ABOUT KAREN
I am a leadership strategist, executive coach, and speaker with the heart of a scientist and the eye of a fashion designer. I’m on a mission to help visionary leaders prevail in organizations and systems which weren’t designed for them.
We are told to walk away from tables where we are disrespected, undermined, and under-resourced, but never encouraged to stay at those tables, employ our own strategies, and prevail.
In various leadership roles, I've been expected to overdeliver while I watched others underperform. I was often blamed for things that had nothing to do with my role. I had women colleagues who constantly tried to discredit me and sabotage my work. I experienced every awful thing.... and learned that leaders are targeted for excellence, not incompetence. I learned that both corporate AND non-profit playbooks are designed to silence and disempower.
I didn't want to keep running from one toxic organization to another. So I refused access to toxicity. I used pattern recognition and strategy to gain the visibility, recognition, resources, and opportunities that were rightfully mine.
In 15+ years as a senior organizational leader, business owner, and educator in cutthroat, male-dominated industries, I developed leaders, teams, and organizational culture. I also experienced bias, power plays, attacks on social media, and discriminatory behavior. I am on a mission to help other women, women of color, people of color, and visionary leaders predict, prepare, and prevail.
My proprietary leadership framework was inspired by real experiences of women of color senior leaders, including my own, to help leaders prevail through challenges they are never warned about, and often unprepared for.
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Former clients who were:
- “not always recognized or amplified”
- “emotionally and mentally depleted”, and
- “contorting [them]selves just to be accepted" and "stay small and nonthreatening"
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Are now able to
- “build alliances to have greater influence inside predominantly white, male-dominated organizational structures”
- “remain authentic to myself while setting clear boundaries about how I should be treated”, and
- “navigate power dynamics with men I manage on my teams”
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I speak regularly on how to effectively negotiate, manage up, manage down, and leverage personal brands to secure recognition, resources, compensation, and advancement. I serve on the Advisory Board of Mercy University’s Women in Leadership program, advising on curriculum and mentoring future women leaders. I have contributed to women-centric initiatives such as the Women-Centric Design Toolkit, and am a certified Healing-Centered Engagement practitioner.
Book a consultation to see how the Equilibrium Framework can transform your leadership or leadership development programs. Follow me on Linkedin for new content and upcoming events.
I've navigated challenging, toxic, and harmful situations in various capacities and environments:
- when I spoke up
- when I didn't speak upÂ
- when I was successful
- when I was visible
- when I was honest
- when I was passionate
- when I had different opinions
- when I implemented change
In my own experience and my experience developing visionary leaders, many of whom were women and women of color, I found recurring patterns in how we are treated, and how we navigate the unique obstacles we face, often unsuccessfully, because are caught in disbelief and disdain, rather than strategy and solutions.
As the stakes get higher, the isolation, power plays, and challenges to our power become more significant.
I experimented with strategies until I found the ones that worked. I found effective ways to navigate power dynamics, fragile emotions, and harmful policies and practices, and still get what I wanted and worked so hard for.
I built the Equilibrium Framework to replace depletion and demise with an unf*ckwithable leadership foundation which can withstand the tests of senior leadership in corporate, non-profit, and academic spaces.
UPCOMING EVENTS
How do you measure your success as a leader? And how do the early messages we receive shape the way we lead and make decisions? Michele and I and a few special guests will be discussing this, and discussing how we can reshape our thinking so we can stop getting in the way of our own success
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