Last week the Executive Leadership Foundation hosted an empowering event, the 2015 Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF), at the Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, CA. The WLF is an annual, one-day professional and career development conference designed for senior-level Black women executives. The conference features a series of panel discussions, forums, and organized activities crafted through the lens of gender and race. One of this year’s panels featured top decision makers in Hollywood gathered to discuss the business, opportunities, challenges, and creative process faced with transforming the image of black women on the small screen.
Just hours before the event, BlackEnterprise.com had the opportunity to speak with Salaam Coleman-Smith, Executive Vice President, ABC Family and event co-chair along with Gena Gatewood, Senior Communications Manager of the Executive Leadership Council, about this year’s event theme, Transformational Leadership: Mastering Disruption, where they indulged on the importance of the event and the mission of the Executive Leadership Foundation.
BlackEnterprise.com: What is the Executive Leadership Council?
Gatewood: The Executive Leadership Council is a 29 year old organization. We are a membership organization comprised of Fortune 500 and Global 1000 African American CEO’s and senior level business executives. Our goal is to increase the number of Black Executives at the C-suite level or two or three steps below the C-suite level. We also want to increase the number of African American and women representation on boards.
Salaam, how did you get involved with the Women’s Leadership Forum?
Coleman-Smith: I have been working in the entertainment industry for about 20 years, and about three years ago I became a member of the Executive Leadership Council. I was so inspired by all of the various senior level women who were part of the ELC that I really wanted to become an active leader. I was then tapped to be a co-chair for this year’s Women Leadership Forum.
This year’s event theme is Transformational Leadership, Mastering Disruption; can you tell us a little of what it means? What exactly is mastering disruption?
Coleman-Smith: The Women’s Leadership Forum brings together about 150 of the top African American female executives of Fortune 500 companies. When you think about the participants, they are all senior level executives. When the co-chairs and I were determining the theme, we felt like Transformational Leadership: Mastering Disruption was the most relevant rallying cry for this level of executives. For us, transformational leadership is about having the highest impact and influence in affecting change. With the concept of mastering disruption, we were seeing disruption in two ways. One is change that we can’t control and how do you master and overcome that, but also change that we actually create.
Can you offer an example of creating disruption for yourself?
Coleman-Smith: When people in the business sphere talk about disruptive leadership often times they are referencing new technology and things of that nature that shift the industry. As an African American business leader when we talk about disruptive leadership or mastering disruption we’re also talking about being change agents for our industry and for our communities. It can even be applied to our families. It’s all about influencing positive change.
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As an ABC Family executive what is your take on the new “black boom†on television?
Coleman-Smith: What’s great about the Executive Leadership Forum Panel “Images of Black Women on Televisionâ€, our panelists are all senior-level African American women who are behind the scenes leading the transformational change that is happening. Our four panelists Mara Brock Akil, Channing Dungey, Nne Ebong, and Jamila Hunter will talk about black women as leads, but also, black professional women and the fact that we’re in this golden age of black female representation where there is a range of
images, particularly the black female professional female image is driving so much success. Aside from Mara Brock Akil, the other three ladies are all executives for ABC entertainment. ABC, right now, is the highest rated broadcast network in prime time and the highest rated shows on ABC are the shows that feature African American leads. When you look at How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, and Blackish, those shows have absolutely broken new ground.What makes this prime time for the black women on television?
Coleman-Smith: Like anything there is a tipping point. There have been so many African American women who have paved the way in television in the last 30 years. You had Diane Carrol break new ground, and Phylicia Rashad, with her generation, did as well. Each generation of black women–actresses, producers, and writers have contributed. We’re just at a unique moment where we’re experiencing a cultural shift and it’s not just affecting the African American community. It’s affecting multicultural audiences. These high rated shows featuring black women as leads don’t just have black audiences. There is something unique right now about black culture, black leadership, and black imagery that has been much more accepted by the mainstream.
As an executive, are you noticing that black women are more sought after as stars of mainstream shows?
Coleman-Smith: At the executive level, the creative process is still very driven by looking for great characters and great stories. I think that from a creative development process, seeing shows starring black women have such success obviously makes advertisers, the business community, and the creative community much more open to telling the stories of black women.
Why do you think it’s important for events like the American Black Film Festival or the Women’s Leadership Forum to exist in order for black women on big or small screens to remain prominent despite what current trends may be?
Coleman-Smith: The connection between black women is very critical in helping to continue to ensure these types of stories are told. I remember I was named as one of Black Enterprise’s Top 50 Power Brokers a few years ago. Just by being featured in Black Enterprise, the number of black women that reached out to me, students to executives, has facilitated all kinds of networking and connections and different ways of partnering together. Events like American Black Film Festival and the Women’s Leadership Forum create opportunities for black women to connect with other black women and that can only lead to more success.