Voice Of Experience: Carla Harris, Managing Director of the Strategic Client Group and the Head of the Emerging Managers Platform, Morgan Stanley

By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

Carla Harris is legendary on Wall Street for her tenacity, her ability, and her talent in business. She was ranked as one of Fortune Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America for 2005 and has previously been recognized by Fortune as well as by Ebony, Essence and the Harvard University Black Men’s Forum for her leadership in the corporate sphere.

But Ms. Harris’ talents reach beyond the walls of Morgan Stanley, where she serves as the Managing Director of the Strategic Client Group and the head of the Emerging Managers Platform. A quick search of Amazon.com will reveal that she is also a published author—her book Expect to Win: Proven Strategies for Success from a Wall Street Vet has made her a popular interview subject and coveted speaker—as well as a recording artist who has sold out Carnegie Hall. Her albums “Carla’s First Christmas” and “Joy is Waiting” are filled with music to uplift the spirit.

Indeed, Ms. Harris combines the joy within her with her extensive business experience to help those striving to succeed. She is conscious of the burden of being an advisor. Her book Expect to Win is filled with, in her words, “everything I wish I’d known walking into my career, things that might have made my career markedly different. Not that I haven’t had a great career but boy, would it have been even better!”

A “Nerdy Econ Major” Begins Her Career

Harris found her way into investment banking following her sophomore year at Harvard. At 19, she was recruited for an internship by Sponsors for Educational Opportunities (SEO), a program addressing inequities in education and opportunity that often limit the success of young people from underserved communities. “SEO changed my life,” Ms. Harris said. “I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but [the Wall Street internship] changed my perspective.”

She explained, “I liked the analytical—the quantitative analysis part. I liked that numbers dictated answers but I had an opportunity to use my judgment as well. I also liked that it was fast-paced and dynamic…It was perfect for a nerdy econ major as I could use insufficient data to make a decision.”

Following her graduation magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1984 with a degree in Economics and then from Harvard Business School with second year honors, she spent 4 ½ years in the Mergers and Acquisitions Division of Morgan Stanley. She went into Equity Capital Markets in 1991, and quickly moved from being the “senior person on the syndicate desk to the head of private equity placements.” But, Harris said, she didn’t have her entire life mapped out or even a specific age in mind by which she wanted to reach the level of managing director. “There were 2-year plans, then 4-year plans. I had aspirations to get exposure, then decide how to employ my skill set. But I could not have told you that 20 years later, I’d still be at Morgan Stanley.”

In 1999, her group handled the landmark $5.5 billion IPO of UPS, the largest IPO in history at that point. For Harris, this accomplishment ranks alongside her promotion to Managing Director and her her honorary doctorate of Laws as her proudest professional moments.

Advice for Women: “You are the only person responsible for your career.”

When asked about a professional disappointment, Harris cites the times early in her career when she failed to make herself heard at meetings. “I thought there was a role as a young associate you should play—being seen and not heard—and I was quiet more often than I should have been. Another senior person said ‘is she quiet or just not smart?’ It was a big failure not to speak up and exercise my voice early on.”

But she learned from it. “So from then on I made sure if I was going to be in a meeting I would have a role in the meeting, not just to observe. If there was something to contribute I would open my mouth.” Harris shares this story, along with the lesson: “Don’t say ‘they won’t let me do this or that.’ That should be a red flag. You need to start putting yourself into the circle, saying “we, we, we” until they get it, because you need to be an integral part of the fabric. I can’t tell you how many women say ‘they go out for drinks and don’t invite me.’ Invite yourself!’”

Harris is enthusiastic about providing advice based on her experiences. “The most important thing I’ve learned from being on the Street for 22 years is that how people perceive you will directly impact how they will deal with you. Perception is the co-pilot to reality.”

She continued, “You have the power to train people to think about you in the way you want them to think about you.” Harris tells women: “Think of the three adjectives you want people to use to describe you when you are not in the room. (All of the important decisions about your career will be made when you are not in the room.) Those three adjectives should be absolutely consistent with who you are. They should be consistent with what is valued within your organization as well.  And you must behave consistently with those three adjectives if you want to train people to think about you in a certain way. You need to use the language to describe yourself in the environment.”

