And you're looking
around at your peer set, sort ofadvancing past you. And these
are the things that we face aswomen in corporate America as
(15:22):
people of color in corporateAmerica. And so maybe talk about
some of the challenges that youhad in not just obviously, the
challenges in kind of what itwas like to navigate. But how
did you sort of move past thatsometimes you actually have to
just have acceptance, right?
There's a what are the thingsyou can change? What are the
(15:43):
things you can change? And whatare the things that are going to
take some time to change? So
Latisha Roberson (15:46):
I think I had to learn the hard way, the
importance of being vocal aboutwhat you want. Because the first
time I was passed up forpromotion, that I thought I
deserved, my leads at the timesay, Well, I didn't even know
you wanted to get promoted. Soof course, because they didn't
know I wanted to be promoted,they weren't fighting it for me
at the table for promotion, orgiven me stretch assignments
(16:08):
that were, you know, setting meup for promotion or given me the
exposure that I needed forpromotion. And at that point in
time, I say, Oh, well, you know,a lot of us think that we could
just put our head down, and wecan do great work, and it will
be recognized. But no, that'snot like you need to be
intentional about what you wantto do. I never said to him, Hey,
I'm looking to get promoted,like, what do I need to do, or
(16:29):
we've never had those types ofconversations. And of course,
these are things that happenedto a lot of people early on in
their career. But I think thatwas the first definitive moment
for me when I really understoodthe importance of having to take
control of my career. And then Iwas like, Okay, I'll start
telling people, but then I hadto learn the balance between,
you know, letting people knowthat you're interested in being
(16:51):
promoted, and then being reallypushy about it and setting it up
as an expectation. To, you know,your desires to grow within your
career without sounding like,Hey, I'm expecting to get
promoted. Alright. So I had toreally learn the messaging, and
you know, how to talk to peopleabout career growth and
appropriate way. Number one, Ihad to figure out that I'm used
(17:11):
to do that. Number two, I had tofigure out how to do that. And
then thirdly, I had to figureout who's a sponsor versus who's
a mentor, I know, we talkedabout this all the time, like
there.
Jessica Hartley (17:24):
But preach on it, come on to teach and preach
on it, because I preach on Ihave, you and I both have lived
these experiences where we'vehad tons of mentors, the love is
there, the support is there, theadvice is there, but they don't
control a darn thing. When itcomes to whether or not you get
from
Latisha Roberson (17:42):
people, they're not making those
decisions. And a lot of timesthey don't have the authority to
act on your behalf or to speakon your behalf. So that was the
third thing for me, that wasreally pivotal. And me being
able to navigate through thisthing called Corporate America
is really understanding who wasa mentor versus a sponsor. But
they also write understandingthat sponsors pick you, right,
(18:05):
like, sponsors have protegees.
Mentors have mentees. So if youwant to be somebody's protege,
they have to decide that they'regoing to commit to doing that
for you, a mentor menteerelationship is very 5050, I
believe, because you're investedin seeing that person grow, that
person wants to learn from you,like there's a lot of give and
take, but when somebody saysthey're gonna sponsor you, that
(18:28):
is very intentional. And a lotof times, they're putting their
reputation on the line for you.
And they're giving you a lot oftime that you need, where they
are teaching you and they'reexposing you and they're making
those connections like that is abig time commitment. So when
someone says to you, I'm goingto sponsor you, you have to live
(18:48):
up to the expectations, but youhave to make sure that that
person doesn't regret sponsoringyou. And I had to learn that
too. It took me a few years toreally understand that if I want
to get to the next level, I haveto have sponsors, it's great to
have mentors, but I have to havesponsors, I have to know who's
going to be at the table, I haveto know who has the authority, I
have to know who's going to beable to give me the
(19:09):
opportunities that I need. Soonce I figured out those three
things, I was able to navigate.
I'm not gonna say easier, butbetter, right, I was able to
navigate better because I alwaysthought about those three points
when I was at a crossroadswithin my career.
