On this episode of The Purple Line host Keith Fernandez sits down with the inspiring Angela Anderson Guerrero, the executive director of Lideramos, a national Latino leadership development organization. We explore the power of leadership development and its potential to transform communities, with a unique emphasis on the Latino community. Angela discusses her passion for cultivating Latino leaders and increasing their representation across the United States. Listen in as she shares how incorporating cultural values and experiences into leadership development can help individuals create their unique leadership brand.
On this episode of The Purple Line host Keith Fernandez sits down with the inspiring Angela Anderson Guerrero, the executive director of Lideramos, a national Latino leadership development organization.
Angela’s passion for cultivating Latino leaders and her pursuit to increase their representation across the United States is a remarkable effort. She shares how incorporating cultural values and experiences into leadership development can help individuals create their unique leadership brand.
The conversation explores the personal growth and self-discovery that comes with participating in a leadership program, and how it can shape one's leadership brand.
We also explore Angela’s personal journey and her belief in planning and being open to change, providing insight into the woman behind the leadership. This episode is a testament to Angela's dedication to empowering the Latino community through leadership development, and her story is bound to inspire.
0:00:00 - Speaker 1
I think leadership development gives us different frameworks to kind of look at how our behaviors, our values can be sort of transformed and articulated in different ways. I think in particular Latino leadership development shows us how our cultural values, our backgrounds, our experiences with our family, our strengths and can be built into sort of the type of leadership brand we want to project and let other people know about as well.
0:00:50 - Speaker 2
The Purple Line is a community podcast bringing you in-depth conversations with diverse leaders in the public and private sectors. Whether you're a student looking to gather advice or professional tuning in for valuable resources, our dynamic programming provides tips for all ages and backgrounds. I'm your host, keith Fernandez, and this is the Purple Line. Angela Anderson Guerrero is the executive director of Lideramos, a national Latino leadership development organization. She is a contemporary healer, holding and guiding strategic change, built in self-worth to regenerate radical compassion for a new world of equity, sustainability and wonder, recognizing the possibilities at the intersections of education, spirituality and personal development. She completed her doctorate in transpersonal psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Angela Anderson Guerrero, thank you for joining us on the Purple Line. It's a beautiful day in DC. Seems like a beautiful day in Kansas City. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Well, just to get right into it, tell us a little bit about Lideramos and what you do.
0:01:49 - Speaker 1
Sure Lideramos is a national nonprofit that's a catalyst for Latino leadership development but, very importantly, this distinguishing characters. That's community focused. So we're really about providing tools, resources and the support of Latino leaders who are seeing the need and the importance of Latino leadership growth in their communities.
0:02:16 - Speaker 2
That's incredible and it's really needed, especially right now. Tell me about the passion for Lideramos and Latino leadership growth. Where did it stem from? Is it professional, personal, mixed up both?
0:02:27 - Speaker 1
Well, I think Lideramos in itself.
I always love to mention and honor sort of Juana Wardes, who is the founder of Lideramos, along with some other remarkable Latino leadership experts throughout the country.
But I like to mention Juana because, thankfully to Juana, her vision and her work, I was able to have my first leadership experience within a Latino context through the National Hispana Leadership Institute in HLI, and I think what Juana saw through her experience of not only creating space for Latinos to grow and to learn as leaders, but also to begin documenting and archiving our stories and sort of our unique approach to leadership development as a Latino community was very important. And so Juana and I agree with her believe that it's important for us to have a space to cultivate who we are and the impact that we want to make in our communities, and that's essentially what Lideramos does. It's really about being able to kind of hold up a mirror to our communities that they can see sort of inherent qualities that they already have within themselves, their experiences and their accomplishments, and then how they can sort of strengthen that and transfer it into a visible leadership that other community members can learn from and hopefully build on as well.
0:03:45 - Speaker 2
That's great. And so when you talk about holding a mirror to the community and to get other community members to get involved, which is incredibly important, is the intent of Lideramos alumni basically to go back into their communities, create spaces to empower folks, create spaces to help ensure that there is change, whether it be no political or economic or social. And what does that look like long term? Because I'm sure you don't want the lessons of the Ramo Son Juana to stop at the proverbial schoolhouse door.
0:04:14 - Speaker 1
Yeah, no, I mean our vision is to ultimately increase the number of Latino leaders throughout the United States. So essentially, the idea is to create more opportunities for Latinos you know, young and old to continue to, to grow as a leader, because leadership is a lifelong process, I think. In addition to that, I think in terms of impact, it's really empowering our leaders in community to understand the skill set that they need so that they can determine the type of impacts they want to make in their communities. So in some cases it's increasing the number of people on local boards. In other cases it's, you know, looking at an industry in particular and how can we increase Latino representation or involvement. And in some, in some instances, it's really just simple. It's sort of creating sort of a collective in your community so you can be a resource and inform schools, you know tourist agencies, you know historical museums about sort of the historical presence of Latinos and sort of the impact and the talents they have to share in their community.
