Since the third grade, Shonn B. dreamed of the day she would be in front of a jury making arguments before the court. After almost 20 years in the law firm environment, she was drawn to opportunities that would hone in her business skills and take her practical approach to a high level and different platform. She jumped at the opportunity to join Kimberly-Clark.
“Kimberly-Clark is a company that I had long admired and whose mission aligned with the areas that personally drive me: being driven by a mission, a goal larger than myself, opportunities for growth and a keen focus on celebrating difference while appreciating opportunities for unity.” says Shonn.
Since a young woman, social impact has been a personal passion and family value and outside of work, she continues to be driven by goals larger than herself. “I chair the Texas Women’s Foundation Board of Directors and have been on the board for 6 years. Our mission is to advance leadership and economic security for women and girls. We have an intense focus on women’s leadership from the classroom to the boardroom and provide tools, training and opportunities for leadership that are useful at every level. Based on my own journey and personal experiences, these are the areas that I believe have been helpful to me and I feel an immense obligation to be a resource for others because I have benefitted from support on this journey.”
It's clear why Shonn has called Kimberly-Clark home for the past two years. “As a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) company and led by our mission, Kimberly-Clark overall has a demonstrated commitment to advancement of women in the workplace. To build on that, it is important that women mentor, support and share learnings with other women. Leadership behaviors are learned but must be practiced. Providing constructive feedback and sharing experiences will help advance other women.”
Shonn has noticed significant changes within leadership at Kimberly-Clark. “Representation matters. If you look at our board of directors, our executive leadership team and many in our leadership ranks, women are not just present but are leading. That alone positively impacts the support of women in the workplace. In the legal function, we have invested in our women lawyers by supporting their participation in a leadership program for the last three years so that they are also obtaining tools externally to advance their leadership.”
As women continue to lead and make change in the corporate world, Shonn’s advice, “It’s important that women are willing to be vulnerable and authentic to share challenges, obstacles and failures, to demonstrate resiliency and demystify the notion of perfection. In order words – be real, be supportive and share your failures over your successes.”