Jessica Hartley (19:25):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And so glad you
brought that up as a topic. Ithink about myself in my own
career. And the moments that Iultimately made decisions to
leave certain organizations wasbecause you get to hustle and
grind and get the work done. Andthen you realize, okay, that's
not enough. And then you lift upyour head and you speak out the
(19:45):
things that you want. And thenyou get to a point where you're
like I am doing all of thosethings that people have told you
to do. Not don't just do workand deliver great excellence
talk about it, be able tosupport yourself, be vocal about
what you want to eat, and eventhen and sometimes you don't get
it. And then what do you do?
And, you know, for some of us,we ultimately decide that we
need to find anotherorganization that will
(20:07):
recognize. And you know, one ofthe things that I learned in my
career was just also being veryclear about not what you want
now, but what you want in thefuture. And I think about the
role that I have now, inliterally, I think the first
conversation with the CEO, theorganization, I said, I aspire
to be in the C suite one day,that's an aspiration. So any
(20:28):
role that I take needs to moveme if not one step, multiple
steps closer, and I'm here tolearn not just into the role,
but I'm here to learn from you,and learn how you operate at the
C suite level, because I want totake all of those things in as I
continue to aspire up. And Ifind it interesting that you
talk to people, then you say,Well, what's your five year
(20:49):
plan? Or, you know, what's thetitle that you want to have
before you retire? And peoplearen't even that far out yet.
But when we think aboutstrategic intention, you got to
do that talk a little bit aboutmotherhood, and work. I won't
even lie in us as we'rebalanced. There's not there's,
I'm like, it is all sacrifices,it is just one of those things
(21:15):
that you can actually live with,and what are those things that
are non negotiables? Right, whenit comes to sacrifice, so talk
about mother that I mean, youhave a beautiful daughter, and
you also have sons in connectionwith your spouse, and just how
has that been navigating that incorporate America in these
spaces, and you've been in someinfluential and impactful roles
for very influential andimpactful people and you and I
(21:38):
know that comes with a level ofcommitment, but also stress in
navigating
Latisha Roberson (21:45):
that. So I will say when I started the
motherhood journey, it was apivotal point in my career, it
was actually a time where I feltlike I had been slighted within
my career, because, you know, Iwent out for maternity leave, as
most moms do. And someone had tobackfill me because I was in a
critical role. And I had totrain somebody, right, I trained
(22:08):
somebody to backfill me, and Icame back, it was all good came
back, and they were like, Youknow what, like, basically,
like, we're gonna find somethingelse for you to do, right, we're
gonna keep him in this role,we're gonna find something else
for you to do. And you knowwhat? He got promoted that
cycle. And I didn't. And I waslike, I trained him,
Jessica Hartley (22:29):
I trained him to do his job.
Latisha Roberson (22:31):
Well, right, like all the processes and plans
and procedures and strategy, youknow, were in place for him. I
set those up, and I was gone. Iwas, you know, at this point in
time, we only got eight weeks,but I took 12. And, you know, I
was gone for 12 weeks, and Icame back and you still have to
go through the performancecycle, the performance cycle
ended, like maybe two monthslater. And I'm thinking to
(22:53):
myself, like, how's that evenpossible? Like, I left after
training him, right. So that wasthe first time I ever felt
slighted, like, you know,someone took something from me.
And that was also the time whereI was like, I got to get out of
here. My work isn't appreciatedhere, right? Like this, that
(23:13):
should have been me. Like, thatwas my work. I trained him,
right. So if he's doing arockstar job in it, anyway,
that's all interpretive,depending on who says it, but
like, that was the first timethat and it hurt even more than
when, previously when I didn'tget promoted, because they
didn't know because that wasmore of myself. I was like,
okay, he didn't know now heknows. Right. Right. And this
(23:34):
was not the same manager, butstill in the same office. So
everyone knew what my intentionswere. But you know, and that was
when I decided that you know,what, like, maybe I need to be
doing something else anyway.
