Generation W Profiles is a series highlighting influential women.
Alyse Nelson, president and CEO of Vital Voices Global partnership, says, she does not have a job or a career, she has a cause.
“I have a passion, I have something that helps me get up every day in the morning and makes me want to make the world a better place,” she says.
Nelson says she has a voice which means she has a power to make a change. At Vital Voices they search the world for women leaders. They look for women who have a bold vision for change, women who have proven how they can lead change. Nelson says they partner with these women to take that change to scale and make it a reality.
“I feel as though when women are given an opportunity, they feel as though they must share it,” Nelson says this is why it is so important to invest in women leaders.
She says she has the greatest job in the world because she gets to search the world for these amazing leaders, invest in them and stand behind them.
Nelson says she asks herself every day, “Am I still passionate, am I still inspired, am I still challenged, am I still curious?” If she answers all four of those questions with a “yes,” she says the needs to keep doing what she is doing.
As a leader, Nelson says, “You need to be humble, you need to be inspired.” She says this is needed because being a leader is tough and lonely. She says this is critical, and having that is a great “internal compass, that true North that really guides you on to a path.”
“I think great leaders know what they are about, first. You can’t expect to lead others if you don’t know who you are and what you stand for,” Nelson says. She says finding that inspiration and that is passion is, “Number one.”
Generation W Profiles are a collaboration between WJCT and the Generation W women’s leadership conference.
