Tag Archive for: empowerment

Melinda Cora: Principal, Head of Product Implementation and Project Management at PGIM Quantitative Solutions

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Melinda Cora“I’m a firm believer in the power of personal brand. When you see a particular logo – like Apple, Starbucks or Nike – you immediately have feelings associated with that entity,” says Melinda Cora. “When someone sees my name appear on their phone or in an email, my desire has always been that the brand I’ve developed makes them want to answer my call or read my message and engage with me. My hope is that they have positive feelings and thoughts, based on my work and experiences with them.”

Carving Her Own Trajectory

Growing up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a low-income and predominantly Hispanic and Black community, Melinda recognized the lack of resources around her (vacations often meant opening a fire hydrant on hot summer days) and how it contrasted with the untapped wealth of talent. She was motivated to carve a different trajectory for herself and recounts that one of her earliest supporters in this regard was her fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Aievoli, who noticed Melinda’s potential and giftedness and inspired her to grow.

“She invested her time in preparing me to test for a specialized middle school. My acceptance into the school put me on a path to graduate high school at the top of my class at 16 years old,” Melinda recalls.

With hard-working Puerto Rican parents who hadn’t had the opportunity to pursue higher education, school guidance counselors who lacked the frame to point her towards scholarships, and a family mentality of avoiding debt and needing to make ends meet, she attained her associates degree in just 1.5 years before taking on a full-time role as a legal secretary at 18 years old in the M&A department of Shearman & Sterling LLC. It was in that role that Melinda began the practice of learning through observing and quickly became an asset to her team.

“I knew there was something wrong with the equation, and I wanted to be a part of making it right. We had pounds of hard labor workers in my community but a lack of role models who could demonstrate that it was possible to enter a variety of industries, and that lit a fire in me,” says Melinda. “I wanted to be able to go back years later and say, ‘I’ve had a successful career. I’ve been able to break out of this mold. And guess what? You can, too.’”

She was soon promoted to a marketing coordinator role at Shearman, before one of the lawyers she’d worked with called on her for an opportunity at Equavant. When that same lawyer again moved to Lehman Brothers, she called on Melinda again. After seven years at Lehman, where she was an operations analyst and later, a member of an alternative investment management team, Melinda was sponsored by another former colleague for a project management role at PGIM Quantitative Solutions (then known as QMA), a leading quantitative investment manager owned by PGIM, the investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc.

“Multiple times in my career, former managers and colleagues picked up the phone and offered me some type of pivotal change,” says Melinda. “They believed in me and recognized my drive and many strengths. With each opportunity, I assessed whether it was the right, progressive next step in my career, and once I gave my ‘yes,’ I also gave those roles my all.”

Melinda knew she’d acquired the experience and network, but recognized that if it weren’t for sponsors, her lack of a bachelor’s degree may have filtered her resume out of the interviewing process: “I realized that I needed to go back to school, even though I was in my 30s,” reflects Melinda. “So, I became a full-time working wife and mother of three children—who was also earning her bachelor’s degree. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and have also taken several MBA courses to date.”

Striving For Excellence

“I appreciate that perfection is a myth. However, striving for excellence has been a driving factor for me. If it has my name attached to it, I want to do it with excellence,” says Melinda, speaking to honing her personal brand.

Nearly 15 years ago, Melinda joined QMA as a junior-level project manager and is now head of product implementation and project management at PGIM Quantitative Solutions: “It’s a dynamic role managing my team and a testament to the evolution of the body of work we coordinate within PGIM Quant,” says Melinda. “I have the privilege of working with some of the brightest individuals and leaders in our industry who I get to learn from and partner with daily. No two days are the same, and each new opportunity allows my team and me to be a part of developing new solutions.”

Melinda also serves as a role model and mentor. It’s her passion to build the power of dreaming big among youth and young adults. With HISPA (Hispanics Inspiring Students to Perform and Achieve), she speaks to middle school students in predominantly Hispanic New Jersey communities, inspiring them to believe there is space for them in the asset management industry.

Melinda is a co-founder of PGIM Quant’s Hispanic and Latino business resource group (BRG), Unidos, and a leading member of the Inclusion Council, which oversees each of PGIM Quant’s BRGs to drive meaningful results through a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. She serves on the Latinx executive leadership team for PGIM overall. Melinda also volunteers through Junior Achievement of New Jersey, through her local church’s Girls Ministry program, and leads a young adults life group out of her home.