Because anyone who has everlobbied or worked in government
relations know that it is a lotof early mornings and late
nights, you're going topractices you're going to
fundraiser, yeah, you know,before word afterward. You know,
(23:55):
I was running our PAC, ourpolitical action committee,
which is huge, right? So I washaving to go to all these events
and I was, you know, I was like,You know what, and it was hard
for me because I would sometimesleave out in the morning and I
wouldn't see my daughter until Iwas kissing her goodnight when I
was coming in. And that's when Istarted to think maybe I need to
switch what I'm doing to a rolewhere I'm not required to do
(24:16):
early mornings and late nightsmaybe I need something that's a
bit more you know, there's nevera nine to five within management
consulting or within roles weused to climb executive ranks
like they're very rarely nine tofive strict naturopath there are
now because I've learned how toset boundaries.
Jessica Hartley (24:36):
But even then, sometimes there's
Latisha Roberson (24:40):
kids are down now let me go back to work, but
you know, your time but for me,it was really hard because I
felt like I had to do somethingdifferent because I was a mom,
right? I felt like at the timelike I wasn't gonna be able to
advance within that team becauseI you know, it's mom. So I
started looking for Other rolesand again, like this was a
(25:01):
pivotal time because it wasanother somebody else was going
out on maternity leave. And wehad a new office managing
director in DC at the time whohad I had gotten to know, it was
one of those things where shetold him like, well, this he was
looking for something different.
He was like, Okay, were you okaywith it, and then let's just go
with her. Like, I trust her. Iknow her. You know who that
office manager director wastelling me I just
Jessica Hartley (25:29):
the incomparable Martin Rogers, the
ultimate sponsor, and mentor,all rolled in.
Latisha Roberson (25:35):
You know, it was one of those things where,
here I am doing somethingcompletely different, like, I
had been involved in a lot ofMetro DC stuff, and you know,
volunteer. And of course, likewith the HBCU stuff that I was
doing previously, so I hadgotten to know him. But I mean,
this was like, the ultimateopportunity, it was something
different for me. And I was ableto build my network a bit more
(25:55):
to a, you know, work for one oflike you said, the best mentor
sponsors, just like amazingpeople out here. So and that was
when I did that for nine to 10months before he recommended me
go work for the r&d team, right?
Jessica Hartley (26:09):
Yeah. And see, again, we're talking about these
connections, right? Yes, you'vegot to do the work and deliver
Latisha Roberson (26:15):
that. I will say, though, like, that was
another role that required a lotof time outside of normal
business hours, because it was amarket facing role. So it
required me to play in a lot oflarge scale employee engagement
events. And it required me to goto a lot of events with like,
our clients and our communitypartners. And I was struggling,
and with my time and mycommitment as a mom and feeling
(26:38):
like, I was sliding my daughterand my time there. And then you
know, like, okay, is this gonnabe another long night? So,
again, I said, maybe I do needto do something different. And
one of the things that I've beentalking about a lot lately, too,
is how there's this title ofworking moms, but there's no
title of working dad, right?
Like, as, you know, working momsor career women, like, people
(26:58):
expect us to do certain thingsor to be unavailable for certain
things. But there's never aquestion when it comes to men
who have children, as it relatesto their commitment to the job
or to the role or what they canand cannot do.
Jessica Hartley (27:15):
It just isn't or we celebrate, we give them
all, you know, when they do setboundaries, and I'm going to
take care of my child. Right,like, revolutionary, you know,
is it as if they're a saint? Andit's like, no, they're just
doing what they're supposed tobe doing? What we all actually
want to
Latisha Roberson (27:34):
do parenting, right? Just Burning Man is just
what why is there a title of aworking dead? Yeah. Why don't
men start off by saying I'm aworking there? Because it's so
relevant to anything that'sgoing on? Right? Nobody thinks,
Okay, well, he can or can't dothis, because he's a working
dad, or, you know, we shouldreward him for doing this
because he's a working dad, itonly falls on women. And I mean,
(27:56):
again, it's archaic. I mean, wecan do things about it. But I
did there was like that two yearspan in my career, where I found
myself making a lot of decisionsbased on my title was mom, and I
don't regret, right, because,you know, I had to do what I
thought was best for me and whatI thought was best for my
family, and what was best for mycareer. So maybe I did slow down
(28:19):
my career progression for a fewyears. But those were the
pivotal years of my daughters.
