#105 Jennifer Ingram Johnson: Racism, Leadership, Relationships and the Mississippi Bar.

11/28/21 • 63 min

‘We all have common ground, we are all human at the very core, we all experience the same emotions, just about different things and in different ways.’
Bio
Jennifer Johnson is not only an award-winning businesswoman and lawyer, but she is the immediate past president of the Mississippi bar association. The Mississippi bar is a compulsory bar. Every lawyer in Mississippi has to pay into it, but historically not every lawyer has been represented. Jennifer has set the first steps into making an integrated future a reality. I am proud to talk to this 21st-century lawyer, advocate, award winner and awesome mother on the podcast today.
Synopsis

She starts by talking about how she was elected and the state of the bar. We talk about how some people don’t see a racial issue in that state and the idea of racism being “over”. The need to temper honesty with compassion, and the strength gained with diversity. We end by talking about the personal truths of each person, how people can end up being defined by a social category they are assigned to, and how important it is that we don’t see those so vividly, and connect with each other.
References
Books / Articles
Radical Candour
Thanks for the Feedback

Organisations
The Mississippi Bar Association
Harvard Law School
University of Southern Mississippi
Oscher Lifelong Learning Institute
ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates
The Magnolia Bar Association

People
George Floyd
Robert Gibbs
Sacha Baron-Cohen
Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen
Douglas Stone
Sheila Heen
Chris Voss

People
George Floyd
Robert Gibbs
Sacha Baron-Cohen
Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen
Douglas Stone
Sheila Heen
Chris Voss

Previous Episode

#104: Vlad Lakcevic - Complex Adaptive Systems, Personnel and Innovation

General Powell said that great leaders are great simplifiers, offering a solution everyone can understand? What do you think?

Bio
Vlada started his career in strategy consulting under the leadership of Tim Hough, former Managing Partner of Bain & Company’s Johannesburg office. Tim was an astonishing leader, mentor and strategist who helped fast-track Vlada’s career within the industry.
Effective in engaging with stakeholders throughout the life cycle of consulting projects, from the sales process to implementation where necessary. He has presented to Board-level Executives and has worked collaboratively with culturally and functionally diverse teams across 14 different countries.
Specialising in strategy, business model and organisational design, Vlada prides himself on delivering excellence in all that he does, and has consistently achieved excellent feedback from organisations about the quality of products and strategies delivered to date.
Since joining NIBC he has worked closely with ExCo members to lead strategy and organisational design projects that have reshaped the organisation and continue to work in identifying and implementing organisational bottlenecks that may impede their strategic intent.
Synopsis:
We talk at great length about organisations as complex adaptive systems. This is especially relevant as we work more from home and connections become more tenuous.

He tells us how an underlying purpose is essential to join a large operation together. We then talk about managing people and how personnel need to be suited to the context the business operates in. We move onto talking about how the pace of innovation is increasing, the fact people need to adapt, and the challenge inherent in that in both the long and short term.

Reflection

Vlad said that a leader may excel in a business at one stage of its life, and yet become irrelevant in a very short space of time when the business enters a new phase or the environment changes. It is a little scary on a personal level, but I think if we learn to dance in the moment and move like the proverbial willow in the wind, we can see the change for what it is and adapt. Rigidity is our biggest enemy as a leader.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/g7psaPFkDk8
Blog: https://exponentially.me/podcasts/004/
More from Vlad

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakcevic

http://www.genesis-analytics.com/

http://www.africaia.com/

Next Episode

#106: Hannes Leroy - Curiosity, challenges and authenticity

Tom Peters said that Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. What do you think?
Bio
Hannes Leroy is Associate Professor at Erasmus University and Distinguished Research Professor at Exeter Business School. As Academic Director of the Erasmus Center of Leadership, Hannes helps to oversee the quality of leadership development at different levels in Erasmus University (undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate, and executive education). Furthermore, as steward of the League of Leadership initiative he helps to oversee an international consortium of top business schools across the world with the mission of collectively enhancing quality standards of leadership development. Aligned with these efforts, Hannes has published numerous studies on leadership and its development in top journals, has taught a wide variety of leadership classes and is principal coordinator of various leadership development curricula.
Summary
We start by talking about how you need to be curious about people in order to motivate them. This leads us on to talking to your boss, and the importance of each party being able to admit mistakes. Next, we discuss being challenged as a leader, and what challenges leaders are facing. We close by asking if alignment is the ultimate form of authenticity.
Reflection
Hannes said that your non-verbal signals have to correspond to what you’re saying. I wonder how much people can trust somebody if their main point of contact is emails and the occasional zoom call. How many non-verbal signals can somebody’s brain pick up on, if they’re not around the person enough? That’s something I didn’t really think about in office working, the greater chance of creating that relationship just with your small day-to-day actions. I remember Cynthia Bryant talking about the importance of closing your eyes and trying to figure out what you can tell beyond that. Maybe I should now do the opposite, keep my eyes open but try not to listen, putting my fingers in my ears or something. How much information can I impart just beyond the words I’m saying?
More about Hannes
https://www.ted.com/talks/hannes_leroy_i_was_never_trained_for_this
https://www.rsm.nl/people/hannes-leroy/
www.rsm.nl/leadership/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-011-1036-1

Exponential Leadership - #105 Jennifer Ingram Johnson: Racism, Leadership, Relationships and the Mississippi Bar.

Transcript

An award-winning businesswoman and former president of The Mississippi Bar, Jennifer Johnson says her father was her greatest believer and wanted her to be the best that she could be. She and her father enjoyed 23 years as law partners until his retirement last June. Her first mentor, she says her father is the one who ushered her to the forefront of her own law business.

No stranger to being in front of juries, judges, and other lawyers, she developed many relationships amongst the Mi