You're welcome to take your place in using your power to read.Uh I'm really, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be here to present to you guys who am I, I am Doctor Natasha Anderson and I am otherwise known as the Nerdy Stem queen, but I'm also um right now I am the facilities and operations director for a community college here in the Great State of Georgia in the United States.

Um And it's an interesting position to hold um because I pretty much have a lot of power because I hold a lot of the funding for a lot of the things that happens here at the college. I am the purchaser of every piece of equipment for every program um on this campus. And that means everything from paper towels and napkins to uh to uh it equipment. I purchased everything for the college. So um I get to approve, I get to deny, I get to do all of those things. So I have a certain um level of power here. Um And it's really an o the other interesting thing about what it is I do is um I get to use my engineering background. So I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. Um So I get to use my engineering and project management back around and bring them together. Um And really interesting uh just the, just the position um in the role that I hold here. So I'm a project manager, but I'm also, I also manage people, projects, money and all sorts of things um here. So I'm really enjoying myself in this um fairly new position. And I really um have embraced the idea of power and you guys will learn what power means, especially for women in this role.

Because again, I am one of you, there are not a lot of women who are operating in this capacity that I know of in this space where I am. So um I, I guess it's the, it's, it's where I tend to thrive. So women in power like women in power, women and power. Is there any more incendiary, incendiary combination of words, right? Women in power. It kind of causes fear for some people. Um A woman can never be too rich or too thin, but until very, very recently, she could be too powerful, which if she isn't smart enough to camouflage herself, she generally paid the price. Sometimes she got burned at the stake. You guys can remember stories being told, right?

Sometimes she got run out of town, sometimes she was, she, she was sexualized, which has been the easiest way these days to neutralize, if not destroy an accomplished woman. The accepted wisdom is that women have made the longest stride towards independence towards authority and opportunity.

If so, if that is to be true, then like what w what, what's happening? Right. Do, do women, do we actually have power? What, what does it mean? Right. We are still in a, in a, in a time where women, um the idea of a woman CEO is still a novel idea. It's still, it's still an idea for us that when we hear that a woman has ascended to the CEO or she's in, she's ascended to the c suite, all of us at some level. Go wow. I wonder what her story is. I wonder how she did that. It's still a novel idea for a woman to be in po in power. You guys know back in the day marriage was a power play. You know, can you imagine like marrying your husband or your or your wife? And, and that being the power play, that's the how much power and that's the amount of power that we have. And so we have grown tremendously since then, we have made tremendous gains in representation, especially during the pandemic and especially during this time of diversity, equity and inclusion power seems to be um the, the, the bag that we are holding the most these days.

I would argue though that there seems to be a disconnect between some people's or some company's idea of power and who should sit in the power seat. So I I know that women are women friends. We are um we are rising to the moment and we are indeed better leaders compared to men. At some of the same levels, women leader are stronger people managers and are more active champions for diversity, equity and inclusion. Yet, this critical work is being underrecognizing and unrewarded by most companies and that has some serious, serious implications. Companies risk losing the very leader they need right now. And it's hard to imagine that organizations are navigating this pandemic, turn endemic and building inclusive work spaces if, if the work, if this work isn't truly prioritize. So the question of the hour is, is it possible for a woman to yield power without reference to her gender?

Tell me, tell me what you think, put it in the chat. Can she prove herself to be competent, effective articulate without being dismissed as either being, you know, a really nasty woman or you know, or she's, you know, she, she's the dumb blonde. Um Are, are those the two the only two options she has available to us? Power has for so long been a male construct that has distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on only to find themselves in some sort of straitjacket. Powerful women were caricatures of their male colleagues. They had no feelings, they didn't like to talk about shoes. No, wonder. Early feminists hoped the concept of power would vanish entirely when women run around the world. So instead, it seems that women have begun to transform, to broaden, to deepen the whole idea of power. A woman no longer has, has to leave off her gender to embrace the idea of power. Nor does anyone they have to sit in the vicinity of a corner offer. Uh the corner office, right? Power has many addresses, right? So you can lead from the middle, you can lead from behind. That's power, right? That is power. One can, can wield power without a seat, a suit or a tie. Oh, just as one can do so without a paycheck, you know, and I think that that's the most powerful thing. So you can do so without a paycheck, a portfolio or a job having been so many years been for so many years defined by our bodies.

We have no particular desire at this point to be deci to be defined by our business cards. Power y'all is internal and that's what I want you guys to talk to talk to you guys about today. So we talked about what power is, we talked about how we're going to define it. Um Power is an acronym and so we're gonna talk about each part of the acronym in 13 minutes. So let's get to it. The P stands for I had, I couldn't decide, but I like all three of these in very different context. So we're gonna run through these, the P stands for pause, patience and perspective. So some of you guys are in, you know, are in leadership positions at all down the, the pipe. Some, some of you are supervisors, directors, C level suites to CEO S to owning your own business. Doing the thing when you guys are making decisions or you're presented with information, I need you guys to pause. Sometimes if we just take a pause, we have to sit back and we think it all the way through, right? So, so that's, that means that you are then in a, in a headspace to make a good decision. You do so with patience, right? So don't rush to do it.

Even if you're in a crunch situation, you can take a moment, have some patience, think it all the way through and, and make a good decision, get perspective. This is, this is probably saved me more than anything else. It's getting perspective. So instead of when you're confronted with a situation, instead of sort of delving into the feelings of it or delving into like all of the back story. What is it? What is it that I need to do right now? That's gonna help this situation get a perspective. And sometimes that means that you might need to go outside of yourself to get it. So maybe you feel safe asking your boss, maybe there's someone who's in the same industry who is a friend and an ally that you can have a pers you can get a perspective from. So pause, patience, perspective, get those, those three things um as the p in power now the Owen power stands for open. All right. So, and I, and I'll be fully transparent and fully honest with you guys. This one's hard for me, right? So being open mean means that you are open to the, the ideas of others, but it, but in the sense of not just of like what your job entails, right?