And, you know, everybody atAccenture know, Sydney, right?
Because I've never, ever feltlike I've had to compromise
that. Like if I needed to bringher to a work event, guess where
she was coming? Or if I neededto stay home, and I'm gonna dial
in, and she's sitting beside me,Hey, say hello. And that was
your pre pandemic,
Jessica Hartley (28:42):
pre pandemic, pre self care and all of these
things. And so actually, let'sjust touch on that briefly
around self care. How do youreignite reinvigorate yourself?
How do you make sure you'resetting those boundaries? I've
found that, you know, as wemature, in our careers, the
polls on you are different,right? Especially when you're a
(29:02):
people leader, and a manager ofother leaders. And it can still
bleed into a lot of things. AndI've even think last night,
we're waiting on takeout. And Ikept looking at my phone, and
the spouse was like, you know,you get and I'm complaining
about venting a little bit aboutsomething you'd like we'll stop
looking at your phone. I'm like,Oh, how do I do that? Yeah. So
(29:29):
how do you take care ofyourself? How are you you know,
refilling your cup. And becausein these roles, when you're
really laser focused and di isin your title, you are
constantly taking care ofothers. You are caretaker, I
don't want to just say Mother, aparent, but you are caretaker of
others, which means you alsocarrying their burdens, their
(29:50):
troubles, you're trying tonavigate things. How do you take
care of yourself? What does thatlook like?
Latisha Roberson (29:54):
Oh, I do this and I tell everybody, they
should do it, but I take onehooky day a month, right. So And
it's not really a hooky daybecause it's paid time off.
Like, it's my time I should useas I choose. But I pick one
random day each month. It'susually like a Tuesday or
Thursday, and I do whatever Iwant to do. So if I want to do
(30:14):
school drop off and come backhome asleep, I'm asleep. If I
want to binge watch, I bingewatch, if I want to go treat
myself to a manicure pedicure, Ido that if I want to have lunch
with a friend, I want to go fora walk. I don't deviate from
that. Like, you may not knowwhat day it is, I may look at my
schedule one week and be like,You know what, this Thursday is
a really light day. I'm gonnatake my hooky day on Thursday.
(30:35):
Right? So and I started doingthat about right before the
pandemic, like, maybe about twoyears ago, I started doing that
because I was scheduling timeoff. And then I would let people
schedule over it like I youknow, it'd be one of those
things where I would, you know,schedule a half a day off and
had a teacher, you're the onlyperson that's not available at
this time, like, are youflexible, and I would say you
(30:57):
know what I am because I'm notreally doing anything. And I had
to stop doing that. So I had tolearn to make sure that I'm
dedicating some time, the timethat I earned to myself, so I do
a hooky day, like once a month,whether you know a few other
friends may play hooky with me.
And we go just have a fun day,we might have a picnic, we might
go out on a boat, like whateverit is, we might go shopping, but
(31:18):
I do that I don't deviate awayfrom that, I do that. The second
thing is, I am a stickler on myexercise time because it is a
stressful for me. So I'm apeloton enthusiast. Yes, I drink
the Kool Aid. But I say that soserious. But I do that at least
four times a week. And I'm alsolike, as a leader, right, we
(31:39):
talked about that important thatI like to say good examples for
my team. So I'm very transparentwith them. So you know, I'll let
them know, Hey, I'm gonna beaway for about an hour and a
half because I'm about to ride.
And you should do the samething. Like, if you want to go
for a walk, do it if you wantto, like go ride your bike for a
mile, like you should do it. I'mtransparent, because I want them
(32:01):
to be transparent with me. Idon't want them to feel like
they can't live their lives ordo things to take care of
themselves. And tell me aboutit. Like, you're gonna go walk
your dog great. You don't tellme that enjoy the time where
you're out, right? Like walkingthe dog, right? Or, you know,
you want to leave a little earlyto go pick your son up early.
