Leading the Way
How six female trailblazers have succeeded in business.
Prepared for Opportunities
Teresa White credits her mom with impressing the importance of preparation on her from an early age.
“She always talked about college and making sure I prepared myself for a career,” says White, the first female and first Black president of Columbus-based insurance provider, Aflac U.S. “We didn’t really speak to what career, but making sure I allowed myself to have choices. She helped create this platform for me to be ready when the opportunity came.”
And White says her mom offered sound advice about thinking through the choices and potential limitations of her decisions.
“She really just taught me that the decisions I made as a young adult would impact where I ended up as a mature adult,” White says.
Those lessons in long-term thinking netted career-making consequences. White became a self-described logical-thinking problem solver who learned to code and realized that, for her, it wasn’t so much where she worked as what she was doing.
“I didn’t wake up one day and think, I want to go over there and work for AT&T or Aflac or wherever,” she says. “I saw opportunity and discussed it with the leaders who were hiring. I fell in love with the work and the problems they had. I developed strong relationships. I thought I might bring to the table something that would be helpful to these organizations.”
Aflac is known for servant leadership, a style White embraces.“Servant leadership for me is about making sure you don’t come in solving the problem from your perspective [but instead] granting people the opportunity to provide input,” she says. “You become a listener, coach and collaborator.”
It’s leadership she’s bringing to her role as 2021 chair of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, spearheading initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion. The chamber looks to curate content facilitating conversations around diversity and equity in businesses, especially small businesses.
“So many people are afraid to say the wrong things,” says White, who is the first Black woman to lead the Georgia Chamber. “People are trying to find their footing so they can have meaningful conversations in a sincere way. I’m asking people to be patient with others who are trying to ask questions. Yes, you’re going to ask questions that are going to feel uncomfortable, but I think that people will give you grace because you’re asking, and trying to seek to understand.”
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