Page 56 - Lighting Magazine November 2018

ALA
Building an Executive Presence
With the number of women in top management steadily increasing in the lighting industry, Emmy Award- winning television news journalist Sharon Delaney McCloud shared her proven tips for making a more powerful impression.
The year 2018 can certainly be described as the Age of Female Empowerment — from the un- precedented box o ce success of the Wonder
Woman movie to the viral #MeToo movement and women testifying on Capitol Hill regarding the latest appointee to the Supreme Court.
This year’s ALA Conference in Asheville fea- tured a special event (co-sponsored by the Dallas Market Center and Swarovski Lighting) for its relatively new Women in Lighting group. Special guest Sharon Delaney McCloud – an Emmy Award- winning, 20-year TV news journalist covering North Carolina before she started a new career in digital marketing as Partner and VP/Professional Develop- ment for the Walk West agency in Raleigh – led the educational session.
According to McCloud, developing Executive Presence is important for women in business who want to be taken seriously. “Leadership roles are given to those who look and act the part,” she said, adding, “Presence alone won’t get you promoted, but its absence will impede your progress.”
Citing such statistics as only 24 people on the Fortune 500 list of top CEOs are women and a mere 21 percent of Fortune 500 company board seats and executive o cer positions are held by fe- males, McCloud gave the audience plenty to think
The Women in Lighting group at the ALA Conference
54 enLIGHTenment Magazine | noveMber 2018
www.enlightenmentmag.com