Great, right? Like, I'm surehe'll be happy, go get pizza,
(32:23):
something. So I'm verytransparent about like, what I'm
doing so that they feelcomfortable enough being
transparent about what they'redoing. So we have a culture of
we have life outside of work,and we embrace it. Yeah. Right.
And yes, for me, I not gonna sayI didn't really have leaders
that were that way. But when Isaw people around me who were
(32:44):
being transparent about thebalance part of their life, I
felt comfortable enough to doit. So I felt comfortable enough
saying I was gonna leave at 330because I wanted to catch, you
know, a soccer match or, youknow, hey, I'm meeting or
whatever, but we have to get outof this culture of, you know,
setting expectations aroundpeople that they have to, from
manufacturing, just sittingthere doing whatever, because a
(33:06):
lot of things can happen, or,uh, you know, outside of work
hours, so we just have to be abit more flexible, and you have
to be transparent about what'sgoing on. So when it comes to
self care, like, I'm justtransparent about it, and I
schedule that time. So that'show I stay sane. With the and
then like you said, like, set aboundary. So when I sign off at
530, to go to school pick upbetween 530 and 930. Like, I'm
(33:30):
just not going to be available.
Like that's my family time. Likewe're cooking dinner, we have a
bath, I might be you know,catching up with my husband,
like, you know, and if I decideto answer email at 10 o'clock,
then, okay, I decided to dothat. I decided to do that. But
overall, like, you probablyshould expect a response from me
in the morning. Yeah, no, I tryto be very conscious of people's
time, because I don't want themto think that if I send them an
(33:51):
email at 1030, that they shouldrespond immediately. Right,
right. Yeah, I try not outsideof working hours, because I
don't want, you know, my team tofeel like they have to too. Now
again, there are some timeswhere there's a fire or
something's burning, orsomething comes up, and you have
to have to do it. But I try tomake them more of you know, like
a one off type of thing. Andthat's not the culture. It's not
(34:13):
a culture of aspect that we'reworking all day, every day,
unless we have to Yeah,sometimes we do.
Jessica Hartley (34:21):
My thing that's so critical that we as leaders,
in that manage teams, we knowthat when I look up or when they
look up at us, or look sideways,they are looking at
representations and we'resetting the tone and setting the
stage for for what it means tobe a leader and to be a leader
is to set boundaries. And to bea leader is to I mean, sometimes
(34:45):
I even have them you might youknow, everybody's calendars are
ugly and particularly ugly. Andnow they're starting to encroach
like later and earlier and I'vegotten to the point where I'm
like, if that's critical, I'mhappy to do it, but if it's not
critical, I need you to move itand not even tomorrow or
Thursday, like, can you move tonext week? Can we talk about
this into wheat? Like, do youneed me to make an answer or
(35:08):
response right now? And I thinkthere's also this other place,
probably a little bit of hubrisof just like, we care so much so
that you want to be ineverything and you need to be
connected. And it's like, no,actually, you should chill if
they make a mistake, or it's notdone exactly the way you wanted
it to be. It's okay. That's allright. People also have to
learn. Yeah, absolutely. So talkto me a little bit about lead
(35:30):
with Leticia. I mean, in thisworld where work can be great
and be fulfilling our day job,or nine to five, whatever we
want to call it. But I'm findingmore and more particularly women
and women of color, we'reventuring outside of the four
walls of work, and pursuingadditional passions. And so that
(35:51):
doesn't mean you're walking awayfrom those things that you do
every day. And we like to eatand we like roof over our head
and all of that. But we'refinding not only other ways in
which to leverage our passions,but also I'm finding a lot of
women contributing andsupporting others in their
career. So talk to me, what wasthe catalyst to say, Now is the
time for lead with Leticia.
Latisha Roberson (36:11):
So this is a funny story. But I had a friend
who actually like called me outon it, and she was like, you are
giving away your genius that youneed for free, like, you are out
here getting people jobs, youare out here making connections,
like you are out here,counseling people, there are
people who do this for a living,and you need to be one of them.
