August 14, 2024
10 Lessons with Teresa
by Teresa C. Younger
2024 marks Teresa C. Younger’s 10th year as the President & CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women! In honor of her 10th anniversary, she’s sharing 10 valuable lessons she’s learned about leadership, strategy, failure, and the organizational impacts she’s made during her tenure to-date. 1) Never lose the fun As the phrase goes, “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.” In this line of work, there are so many good days – days that fill you with hope, and remind you of why you’re doing the work, and show you a glimpse of what could be possible. There are also supremely hard and stressful days, and you have to choose to find joy, and to laugh in the chaos. It’s imperative to create a space where you can laugh and be joyful. You have to bring it into the work – you can’t just wait for it to happen. You’ll see that my nails always have glitter. On Thursdays, we wear fun t-shirts. On the weekends, you can almost always find me playing Rummikub. Joy is a choice, fun is a choice, and when you choose to bring it into your life and your work, then it becomes a place you want to be. 2) Make left-hand turns Throughout your career and your life, you’ll be presented with opportunities to make what I call “left-hand” and “right-hand turns.” Right-hand turns require little risk – you’re going with traffic, you don’t need as much driving skill or experience behind the wheel, and the timing is less important. Left-hand turns are scarier, but are often required to get you where you need to go. The key to a left-hand turn is all in the prep. You need to be sure you’re buckled in and secure – it can’t be your first time in the car. You look both ways, and double check, and triple check. And when you’re finally sure it’s time, you need to put your foot on the accelerator without fear. In this lesson, I turn to the timeless wisdom of Audre Lorde: “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” 3) Follow your North Star If you’ve met me, I’ve likely told you that I’m a lifelong Girl Scout. Throughout my life and career, I’ve aimed to realize my Girl Scout pledge: to make the world a better place. Whether I’m having a good day or a bad day, this remains my North Star in everything I do. When I started at the Ms. Foundation ten years ago, I came into the work with this North Star in mind, and began developing our strategic framework. In this process, I learned that you have to give yourself the permission to go in the direction you want to go, even if it’s scary. You’re a leader for a reason, and you need to trust that you know how to lead. During your leadership, there will be hiccups – you’ll make someone upset or hire the wrong person – but if you keep your North Star at the forefront of all that you do, you can acknowledge your mistakes and move forward. 4) Listen well In my first year at the Ms. Foundation, I embarked on a Listening Tour to meet with grantee partners across the country. I took the time to build relationships and give people the space to tell their stories and share what was happening in their state, in their community, in their home. I sat in people’s living rooms, I shared food with them, we laughed, and through that process, we both became more human and able to connect about what really mattered. I also took on an informal listening tour back at Ms. Foundation headquarters in Brooklyn. I was the newcomer – I didn’t know the city, or the people, or the organization – so I started asking questions. It’s a powerful skill to know that you don’t know it all. What’s true of relationships with grantees, or with staff, is that you need to place the value of people first and foremost. Listen well to what they have to tell you, and you’ll learn all you need to know. 5) Tell your own story For many people, myself included, this work is deeply personal – it’s our heart work. This means that your personal identity and your professional identity may be intimately intertwined, so how you tell your story and define yourself matters. What you’re willing to share and not to share matters, because you’re sharing a piece of yourself. If you don’t tell your own story, others will do it for you. 6) Maintain an abundance mindset The idea of an abundance mindset took cultivation for me. As a new President & CEO, I operated with a lot of fear, from a place of scarcity. Would there be enough money? Enough time? Enough resources? With experience, and with a lot of time spent in gratitude, I’ve moved towards abundance. It’s no longer a question of whether things will get achieved, it’s when. If not today, then tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then let’s set a timeline. We’re not waiting for change. You’re already changing the world in this very room, in your home, in your relationships. It helps to surround myself with things that are continually growing and expanding, like stargazer lilies and pathos plants. Abundance is everywhere you look, if you look. Even when a tree goes dormant for the winter, we know it will come back and give us more in the spring. 7) Know thyself The strongest leaders I know are deeply in touch with themselves. It’s important to know what your boundaries are, how long you want to stay in a position, when you’re getting burned out – the list goes on. Knowing yourself is also particularly key when building a team. You need to know your strengths and hire people who will fill in your weaknesses. You must be willing to be in deep relationship with yourself. I, for example, know that there are certain things I’m a stickler about. Sometimes I can be indecisive, but there are some things I’m absolutely concrete on. By knowing myself, others are able to know me too. 8) Write your own rules I love games. When you start as a new leader, it’s important to know what you can change and what you can’t – it’s all a game. Every organization has its own rules and expectations, which you need to understand quickly. Figuring out which rules can be flexible requires insight into the organization’s culture and goals. By grasping these dynamics/rules early on and getting your hands around them, the quicker you learn to break them or change them. 9) Know where the door is / have an exit strategy I rarely walk into a space where I don’t know where the door is – whether that be metaphorically or physically. You should know how long you want to stay somewhere, and also identify what it’ll take for you to leave. With organizations, it helps to figure out the 2-3 things you want to achieve during your tenure, and to have an exit strategy. That way, you’re able to leave on your terms, and you don’t have to tell your soul to do the work you’re striving to do. 10) Being an executive director is similar to raising a child The comparison of being a president & CEO to raising a child vividly captures the stages of growth and challenges within an organization. It highlights the initial chaos, gradual development, and eventual progress. This perspective underscores the patience, dedication, and resilience required in leadership roles, as well as the profound rewards that come with guiding an organization to maturity. In your first year in the role, you don’t sleep, you’re worried all the time, and you’re just trying to stay on top of cleaning up the messes. In year two, things have calmed down slightly, but you can’t communicate. By year three, the organization is starting to walk and communication is beginning. In year four, they have opinions and you’re starting to feel like you can pull yourself together. In year five, they go to kindergarten and you can actually start getting things done. It can be exhausting work, but it’s incredibly rewarding! 