0:05:20 - Speaker 2
That's, that's amazing. And then, from your experience, what can people learn about themselves and what it's like to go through a leadership program? I think the word leadership program for many of us who did not grow up in sort of, you know, community focused households, even though you know it's very family focused, feels very like up here, like tough to tough to get Like. What do people walk out the door feeling about themselves generally, and how does that translate to you know, personal results and personal achievement, no matter what you do and how you get involved in your community?
0:05:51 - Speaker 1
Sure, I think leadership development is ultimately about learning about yourself. Yeah, it's. You can't do leadership development and constantly question sort of am I this type of leader, am I that type of leader, or I'd like to aspire to be this type of leader. I think leadership development gives us different frameworks to kind of look at how our behaviors, our values, can be sort of transformed and articulated in different ways through practices or different skills. I think, in particular, latino leadership development shows us how our cultural values, our backgrounds, our experiences with our family, our strengths and can be built into sort of the type of leadership brand we want to project and let other people know about as well.
So in some cases you know, like I come from the Central Valley in California, where you know my my grandparents have my farm worker background and I think sometimes we say that, oh, latinos have a strong work ethic as leaders. But understanding sort of my grandparents not only their migrant farm worker background, but also understanding sort of their entrepreneurial vision, because they became homeowners, they were very impactful in sort of creating economic stability for other members of my family. That's a tremendous leadership story. Now that I have that also translate in how I try to be, as leaders, always trying to pass forward the work ethic that I'm doing in my own life so that others can grow as well.
0:07:21 - Speaker 2
And we're going to hold that thought for a second. We'll be right back with the Purple Line and Angela Anderson Guerrero.
0:07:27 - Speaker 3
Hello, this is Marianne Gomez-Orta, Chile President and CEO. You are listening to the Purple Line podcast. We would like to thank the sponsors of our internship and fellowship programs the Coca-Cola Foundation, Comcast, Altria Client Services, Ford Motor Company, the Home Depot, Walmart, UPS Foundation, Televisa, Univision, McDonald's Corporation and Cortiva AgroScience. Thank you.
0:07:57 - Speaker 2
And we're back on the Purple Line with Angela Anderson Guerrero talking about leadership. And you know, one of the things you brought up in your last answer I think was interesting to me because you know Latinos have been known for having a really strong work ethic and, again, entrepreneurial spirit, home ownership, that kind of stuff. But I think for many of us it was very tough to see ourselves in executive roles or roles of leadership because it just didn't seem, you know, when I was growing up, attainable at a national scale. You know, I grew up in Miami, which had a lot of Cuban-American leadership and we had members of Congress and stuff, but not to the extent that we see Fortune 500 CEOs today and that kind of stuff. Obviously, that almost helps someone who may not have that example at home really bridge the gap and see themselves as maybe the next CEO of Pepsi or maybe the next CEO of Chili. And having that leadership role that you know really can set the agenda for generations of people if you do it right.
0:08:54 - Speaker 1
Yeah, no, thank you for that question. I think, first and foremost, leigh-eramos helped you reflect on your own personal history and also the history of your community, to maybe identify the CEOs who are already in your life but they weren't necessarily fulfilling those traditional roles around us. For example, I think my grandfather is a natural CEO. He just never had the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. I think, on top of that, leigh-eramos sort of gives you an opportunity to actually see and visualize who are the Latino CEOs out there in the world and how they got to where they're getting and how we ourselves can also aspire to that. You know, I often told myself growing up you don't know what you don't know, and I think sometimes that's what happens in our community we don't know we can aspire to be a CEO because we never knew a CEO. So I think Leigh-Eramos sort of one visualizes the possibility and the career path to become a CEO. And then I think, secondly, which is crucially important, it gives us the confidence and the belief in self that we can do it.
0:10:00 - Speaker 2
I think that's really impactful and really important and for many folks out there listening, you know they're young folks or either interns or aspiring to go to college or having just graduated. What piece of advice would you give someone who may not have gone through a program like Leigh-Eramos, but wants to take the spirit of what you're doing visualizing success, ensuring that you know we are doing the best that we can, no matter what the politics and business and the nonprofit world or something else and just finds the challenge of starting daunting?