(36:35):
I just looked at her and I waslike, Girl, like, autonomy,
knowing I do this out of thekindness of my heart. Because
people will reach out to me andyou know, hey, they will ask me
for advice. They would, youknow, ask me to make connections
or offer to make connections.
You know, I was talking topeople constantly, like helping
them think through likedifferent situations and
providing strategies for them.
(36:56):
And she said it to me, and Ididn't really think anything of
it when she said it, but then Istarted to be more conscious of
it. And I was like, You knowwhat, she is absolutely right.
But then also right, I wasstarting to do more, you know,
like speaking engagement andpanels and things like that, on
behalf of my role at Accenture.
But a lot of times I wanted tospeak on behalf of myself right
my opinions may have beendifferent, or you know, what
(37:18):
they wanted me to say may havebeen different than what you
know, I was actually gonna say,and I just really wanted to
establish like a personal brandfor me. And that is how legals
the t shirt got started. Butthen as I was thinking about my
business plan, and my idealcustomer, my ideal customers me
so I started to think about likeall of the different
(37:41):
opportunities and all thedifferent trainings and all the
different TED Talks and all thedifferent conversations that
I've had with people or that Icould have had with people or
had I had them with people a lotearlier in my career, how it
could have helped me like how itcould have helped me advocate
for myself champion for myself,however, would have helped me
advance a bit so my brain juststarted turning so that is how
(38:04):
leaving fussy she came about andleave because he she is my
business so my grind right myhustle and my grind and my shine
I will say
Jessica Hartley (38:13):
and your shout out to you till you said it
before I am.
Latisha Roberson (38:17):
In my and I don't like to call it a side
hustle because to me it's not aside hustle. Like it's just
something that I'm doing. AndI'm hustling on it but I just
hustler life in general. I thinkwe all do like we hustle as
parents, you know, we have alist friends, you know, we
hustle as colleagues like we'rejust having a grind and a
husband. So this is the perfectname for a podcast. But you
know, with a teacher, you don'thave to strategy services. So
(38:40):
you know, I help people thinkthrough like what is their next
step or where they want to do? Ido speaking engagements. So I do
podcasts like this amazing onehere. You know, I serve on
panels for conferences, I dokeynotes, I will you know, guest
speak at different employeeresource group events. I do
speaking engagements. But then Ijust also serve as a voice like
a thought leader in the space asit relates to black women in
(39:04):
corporate America. So I do thatthrough my Instagram page and
through LinkedIn and throughdifferent articles and things
that I do and my blog and mywebsite. So it's really just
leave with the seashell is abrand. But it's also a business
where I support women throughtheir career growth and not just
career growth. But I supportentrepreneurs as well, you know,
just women through light. Sothat is what led me to lead with
(39:25):
Leticia.
Jessica Hartley (39:26):
I love it. And you've been producing such great
content. And I very much likeit's the right rule for
everybody. Black is a river byAlba black woman, and especially
all of those in my network thatare out here, just shining as we
wind down Teesha share with mesomething that you consider to
(39:46):
be a highlight of your career.
Just something that it just madeyou incredibly proud. Just as
you think about life and workand career and all those
Latisha Roberson (39:57):
things.
They're like two or three onesthat I you know that, okay, if
you want to write, you
Jessica Hartley (40:01):
can run out a lift, it's okay. Because, you
know, this is the shower curtaineverything, but I just always
want to make sure we're justjust, you know, I could talk to
you for five hours and
Latisha Roberson (40:14):
I'm coming up, but so I will say the first one
is so when I talk about, youknow, my work with, you know, at
the time global co2 Senator BillGreen, but one of the pivotal
moments is when I was preppinghim for his testimony. And, you
know, I told him, I said, Bill,you only have three minutes,
right? That's it, right? That'swhy I wrote it for three
minutes. And he's like, youknow, and stuff. And he's like,
(40:34):
they're not gonna cut me off.