The Courage To Speak

Latinos are underrepresented across the finance industry at less than 10%, though they account for approximately 18% of the US population. That percentage drops significantly when accounting for senior-level Latinos in this space. Despite her Latino colleagues coming from different countries, the messages from their families and peers are often similar—like be grateful to have a job, keep your head down, and do not make big waves. Melinda says, at times, Latinos are often not outspoken enough in the workplace as a result of this common conditioning.

“I’ve often struggled with that internal tension. My perspectives and ideas are unique and valuable within the work environment, but everything in my culture tells me I shouldn’t speak up,” she reflects. “So, I’ve had the interesting dynamic of saying I am going to speak up and it’s going to be hard.”

To do this, Melinda calls on her own touchstone of living from courage: “Courage is sometimes ill-defined as ‘not being afraid’ or ‘the absence of fear.’ That’s not what it is. Courage is moving forward or speaking up, even if you are afraid,” she says. “I had to develop the courage to say I do have an idea and it is worth sharing.”

Valuing Diversity of Thought

Melinda, at times, struggles with the notion of imposter syndrome, but quickly reminds herself that her lack of privilege growing up does not equate to a voice that counts less. She recognizes the importance of embracing the background that shaped her and the need to value every upbringing – even the upbringings of those who grew up in privilege.

“It’s rethinking and relearning certain things as an adult to continuously challenge yourself. We’re all learning from each other. No one has arrived at any sort of final destination and we should regularly seek opportunities to further develop,” Melinda notes.

Her early experiences shaped the way that she cultivates different perspectives as an adult: “As a child, I felt like people often didn’t care about what students in my schools thought. It was a ‘what the teacher says goes’ mentality. Even then I knew, if we’re not allowing opportunities to challenge each other, then we’re doing ourselves a disservice and missing out on diversity of thought.”

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

As a tip, Melinda discourages people pleasing: “What’s more important is developing into a trustworthy and sought-after business partner. Whether raising a difficult issue with her children’s schools or inside the four walls of PGIM, Melinda has learned that uncomfortable conversations must be braved.

“I’ve had many experiences where I felt uncomfortable raising a topic but I did it anyway, because there was merit in it,” she says. “If we’re going to have diversity of thought, then as leaders and as professionals, we have to evaluate the things that make us uncomfortable and really decipher, what is this individual trying to say? What is the goal here? Because if you believe intentions are good, you might want to tune your ear and try to better understand what is being said, versus dismissing or disqualifying it.”

Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Culture

As she’s become more senior, new challenges and greater stakes can heighten the fear of making mistakes: “I often say each product effort or project is like its own recipe,” she says. “You may have a group of people with different work styles or a different timeline. You may have different factors that lead to initiatives being diverse even when they’re similar on paper.”

Melinda embraces the idea of being a continuous learner: “We’re not going to get it right 100% of the time. So, two main factors drive my thought process. When I get something right, I celebrate the opportunity to teach. What went right? How did I get there? What was new? What defined the win?” She continues, “And then when I get something wrong, I celebrate the opportunity to learn. What didn’t go right? What can I learn from this? How can I get better? It’s important to look at mistakes as something that will help me grow and, in turn, others as well.”

Melinda looks for opportunities to convey that growth approach and reinforce it with her team members, too. She focuses on caring about people as individuals first and then supporting their career growth with the learning and opportunities to get where they want to go, in their own way and style.

“Whatever number of years and whatever season we spend together, my goal is to be that servant leader to individuals on my team,” she says. One way Melinda empowers her team, especially in the hybrid environment, is to let them decide on her attendance in meetings. This instills confidence in their abilities, while she remains available to provide guidance and be there if and when needed.

Melinda says she has gained the most from organic mentor relationships – precisely, from exposure. As a self-motivated learner, it’s not conversations, but truly watching people in action that inspires her.

“From the start of my career, the way I’ve learned from leaders is by sitting at a table with them, listening to how they interact with others, seeing how they get decisions made, and watching how they influence business,” she says. “How I learn best is by observing. What drives me is looking around the office and asking who do I want to be more like to continue growing as a professional and progressing in my career?”

From Childhood to Today

Mrs. Aievoli still figures prominently in her life and has proven to be Melinda’s lifelong mentor.

“To this day, she keeps me pushing myself. She always says, ‘okay Melinda, and what’s next?’ She keeps me focused on that idea of growth and development,” says Melinda, who still shares her milestone accomplishments with her. “She’s been invested in me from childhood and that’s resonated with me for years.”

Melinda is most proud that her three children – now 20- and 16-year-old daughters, Jayden and Madison, and 13-year-old son, Zachary – can see in her an example of the role model she wished for as a child.

