Hear Your Own Voice: 2022 Leading Woman Carla Harris on How To Recreate Your Career
Carla Harris, leader, author and Morgan Stanley senior client advisor, at the recent Take The Lead Fireside Chat.
Carla Harris has been with Take The Lead from the get-go.
The acclaimed and celebrated Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, author, leader, professional singer and philanthropist was with Take The Lead at its 2014 launch and will accept the 2022 Leading Woman Award this year at the Power Up Conference: The Big RE August 25-26.
Watch Carla Harris at the Take The Lead launch
“Now I realize eight years later, there are still a lot of professionals out there trying to achieve a level of success and they don’t have a playbook,” says Harris, who served most recently as Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley, where she has worked for more than 30 years, including as head of the Emerging Manager Platform as well as Equity Private Placements. “So how can I amplify my efforts to help people get theirs?“
In a recent Fireside Chat for Take The Lead with Felicia Davis, founder of Black Women’s Collective, Harris addresses the urgency – especially post-pandemic—for women to put into action the strategies and necessary “pearls” of wisdom to create their best possible professional life.
“In a recent Fireside Chat for @Takeleadwomen with #FeliciaDavis, founder of #BlackWomensCollective, @Carlaannharris addresses the post-pandemic urgency for #women to put into action the strategies to create their best possible #professional life.”
“The message is this is a blank sheet of paper and nobody has the playbook for a global pandemic,” Harris says. “But what I ’m seeing still is the hesitation. But nobody has the power or ability to give you the permission.” She adds, “If you know what you need to do, go for it. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.”
This is precisely what the author of the forthcoming book, Lead To Win: How To Be A Powerful, Impactful, Influential Leader in Any Environment, has been doing in her life and career.
“The big challenge was not knowing and understanding I had the power to control what people thought of me,” she says.
““The message is this is a blank sheet of paper and nobody has the playbook for a global pandemic. But what I’m seeing still is the hesitation. Nobody has the power or ability to give you the permission. If you know what you need to do, go for it.” — @Carlaannharris. #intention ”
Appointed in 2013 by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council, Harris has earned scores of awards and accolades for her work and leadership including Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America, as well as their Most Influential List; U.S. Bankers’ Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance for three years running; Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business; Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street; Essence Magazine’s “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”; Ebony’s Power 100 and 15 Corporate Women at the Top; plus her alma mater’s Woman of the Year 2004 by the Harvard University Black Men’s Forum and in 2011 by the Yale Black Men’s Forum.
Read more in Take The Lead on Carla Harris
The mother of two children, ages 2 and 7, Harris says motherhood “was a whole new awakening.” Even with what she says is “a great team of people to help me—my husband, a babysitter, girlfriends” she is learning to authentically access “all the parts of Carla” including mother, as well as veteran investment banker and leader.
“The big message I’m trying to instill in my seven-year-old is to learn how to hear your own voice.”
This is also the message all leaders can heed, and one Harris learned herself.
““The big message I’m trying to instill in my seven-year-old is to learn how to hear your own voice,” says @Carlaannharris. This is also the message all leaders can heed, and one Harris learned herself. #LeadToWin #leadershipadvice”
“I can remember people saying my whole life I should be a lawyer,” Harris says. “It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in college that I saw that the things I wanted were found in business.”
Listen to Carla Harris on Take The Lead’s podcast
After graduating from Harvard University with a degree Magna Cum Laude in economics, Harris went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School, before starting with Morgan Stanley. She has since received Honorary Doctorates of Laws, Humanities and Business from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College, Converse College, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, the College of New Rochelle, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Babson College and Fisk University, Wake Forest University and Felician University.
It was shortly after graduating from Harvard Business School that Harris says she learned a valuable lesson and one she talks about in her 2014 speech at the launch of Take The Lead.
“I realized I had the power to control how people perceived me and that impacts how people deal with me,” Harris says. “You can be intentional about that.”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on Carla Harris
That perception drives decisions about your compensation, promotions and new opportunities. All of these decisions are “made when you’re not in the room. So you can control how people perceive you,” she says, and drive the outcomes that affect you.
““I realized I had the power to control how people perceived me and that impacts how people deal with me,” @Carlaannharris says. “You can be intentional about that.” #intention #careergrowth”
Read more in Take The Lead on Carla Harris
Harris has been lauded and honored with many awards over the years for her leadership, philanthropy and business acumen. Her Take The Lead 2022 Leading Women Award she will reciev at the Big RE conference August 26 will be added to the list of awards including New Jersey Hall of Fame (2015); Bert King Award from the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association; the 2005 Women’s Professional Achievement Award from Harvard University; the Pierre Toussaint Medallion from the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York; the Women of Power Award given by the National Urban League, the Women of Influence Award from The Links, Incorporated and many more.
In the unprecedented post-COVID culture that has upended and disrupted workplaces and cultures, Harris says it is the perfect time to reassess and make changes. She is speaking from her own experience.
“In the unprecedented post-COVID culture that has upended and disrupted #workplaces and cultures, @Carlaannharris says it is the perfect time to reassess and make changes. #careerchange ”
“COVID is re-emphasizing your personal power. You have the ability to connect” to anyone anywhere at any time, Harris says.
Starting in February 2020, when no one knew the depth and breadth of COVID’s impact on the world, Harris says she planned for two weeks off from the office. “Then I became focused on what I could get done in a month. I had a growing list of goals It was one of the most productive periods of my life.”
She was able to write a book, adopt another child, and stay in shape, as well as complete all her professional commitments.
Read more in Take The Lead on The Big RE
“There was so much that is significant that I couldn’t control, but so much that I could,” she says.
That also includes whom you can connect with to create a transformative future.
“I am so passionate about people bringing all of themselves” to the workplace says Harris, who also has a vibrant singing career, stemming from her time at Harvard with the world-renowned Radcliffe Chorale Society, the oldest women’s singing group at Harvard, and in her own band Rhythm Company. Harris has performed four sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall and released several albums.
“You do not know what it is as a person that causes another person to connect to you,” says Harris. So it is important to honor what is “proprietary for you.”
Reimagining and reigniting your professional goals, or completely redesigning your work, is possible now more than ever, Harris says. “When you lead to win, you become a powerful, impactful leader in this environment. “
“Reimagining and reigniting your professional goals, or completely redesigning your work, is possible now more than ever, @Carlaannharris says. #PowerUpConference #BigRE”
“Lots of people now are looking for opportunities. So now is the time if you are offering people this experience. In this tougher market, you may be able to pick up talent for your startup. If you have a great business plan, there still is a lot of money out there. If there is a demand for you plan, you should go out there now.”
Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert and Conference, The Big RE, is coming at the exact time when many women need the push to achieve new goals and dreams.
Harris is adamant about seizing this opportunity. “Invest in yourself and go to this conference.”
“@Takeleadwomen ‘s #PowerUp Concert and Conference, The Big RE, is coming at a time when many women need the push to achieve new #goals and dreams. “Invest in yourself and go to this conference,” says @Carlaannharris. #professionaldevelopment ”
Register here for Power Up Concert & Conference: The BIG Re: REthink, REwire, REcreate.
