It's next to impossible to ascend the corporate ladder if you can't inspire colleagues and direct reports to champion your vision, which is why managers aren't necessarily good leaders.
Managers organize, plan, and control tasks to ensure efficiency and meet specific objectives. A leader, on the other hand, energizes and motivates others, setting a vision and empowering employees to achieve long-term goals through influence and collaboration.
In a newly published feature for Fortune’s forthcoming Most Powerful Women issue, I profiled Jotaka Eaddy, the founder of Win With Black Women, a potent under-the-radar network of influential Black female leaders pulling strings in American public life and business.
The group meets every Sunday on Zoom, a weekly occurrence that began in August 2020. In the four years since, Eaddy has galvanized thousands of Black women—and, more recently, their allies—to support several causes of importance to them, including the nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, economist Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve Board, the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, and, now, the placement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the Oval Office.
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and several chief executives, such as the Dallas Mavericks' Cynt Marshall, have dropped in on Eaddy's Zoom calls to mobilize around a chosen issue that they find most pressing at the time.
Unlike the private sector, these women don't have a financial carrot stick (that is, pay) to incentivize them to support said mission. As such, there are several leadership takeaways that translate to the workplace. Here are three:
1. Developing a shared mission is hugely important because it creates alignment at scale.
2. A clear vision motivates employees, fosters a sense of purpose, and encourages workers to contribute to a leader's success and the organization more broadly.
3. Finally, an overarching and clearly articulated goal breeds unity. It also enhances decision-making, as teams are better able to prioritize tasks that align with the organization’s overall objectives.
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
Today's newsletter was curated by Natalie McCormick.