“I had a non-traditional career and educational path, and while it hasn’t been easy, I never settled or gave up, and that’s something I hope encourages them throughout their lives,” she says. “I want them to believe in their own aspirations and carve their own paths so that they, too, can be role models to future generations.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Op-ED: The Power of Intentioning: Are you ready to answer the #1 most important question for your life?

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Power of IntentionGloria Feldt, Co-Founder & President of Take The Lead, shares on the life-changing power of intentioning for women, as revealed in her newest book.

On a spectacular Arizona day in late January, 2020, when you can be lulled into thinking all’s right with the world, I was hiking with a friend. Then boom! I tripped on an unseen pebble, put my hand out to catch myself and knew immediately from the snap and the pain that I had broken my wrist. The first broken bone I’d ever had.

It’s never the mountains that trip you up. It’s the pebbles on the path.

Within 6 weeks, as everything shut down because the whole world had been tripped up by coronavirus, I realized I should have seen it as an omen. The year of broken bones I called it. Broken almost everything. More like two years now. And when will it stop?

We’ve all been through a difficult time of so much loss and grief.

The pandemic tripped us up. Ground us to a halt. Changed so much about how we see the world and each other. Maybe it changed how you envision your career and life from now on.

So there’s no better time to answer the question that prompted me to write my book, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. This is without a doubt the #1 question you need to answer to be in the driver’s seat for the rest of your life, not the backseat wondering where life is going to take you next.

Your power TO WHAT?

What does that mean? Here’s the backstory.

I started writing Intentioning well before Covid-19 reared its ugly head. I interviewed over a dozen women whose stories form the basis for a new set of Leadership Intentioning tools to build on the 9 Leadership Power Tools in my last book, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.

In No Excuses, I explored women’s culturally learned relationships with power. I realized ambivalence about power was a key to why women hadn’t reached parity in leadership of any sector despite all we’d done to open doors and change laws. So much female potential was not being realized.

We needed a different idea about power than the oppressive narrative of history that’s based in fighting and wars and the assumption of scarce resources. By shifting the paradigm to the expansive, creative, generative, abundant idea of power TO, women’s would say, “I want that kind of power.”

Now, after a decade of teaching and coaching women how to embrace their power on their own terms, I realized the necessary next step is to ask, “the power TO WHAT? How am I going to use my power once I know I have it?”

Your answer will enable you to clarify your intentions.

Identifying and getting what you want out of life can seem like a daunting task, even more right now, when you may be uncertain about whether you’ll be working from home, whether your children will be safe, and if your job will exist at all. And it isn’t automatic that a woman will want to walk through an open door or even see it as a possibility. She may feel ignored or not respected, exhausted from experiencing microaggressions. She may fear she’ll be passed over for a promotion at work, that it’s too late to start over when her profession or company changes, or that for whatever reason she’s not good enough.

This doesn’t have to be how you live your life and I don’t want it to be that way for you.

Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic and another pandemic of belatedly acknowledged racial injustice created huge disruptions in every part of our economy and social structures.

But that is, or can become, a good thing.

We are in a season of disruption. We are in a season of rebirth. The two have much in common.

Disruptions of this magnitude are the best opportunity we will ever have to make long needed structural changes. Because when the world is in chaos, people and organizations have to think differently to survive. Ideas that wouldn’t have been considered previously become solutions.

So here’s a quick overview of the 9 Leadership Intentioning Tools that will enable you to achieve your goals once you answer that #1 question for yourself:

The Self-Definitional Leadership Intentioning Tools

  • Uncover Yourself – what sets you apart is what gets you ahead, and the keys to your best future are already in your hands
  • Dream Up – if your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.
  • Believe in the Infinite Pie – when we use our power to build rather than rule over others, we learn that the more there is for everyone, the more there is to go around.

The Counterintuitive Leadership Intentioning Tools

  • Modulate Confidence – self-doubt can have a positive value.
  • Strike Your Own Damn Balance (and love your stress) – you get to choose what matters to you and reject the rest.
  • Build Social Capital – relationships are everything and will ultimately help you as much as educational qualifications or work experience.

The Systems Change Leadership Intentioning Tools

  • Be “Unreasonable” – sometimes you have to break the rules and invent new ones to get where you want to go.
  • Unpack Implicit Bias and Turn Its Effects on Its Head – you can make its effects your superpowers.
  • Clang Your Symbols – they create meaning, which brings others into the story, the most essential function of leadership.

I wish you great intentioning.

Bio: Gloria Feldt is the Co-Founder & President of Take The Lead: Breakthrough diversity and women’s leadership  solutions for individuals and companies, and author of Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. On her website, you can get her free workbook that accompanies the book and will help you answer your #1 question, get the most from these tools, and make a plan to achieve your highest and best intentions.