Okay, great. So we're in thecommittee hearing room, and
guess what, he gets cut off,light comes on. And he gives me
this look, alright, so he looks,give me this look, and kind of
shakes his head. But thenwhenever, like, for the next
couple of weeks, whenever wewere in the room with other
people, you know, he will alwaysmake this run and joke about,
like, if he says, You're gonnaget cut off, you're gonna get
cut off, or like, wheneversomeone was talking over time,
(40:55):
or whatever, like, he would justlook at me, like, are you gonna
let them know? But for me, Ifelt like, Hey, I told you what
was gonna happen, right? Andit's happening. So that for me,
I had some validation. Right?
Like, I know what I'm talkingabout. And at that point, like,
my confidence really skyrocketedfrom that, right, because, you
(41:17):
know, had the Congressman lethim go on, then he was like, I
told you so right. I mean, oneof those moments, but like, I
was right, in that instance. Andyou know, and that stuck with
him about me, right. So that wasa pivotal moment for me. And
then I was never ever, and Ididn't want to tell him, like
somebody was like, you can'ttell him that like, oh, like, I
know, the procedure. Right? Iworked with him. And I know, and
(41:40):
I was afraid to tell him that,but I had to tell him that to
protect him. Right. But thatreally helped to elevate like,
my confidence, right? That wasone point. And then to the
second point is just being inthe IND space. It's like the
relationships that you make, andlike, you know, this because
this is how we connected toAccenture. But you know, a big
(42:02):
part of my role was planningthese Employee Resource Group
summits, every year, I wouldjust meet so many people and
just learn about their storiesand their journeys, and just be
able to make connections andhelp to elevate them propel
them, you know, throughout theircareers. And just to see, like,
where they started, when I firststarted doing them to how
they've grown, and scale, like,so large. And to be like, I did
(42:25):
that just to look at the programand know that like, this was my
signature program. And I forfive years, you know, I built
this program, I you know, it wasa very grassroots program. And
now it is fully supported, youknow, by the organization. So
just to really look back at someof the programs or things that
I've done that have made atremendous impact on so many
people. Those two are twomoments are that were very
(42:47):
definitive in my career toreally show that, like, Hey, you
can do this, you should do this,your voice is important, it
should be heard, but just theimpact of the programs that are
created and the hard work thatwent into them. So I would say
those are two pivotal points inin my career.
Jessica Hartley (43:02):
Well, I love that and such a great point to
end on Lutetia sharing those twomoments one around confidence, I
think, in both ways, one sort ofthat sort of external
validation, right of theconfidence that you had. And
sometimes we have to tell ourleaders things that they don't
necessarily want to hear. Butthe other piece of just, I think
(43:24):
the hustle and grind at the endleads to shining in you starting
this year, the National almostglobal, you know, in a lot of
ways influence ERG program, anda large global multinational
corporation like Accenture. Imean, that is definitely
something tremendous that a lotof people don't get, but to your
point around impacting so manyother people, I think of all the
(43:46):
work that we did together, andjust you know, in the last
couple of weeks, you all goingthrough your performance cycles
and just seeing the youngpeople, promotion them mix. It
did it promotions, and man, Ijust feel so good. And I'm
texting people congratulations.
Because they obviously had to dothe work. But we were able to
impart a lot of advice andguidance that we didn't
(44:09):
necessarily get when we werecoming up. So let's say Keisha,
I thank you for joining me forthis conversation probably will
have you back on again. Soexcited to see you continue to
shine and grow in your ownright, I can't wait to continue
to watch you with lead withLeticia and all of the things
that are going to come fromthat. So just thank you for
(44:31):
joining me today and sharingyour world and your life and
your career with all of ourlisteners today.
Latisha Roberson (44:37):
Thank you so much for having me. And again,
as you know, I love talking topeople hit me up, Lea, Felicia
leaves a teacher.com That's howyou can connect with me. So I
look back with you again. Soon.
I'm sure it'll be sooner than wethink because I'm sure
Jessica Hartley (44:55):
but thank you Thank you for listening to
another episode of hustle,grind, shine and reignite. If
you liked this episode, like,subscribe and share on all your
favorite podcasts. I hope you'lltune in to the next episode
featuring another amazing andtalented professional. In the
(45:20):
meantime
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