It it may be open to the idea of you, of how to lead differently, how to lead better, how to lead from behind, how to lead from ahead, how to do things in a different way. Because we all know as I've already discussed before that uh leading as a woman is different than if you were a man. You are perceived differently through no fault of our own. Were we born women, right? But there are perceptions of us that leave us vulnerable. And so and again, through no, no fault of our own. So if we are open to the perspective of other people that can actually help us become better leaders, so be open warm. OK. So you guys have probably had these conversations and I think they're more like they're more uh microaggressions, right? Where people like I've had people tell me, oh you, you need to smile more and I always ask why, you know, like, why do I need to smile? Like, what is that doing for you? But I've also been told that, you know, you can be rather cold, you can be, you know, like you can be kind of hard, you know, all those things. Right. And so warm for me means how I show up. Right. Warm for you might be, might be a smile, might be saying a good morning, right? I normally don't say good morning. I'm usually, I usually start my day with hello. You know, because I don't, I don't know about your morning. I don't know if it was good.

I, I don't know that. Um So, and I'm also, I'm also, um I'm also like data driven or work driven or project driven, business driven. So when I'm interacting with people, the my first thought isn't, hey, how are you? It's, oh, let's talk about this project that we're both working on or let's see, like what's the budget saying or, you know, so I'm already on business mode and some people like for you to, to address them differently. And so I've had to learn how to, when I come into spaces to read the room to see which, which, which Natasha needs to show up, you know, with what things is going to get me closer to where it is, I need to be, which is, of course, talking about the business. And so, so if the person that I'm interacting with needs a, a good morning. Ok. I can do that. Hey, how are your kids doing? What happened with your dog? You know, did you go to Pilates last night? What about, you know, have you read the latest articles so I can do those things. That's what I mean by being warm, you need to know how to read the, the room, need, need to know how to read the person that you're in the space with, in order for, for the business to be conducted. Ok. It's just being warm and friendly, expressiveness.

I love this. So, and this is the one that I relate to the to the most. So this means that you need to show up as your whole full self everywhere. So again, if you wear your hair with locks, show up with locks, if you like blue lipstick, wear blue lipstick. If you have natural hair, you have frizzy hair. If you like loud colors, you know, if you like heels, you like flats, you don't like to wear dresses, you like to wear pants. Your expressiveness is a part of how you lead and it shows other people that you know what she might dress, what I term, you know, unusual, but she gets the job done. So that means that, you know, it has nothing to do with the way she looks, has nothing to do with that, you know, that loud pink lipstick. She has on today. It, it has to do with her intellect and her abilities, her skills proceed her into the room. It is not about how she looks, but it doesn't mean that you should bend um yourself into a pretzel to conform to the way other people think that, think that you should look. I believe that with my whole heart. So don't do it.

Y'all be as expressive as you are. Hey, if you like the blue suit, then wear the blue suit. You know, it's like you have, you have to be free to do you. So um that is expressiveness and then the r um the R is be responsible. And so I, I love this because a woman in power knows how to be responsible. And included in being responsible is, hey, being honest, having a measure of integrity about yourself, show, show your character, you know, show who it is. You are. II I have a very varied career path, right? It's a windy twisty road. But through out each and every career that I've been in, I have really tried really hard to be as responsible and honest and ha and be a person of integrity as possible. So it's OK to say I didn't, I didn't get that. Right. Right. I didn't, I didn't get it right. I didn't do that thing, the, the way I was supposed to do it. Um You know, I'm responsible, right. My team, I'm responsible for my team, someone on my team may not have done the right thing, but I'm responsible. That's how you uh you, you become a great, great leader. That's how you exhibit your power. That's how you get people to trust you when you're working as a team or you're the team lead. Like people got, people have to know that, that you have their back. Now, you correct them, you correct them in private.

You, you praise in public and you correct in private, right? Again, that's about being a responsible leader. So you do, that's, that's how you do it. That's, that's being responsible. That's being clear, is kind, being unclear, is unkind, right? So you gotta be willing to have those hard and difficult conversations with people. And again, that's about being the responsible leader um as well. And so you guys as leaders or as, as aspiring leaders, you already have the power. So let's go back and, and talk about what the power is again. So you need to have, you need to pause, you need to have patience and get perspective, right? You need to be open. Um You need to be warm, please express yourself and be responsible. And if you can do those five things, I think that you guys who are already leaders will be even greater leaders, those people who are aspiring to be leaders, you'll, you'll step up into that leadership position and you will be great at it. And that is the quick and the dirty. So I am the nerdy Stem queen. You can find me on linkedin at Doctor Tasha and I'll put this stuff in the um the uh I'll put this stuff in the chat and if you have any questions for me, you can put them in the chat now and I'm gonna, I'm gonna hurry up and this is the quickest 2020 30 minutes um as possible, but I'm gonna put my linkedin so you guys can link to me and um and if you have any questions you can ask them here.

Um I think I can share the powerpoint with you guys. Let's see how that was. Thank you all for tuning in. I really appreciate it. All right. And then you can also follow me on Instagram. I'm on Instagram. I am the Nerdy Stem queen. Um And so I love, I would love to connect with all of you guys and um you, uh you can also, you can also follow me um or check, check out more of my work at my website, which I put there. All right, I think I have two minutes left. Is there anything else you guys have or want to know from me? All right, you guys, it was so nice to, to meet all of you. See y'all.