Further, she warned, “You have to be vigilant and focused to get the skills you need. You can’t rely on training programs or on a person assigned to train you since that person may or may not be interested in training you. You are the only person responsible for your career.”

“In the 21st century, if you want to consider yourself a leader, you must be comfortable with taking risks. Get out in front and do something to create change. If not, you let it happen to you. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in the group that lets it happen to me – I want to be in the group that makes it happen. Keeping your head down will not keep you from getting shot. So you may as well keep your head up so you can see the bullet coming. But it is not so much about seeing the bullet coming, though, as it is about seeing the opportunities,” said Harris.

Her Next Move – Building Networks for Women

Next up for Harris: continuing to build Morgan Stanley’s Emerging Manager Platform. “Asset management is very different than investment banking. It’s been an adjustment,” Ms. Harris laughed. “I’m used to a faster pace, but I love a challenge. It’s been a great process to crack this nut.” The Emerging Manager Platform provides talented, smaller asset managers with opportunities to increase their assets under management, to have access to strategic advice and infrastructure solutions that should accelerate their growth through their partnership with Morgan Stanley.

Harris believes that the biggest failing of most businesswomen is that “most of us are socialized not to use [our networks]. Your network should be broad, diverse and deep. Think about lateral, upward and downward networks.” And, she said, “If you approach somebody for help and they turn you down, there is only one word you should think of – “Next!” – and move on to the next person. Don’t be afraid of the rejection.”

Harris is very clear about the role of advisors, mentors and sponsors in building a career network. “An advisor is a person you can ask discrete questions to. A mentor is a person you can tell the good, bad and ugly to. You need to be willing to share intimacies about your career. A mentor’s job is to give you tailored advice specifically to your career goals. You need to make sure they know you and you can trust them.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Harris says, is the sponsor. “A sponsor is not a person that you tell the good, the bad, and the ugly to; he or she is a person you tell the good, the good, and the good to. He or she is the person who, behind closed doors, will pound the table for you. There needs to be a good reason for them to spend their political capital on you, so you need to articulate why you are worthy of their capital spend. While your mentor does not need to be within your company, your sponsor has to be in the company and have a seat at the table.”

Harris says that she sometimes meets young women who, in her words, “do not understand their power.” She tells them, “The day you got the job, somebody else didn’t get it. You were the best person for that job. So the trick in maximizing your success no matter what seat you’re sitting in is to really be the best person you can be and continue to improve on that person – not to submerge the real you, the person who was hired. Living in your authentic skin and being who you are is exerting your power. That doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes. It doesn’t mean you won’t hit a wall. But the trick is that whenever you do hit a wall, take the ‘blessin’ from the lesson’ and move on. Don’t carry it as a burden. Don’t carry the baggage. And incorporate it into the authentic you. Being you is your competitive advantage.”

Finding Balance and Being True to Herself

Things have changed dramatically for women on Wall Street since Harris joined the industry, but the issues of work-life balance still persist. Harris takes her cues about work-life balance from her mother, an educator, who had a family, a career and an extracurricular life. She tells other women: “don’t believe the stereotypes that exist in financial services careers. You don’t have to sacrifice who you are as a woman.”

She elaborated, “I believe that balance is incorporating those things that bring you joy. It is important to understand your own personal success equation – what you need in order to feel happy and motivated in respect to what you are doing. And make sure you get some of that every day. If all you have in your life is work, your life becomes a function of someone else’s day. If your boss isn’t having a good day, then you won’t have a good day; if a meeting goes poorly, it wrecks your weekend.”

“I love singing. And my big thrill in life is my philanthropic pursuits. For me, giving back is essential. I know that I climbed up standing on somebody else’s shoulders so I must them make my shoulders available for someone else to stand on. I make sure I put that time to mentor someone else in my calendar. I am maniacal about my calendar. I make sure that I get every minute out of it I can.”

Finally, Harris said, “It was important to me that I not lose Carla because I love Carla. Did it cost me some money? Uh huh. Did it cost me some time? Mmm Hmmm. But I can tell you it was really sweet to go up to that room filled with partners in 1999 and hear them congratulate me on becoming the newest partner. It was such a sweet moment because Carla was in the room. The woman I started with was the woman who had made it.”