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OP-ED: The Empowerment of Women Starts With All of Us

Lisa Featherngillby Lisa Featherngill, Head of Legacy and Wealth Planning, Abbot Downing

Empowerment can come in many forms.

According to Webster’s, the definition of empowerment is “granting of power, right or authority to perform various acts and duties or the state of having the power, right or authority to do something.”

So, empowerment can come from inside or it can be given to someone. In my experience, being empowered as a young girl helped me become stronger and more confident as a woman. I want to share my story with you to hopefully inspire you to empower others.

I was fortunate that my hard working, successful single mother never discouraged me from ‘traditional’ male subjects. She never graduated from high school and yet she was working at the White House and traveling with the Press Corps and Presidents Johnson and Nixon. She was a role model for being strong and confident and always told me that I could do whatever I want in life.

Growing up I was surrounded by women like Helen Thomas, the iconic correspondent from Associated Press, Gloria Steinem who had just started Ms. Magazine and was a leader in the women’s liberation movement. These women were powerful, visible and impactful. They were trail blazers who did not hesitate to follow their passion for change despite considerable obstacles. I practiced what I observed. As a teenager and young adult, I was told I was “rebel without a pause.” I was always eager to channel my energy into exploring new opportunities.

In college, I thought that I wanted to be a photo-journalist. Then my camera was stolen on a trip to Key West before the fall semester started, so I decided to try accounting. To my surprise, I loved it. I took the CPA exam as soon as I finished finals and a week later went to work at Arthur Andersen. Although 50% of the new hires were women, there weren’t many women in the senior ranks. It was a tough environment and even tougher as a woman. It was at Arthur Andersen that I found my first supporter in my professional career, a man named David, who was a partner. He told me that he expected brilliance from me. Through hard work, constructive feedback and opportunities I was promoted and quickly learned that with more visibility, there were new and higher barriers to overcome. David took a chance sponsoring me, a term that was not used that time. He provided me space to grow, to build my confidence and recognize my contributions to the firm. Although he was incredibly tough, I knew he had my back.

Through my experience with David and Arthur Andersen, I knew I had added responsibility to pay it forward to create opportunities and a more inclusive environment for women in the workplace. One small example occurred during a cold winter one year, back when women didn’t wear pants to work. I challenged the office Managing Partner and said “I’m going to wear pants to work tomorrow” and he replied, “fine, I’m going to wear a skirt.” That day my simple act of defiance helped drive change that was another stepping stone to improving the environment for women in our office.

I love to find great talent and the planning field has an unusually high percentage of women. I have been fortunate to help other women find opportunities that enable them to grow professionally and personally. Support can be as simple as encouragement, inviting someone to a conversation, or creating room from them to innovate. One of the members of my team was dedicated to client service, but I saw so much potential in her to lead others and share her voice more prominently. I coached her for a few years and provided her more exposure when I expanded her role from a regional to national level. She has also coached me to understand different perspectives. I have seen her flourish through the relationships she has built with others and helped her grow in confidence so she can someday step into my shoes.

Being available to talk to women in the finance field has been very rewarding. Listening to their experiences and needs has allowed me to adapt my management style. I have made sure that my teams have flexible work schedules and resources available to them so they can do their best work while still managing their personal lives. Ironically, working from home during the COVID-19 virus has shown other leaders that we can be effective with flexible work schedules and working from home.

We have a unique opportunity and responsibility to empower other women. According to a recent presentation at the Abbot Downing Women’s Summit, women have not been able to break a glass ceiling to get past 20% of women in leadership positions. Currently, 60% of undergraduate and graduate degrees are awarded to women. So, there are women entering the workforce. However, the conundrum to me, is that they still aren’t getting into the leadership positions at the same rate as men. It is amazing to me that 48 years after the first edition of Ms. Magazine and seven years after the book “Lean In” was published, women aren’t in more leadership roles. To quote Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

If this is going to change, both the women in the 20% and men in leadership roles need to empower the 80% of women beneath the glass ceiling. Women and men need to recognize and support the women who show the desire and talent for leadership. I am fortunate to currently report to a man who provides this support for me and other women in the company.

Empowerment can happen at work or it can happen at home. As Gloria Steinem said, “The best way for us to cultivate fearlessness in our daughters and other young women is by example. If they see their mothers and other women in their lives going forward, despite fear, they’ll know it’s possible.”

I encourage us all to invest time into the change needed. We are all in a position of influence.

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