0:10:31 - Speaker 1
Yeah well, I always like to refer to the advice that I got from Richard Cordova, another Latino CEO, who was a CEO at Kaiser Permanente and also children of Los Angeles hospital, and he always asked me to be very specific about what I want, because people can't help you if you're not able to articulate what you want. And so I think for young people, I really encourage you to spend some time in like brainstorm. You know, what is it that I want in my life? Where do I see myself in the future? And then from there, you may not know exactly what you need in the moment, but by asking those questions, you'll at least get an understanding and build curiosity of what do I need to know in order to understand where I want to go. And they're simple steps, but I think when you're able to offer those questions or those desires to people within your network that you're meeting, they're more likely to be able to help you.
0:11:25 - Speaker 2
If it feels a little bit like that Dwight Eisenhower quote. You know, the plan is really not useful, but the active planning is very useful because you're able to bob and weave and pivot, and that sort of brings me to my next question, which is you know, I think a lot of us started out life at, you know, 22, 23,. Sadly, many of us are no longer 22 or 23. But thinking we were going to do one thing, and then our careers are presented really challenging opportunities, that which is great, because we did not know they existed. How do you suggest that someone who is young and has an opportunity that never dreamed of before and goes well you know, this isn't really in the plan I made for myself approach that and problem solve to get the best result for them, whether that's sticking to the plan, whether it's doing something else or a mix of both.
0:12:13 - Speaker 1
Well, I always try to remind me like time is everything. Life is about change and we have to always be ready for whatever changes are about or about to encounter. I think it's sort of how do we manage and confront those changes makes all the difference. So, even you know, as that young 20 year old, I'm not where I would have imagined myself 20 years ago. But when I look at those changes I was forced to make throughout my career, I always had people I could talk to and who helped me navigate those changes, which were typically Latino, latina mentors in my life and, I think, to leaning on my family background and seeing how my family is okay, and they didn't have half the opportunities that I had. So usually trying something new or being open will lead to my growth and to my prosperity.
0:13:04 - Speaker 2
That's amazing advice. It shines through that it's not just a job for you, it's a calling and it's part of your being, an ethos. And I guess the question I'd have is what keeps you motivated to continue doing this important work day in and day out? What gets you up in the morning saying I'm going to go accomplish this to help other people? Where does that come from and how does that manifest itself?
0:13:26 - Speaker 1
Honestly, it's through the corazon of the people I meet. I am constantly fascinated and impressed with the different types of Latino leaders throughout the country, how their stories, their backgrounds, their commitment to community keeps them going and inspires sort of what they're doing in their work and with their families. You know, whether it's at the community level, looking at sort of the history of local nonprofits and all the work they've and impact they've made where they're at. To looking at some of our executive leaders and seeing how they're influencing national discussions that are then trickling down and creating space and pathways for future Latino leaders. That's remarkable, it's inspiring and to me it's an honor and privilege to be able to be a witness and support that.
0:14:12 - Speaker 2
That's great and, on the note of what inspires you, we'd like to get to know you a little bit more personally with a lightning round of questions. So the first one is what's your favorite movie or TV show, or what are you watching right now?
0:14:24 - Speaker 1
What's come to mind is the elephant whisper.
0:14:27 - Speaker 2
I haven't seen it yet.
0:14:28 - Speaker 1
It's a beautiful short documentary about a couple that takes care of orphan elephants. It really hugs at the heart and again shows sort of the power of being of compassionate service.
0:14:41 - Speaker 2
Absolutely. What is your favorite way to spend a day off?
0:14:45 - Speaker 1
A day off.
0:14:46 - Speaker 2
Yeah.
0:14:48 - Speaker 1
Oh, I would love to start my day with a nice coffee and then go into nature and take a long walk.
0:14:57 - Speaker 2
Oh, amazing, amazing. And last question what is your when you're not off? What is your morning routine? You seem like a driven person, someone who gets a lot dunder in the day, so how do you start the day to optimize for these results?
0:15:10 - Speaker 1
Really, I try to take a moment to myself, even if it's just sort of 10 minutes, with my coffee Hopefully I'm not chasing the squirrels that are on my patio trying to eat my plants and sort of just take that moment, take a deep breath and honor sort of the morning and then jump right into the day. I love it.
0:15:28 - Speaker 2
I love it. It's inspiring me to jump right into the day and it's inspiring me to keep jumping in every day. After Angela Anderson-Gerrero, thank you so much for walking along the purple line with us. You've inspired me to do better and I hope our listeners will do the same. Thank you, keith. Thanks for listening to the purple line. You can follow me at underscore Keith Fernandez on Twitter and make sure to follow Chili across all social media platforms at the Chili for the latest updates.