The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table

by Minda Harts

So, if I knew he would be in the office or had a standing appointment with someone else, I would “make rounds.” I would strategically plot when his standing appointment would leave his office and the door would be open, and I would slide by and say hello. This, folks, is face time. I would do this a couple of times a month if we were both in the office. Each time, the conversations got lengthier, and when the time was right, I asked if I could schedule an appointment to talk with him about some ideas I had. He welcomed it and from that day forward, he thought of me for committees, opportunities, and advancement; he created a seat at the table for me. But I had to put in the work. It took over six months before anything came out of these brief hallway chats. And as I was doing this, I didn’t know if anything would ever come of it.