Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2019 — New Lessons in How to Lead

Kaplow
Kaplow
Nov 1 · 2 min read

By Liz Kaplow

Every year, Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit addresses thought leadership from prominent women across Government, philanthropy, the arts and business. Hearing the stories of CEOs, founders and prominent leaders from different sectors, one thing is for certain. Everyone has a story. When those in leadership positions dare to show their human side, they connect on a different level with their teams as well as their customers. What came through at Fortune MPW, is that leaders today seem more open to revealing who they are and how their backgrounds have influenced their leadership. In times when the signs on the road are less clear, it was refreshing to hear leaders talk about what it takes to lead from the heart.

I experienced this first hand at the Summit, in getting to know Linda Alvarado, who broke through the construction industry many years ago, Alvarado Construction. Through the many challenges, Linda pursued relentlessly, opening the doors for other women to enter non-traditional industries.

Linda’s story was of great inspiration to me. Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she came from a poor family and was one of six children. Working her way through college, Linda earned money as a laborer for a landscape firm. In 1976, she started her own company. Today, Alvarado Construction is one of the largest construction companies in the world. In getting to know Linda, what I took away most was her deep curiosity, resiliency, and willingness to learn and adapt.

In working with countless executives through the years, I believe that great leaders are the ones who have a story to tell, and they use that story to lead with transparency and humanity. It has been my mission to pass on my own story to the talented teams within my agency. My true privilege is to offer this new generation insight into what I’ve learned and what I care about most. And it is my hope that this new leadership will continue to combine: the human side with a relentless drive for growth, instinct with hard data, empathy with decisiveness. In fact, these are the traits that make us human. Ultimately, they are characteristics of well led companies.

Kaplow

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Kaplow

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