Exclusive Trusted Magazine Q&A with Dr. Lisa Coney-Fonville, Certified Life Coach, Author, Professor, International Public Speaker
How could you describe your career path?
I started my career path working for a major utility company. Since the death of my father, I wanted to become a Registered Nurse. Fast-forwarding, I became a nurse and began to build my experience by working a plethora of jobs and holding various positions. Many of my jobs were leadership positions. Each job offered me many opportunities and taught me the meaning of leadership and sound management. I am a long-life learner and began to obtain advance degrees in my nursing career. Each advancement presented many more opportunities for me to serve my community, especially during the COVID pandemic.
After working as a forensic nurse in a correctional facility, my career began to take a different path. I learned something about myself and began to nurture what I consider my calling as an educator. Most nurses occupy multiple jobs and positions at one time, meaning they hold two to three jobs simultaneously. I currently work as an educator, as well as a coordinator serving the mental health community, all while being an entrepreneur running my own coaching and public speaking businesses. Everything I do is geared toward serving humanity. I only make investments that I know are directed to serving, inspiring, encouraging and empowering. I am blessed with an amazing career and businesses that allow me to give back.
What was your most challenging experience and how has it changed your mindset?
My most challenging experience was changing jobs within my nursing career. I had a closed mindset, which placed many limits on my career progress. Fear and overthinking were also a major challenge in my career advancement. It would take too long to explain the details, however, I pressed through the fear and began to experience blessing and rewards that were on the other side of fear. I no longer have a closed mindset and I’ve packed up and moved out of my comfort zone. I’m proud to say I am a strategic risk taker. I do not wait for opportunities; I go after them or create my own. I’m always ready to take on opportunities and I am rather selective with the opportunities I pursue. Anything that leads to a ceiling, a box or a closed door, I avoid at all costs. I’m not the one who follows the masses. I create my own path and clear it for others to follow. As a seasoned leader, I’m careful about the paths I create so as not to lead anyone down a dead end. As a manager, I’m mindful not to mismanage, because as Dr. Miles Monroe indicated, “Anything you mismanage, you lose.”
What’s the key success factor for a female leader/manager?
Being a female is powerful in itself. Women have a wonderful gift called intuition. It’s a blessing because it’s like a third eye or a sixth sense. It allows women to tap into there divine inner being and it serves as a guide in making decisions. As a female leader/manager, we find our strength and power in our uniqueness and ability to withstand some of the toughest assignments with grace and ease. Women of character, integrity, empathy and strength, in my opinion make successful leaders/managers. Having all of the above and having balance is a recipe for an amazing leader/manager. She is one who can be trusted, depended upon and one who is encouraging, inspiring and empowering to those she leads.
Women leaders are phenomenal and exhibit a refinement and amazing creativity in leadership. As a leader, I find it imperative to be a peacemaker, a problem solver, and a strategic thinker and most importantly, exercise a non-judgmental attitude. It’s also vital to extend empathy when necessary, give grace when needed, be supportive and resourceful. To have knowledge of multiple cultures, welcome diversity, equity and inclusion, and have an attitude of gratitude enlightens the path of leadership. Finally, and more importantly, we as leaders must continue to invest and advance in our positions. We must acknowledge, support and celebrate other women in their rights as leaders, and in doing so, it makes this journey of women in leadership strong, amazing, majestic and rewarding.
