In Lauren Wesley Wilson’s debut book, the Founder and CEO of ColorComm is challenging every professional to think about how they build and use their power in the workplace, and she’s asking some of the most important questions. One, in particular. What Do You Need?: How Women of Color Can Take Ownership of Their Careers to Accelerate Their Path to Success is a resource that comes 13 years after Wesley Wilson launched her business. What began as a luncheon series is now a national membership community that connects women of color and builds toward more diverse representation of leadership across the communications, marketing, advertising, and media industries. What Do You Need? has the potential to reach even wider.

“The goal of this book, and really the message, is: How are you taking ownership of your career? Because you're in control and it's not your employer,” Wesley Wilson explains in this month’s Office Hours, “and to stop searching for this perfect environment that does not exist.” Ahead, she shares her own experience of navigating poor working environments, the growth of ColorComm and its community, and the question that can help unlock career and personal growth.

“When I started ColorComm Corporation, I was working in Washington, DC at a crisis media relations company. I did not see women and women of color in leadership. And so I started ColorComm as a luncheon series. So often you go to networking events and only focus on the speaker, but you miss out on the people in the room. There's so much untapped talent that you don't even know exists. I wanted to change up that format. When we go to events, we only think about our individual needs: ‘I need a job, I need contact, I need business.’ But we don't necessarily think about how we can help others. So ‘What do you need?’ is this question that I want us to start asking ourselves and other people. It's been the ethos of the work that we've been doing for the last 13 years.

“ColorComm today is divided into two sections. One is our client service business where we work with clients on media strategy, corporate communications, and marketing. And then the other half is the core of how we got started: our professional membership organization, our conference series where we focus on advancing women of color and business. So ‘What do you need?’ is this very provocative question because I believe there are several needs we should look at in the workplace to advance, excel, and enjoy where we work—which are very different than your wants. ‘I want more vacation time, I want more money, I want more flexibility, I want to work from home.’ All those things are lovely, but they're not helping you with skills, learning, and growth. The basic needs we should be looking at are, ‘Are we valued, seen, respected, and compensated?’ And if we don't feel those things, then we oftentimes aren't giving our best effort or our best work. We're slacking, we're quiet quitting, we’re goofing off because we don't feel those things, we don't care. And so in my book, What Do You Need?, I outline a series of principles that we should be starting to think through that could help you advance at work.”

“A lot of times people look for a quick fix. You want a certain amount of Instagram followers or visibility on LinkedIn. Those are tools to help market and promote your work, but it first starts with you doing the work. Making sure you can deliver, making sure you have wins, making sure that you are a good performer. If you're not a good performer, then there's not much really to discuss. It starts with being good at your work, caring about it, and then being known for it so people vouch for you when you're not in the room, or think about you as it relates to opportunities. And the only way they could do that is if you're getting involved. Are you joining organizations? Are you on boards? Are you speaking at conferences or events? That helps you expand your network and helps the right people know who you are so that you are making a name for yourself, so to speak. Then you can use the tools that are at your disposal—the LinkedIns, the Instagrams, the Threads, the TikToks—to market yourself. That all goes hand-in-hand, but it all starts with doing good work first.”

“It starts with getting the information you don't have. Most of us don't know how to run a business, but I will say I had a leg up. I come from a family of entrepreneurs and business leaders. My grandfather ran a funeral home that was the family business for a hundred years and my mother led an ad agency with a hundred people across New York and DC with another partner. So I saw the beauty of what it meant to be your own boss and CEO, and to run teams. I didn't have a lot of fear as it related to doing that, but I did have a lot of fear of the unknown. And so in terms of running a business and leading the business, you want to be able to learn what that looks like.

“I spent a lot of my time during my off hours, when I was working for someone else, going to small business associations called SCORE. They help those who are trying to start a business with their business plan, to think about revenue and accounting, and all the operational things that you might not have experience in. And then my mother was a huge mentor, so I had some sort of information about getting things in place like your accountant, lawyer, contracts, operational needs—those are key and important pieces. A lot of those things are super unglamorous and no one spends a lot of time talking about them.”

“There are some sub-questions like, What is your value? Value isn't about whether or not you can do the work. Value is often attributed to how influential you are and how that helps the company move forward. How do you use your influence, connections, and resources to help the company increase its bottom line? If your company thinks you are connected to a certain crop of people or bringing business or talent that can help reach their bottom line, then you become more valuable.”

“If you want to be a better ally in a situation where you have more power, I think it's asking the question, ‘What do you need?’ to someone who doesn't look like you. What oftentimes happens is there's good intention, and someone thinks that they're opening a door for somebody else or someone is doing a favor for someone else, and that other person might not view that as a favor. Maybe an ally says, ‘I invited this person to the meeting because there were no people of color in here and I thought I was doing a good thing.’ Then the person of color might say, ‘Yes, you invited me to the meeting. Thank you for thinking about me, but you invited me to the meeting 15 minutes before and I was not prepared. Then, when I got there, another colleague asked me to take the notes.’ [An ally needs] to be specific with how they can help you and what your needs are. So asking that question, ‘What do you need?’, is imperative.”

“One chapter, from my early career, would be, ‘You Need To Know If You Belong.’ There's this cliché that you belong in any space where you take up space. I do not agree with that. There are places where you do not belong, that you'll never excel at because maybe you didn't do your research to understand the environment that you're in. I'm a registered Democrat and when I first started out in my career I ended up working at a very conservative Republican communications agency. I didn't do any research, didn't do any homework as to where I was going to go work, and it really didn't matter about my political views or theirs. I just wanted a job. It was one of the first job offers when we were in the middle of a recession in 2009, right out of grad school at Georgetown University. So I chose to work there but I wasn't willing to necessarily participate in the culture.

“Much of this book is taking ownership, so I could spend a lot of time blaming the employer and the company, but at the end of the day, I chose to work there. At the end of the day, I didn't do my research. That company was never going to change. Don't try to force a company to change because it doesn't align with your views. The best place to start is somewhere that’s aligned with your views and values, and has a shared mission. That's what you should look for. 

“Also, a lot of times women, people of color, hear that they're not a cultural fit, and that could be because they're not necessarily participating in the culture. So are you willing to participate in the culture? Are you willing to do things you might not want to do to get to know your employees better? Are you willing to join organizations and groups internally? So that's one area I would've loved to have known before starting.”

What Do You Need?: How Women of Color Can Take Ownership of Their Careers to Accelerate Their Path to Success is available where books are sold.

Illustrations by Bijou Karman