Lovely Ketanji: How She Turned Bias on Its Head and Made It Her Superpower
Issue 272 — September 9, 2024
I had eagerly awaited the publication of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir, Lovely One, since I learned that my talented friend Jamia Wilson, Vice President/Executive Editor at Penguin Random House, secured the plum of editing the book.
Finally, the book launched on September 3, 2024, in Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater — the perfect symbolic venue for the first Black woman on the SCOTUS bench. Brown Jackson was interviewed by CBS News journalist Gayle King, who kept it light and personal while gracefully hitting all the significant life junctures documented in the book, without getting into political opinions.
The title Lovely One is the African meaning of Justice Brown Jackson’s first and middle names Ketanji Onyika.
The book is recorded in the author’s lilting voice. (I listen to books more often than reading the print copy these days, because I especially enjoy hearing the authors’ authentic voice. Who else has made this switch?)
I had already listened to the first seven chapters by the time I arrived at the event and stood in the line snaking around the block, along with Jamia, her husband Travis, our friend Carla Goldstein and her family, and hundreds of enthusiastic attendees waiting to get into the packed auditorium.
L-R, Carla Goldstein, President and CEO of the Omega Institute, Jamia Wilson, Vice President/Executive Editor at Penguin Random House, Gloria Feldt, Cofounder and President of Take The Lead
Chapter seven tells about Ketanji Brown’s college applications, in which she revealed that she was #intentioning — my word — to become the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
I made up the word “intentioning” four years ago when I was writing my book of that title. I wanted to turn the perfectly good noun “intention” into an even more powerful concept by making it an active verb.
Thinking “I wish, I want, I dream” is the fuel for intention. In contrast, intentioning turns that fuel into “heck yes, I will — I already see myself doing it.”
And here was one of the most perfect examples of intentioning that I have seen. I assure you I will be telling her story any time I am speaking about or teaching about the power of intention!
This theme of setting the intention to be on the Supreme Court appeared throughout the book, both from herself and others around her, including her very supportive husband: Patrick Jackson, who never doubted she would attain that high office.
And as she embraced her highest intentioning fully, its acknowledgment brought positive energy from others.
That helped to propel her to her goal even as she made sometimes difficult choices about her career path while navigating the complications of parenthood, implicit and direct biases toward her as a brilliant Black woman, and the bullying she experienced during her confirmation hearings for judicial appointments.
The power of intention is strong!
It’s a long book, an eight-hour listen, and there are too many highlights to recount here. But here’s one I believe is an essential, yet not always understood, leadership principle — so much so that I teach it as a Leadership Tool.
The point that thrilled me is her depiction of how teenage Ketanji Brown realized that the implicit biases she encountered as one of the few Black girls in her high school could be transformed into her superpowers if she embraced them as an authentic part of who she is and what set her apart.
In her high school debate competition, she realized that her unusual name and being Black in a mostly white team sport made her memorable in a good way. With this realization, she chose to present an African story that reflected her heritage in her prize-winning oratory competition.
What sets you apart is what gets you ahead.
With that principle in mind, I invite you to turn every implicit bias to which you have been subjected on its head and make it into your superpowers. That will take you to the leading edge of change leadership: the ability to see beyond the barriers of what is considered the norm, set a vision for your intentioning, and attract others to it.
By turning the implicit bias you have experienced into your superpowers, whether you are a woman, a person of color, an LGBTQ person, or anyone else whom others have tried to put in a stereotyped box because of your race, religion, or social status, you can win by embracing the very parts of yourself that have been devalued, or categorized as having lesser value in any way.
It turns out that people follow people who are comfortable in their own skin, even if very different from themselves. Authenticity builds trust, which is at the heart of effective leadership.
There are characteristics we’re told are wrong with us even though they are exactly what’s right with us!
Millennia of oppression give women and other groups with less power the advantage of a deep desire to change the narrative and transform the power paradigm.
For example, our socialization has given women the very attributes that make us effective leaders for today’s world, where the economy is based on brains not brawn: creativity, intuition, empathy, vulnerability, diplomacy, self-awareness, connection, nurturing, multitasking, and authenticity.
These qualities are why companies with more women in their leadership are statistically more profitable.
All of life’s experiences, whether positive or negative, can be turned into strengths you can use to propel yourself forward when you own them and use them accordingly, rather than shying away from them and covering your true self.
You probably won’t become a Supreme Court Justice, but you will be stronger, more resilient, and more capable of achieving your highest intentions in life and leadership when, like Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, you turn those implicit biases on their heads and into your superpowers.
GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.