ABOUT KAREN PATWA
Karen Patwa is a leadership strategist, executive coach, founder of Karen Patwa Consulting, and creator of the Equilibrium Framework. She’s on a mission to help women of color leaders thrive in senior leadership while being ethical and true to themselves.
Karen has innovated learning and leadership development models inspired by the experiences of women of color leaders with diverse identities, in corporate, non-profit, and academic spaces. Her leadership roles across multiple industries required her to combine out-of-the-box thinking with traditional systems to vision, strategize, and solve problems.
The Equilibrium Framework was born out the experiences Karen navigated during 15+ years of of leadership experience and leadership development in business and organizations. Its main purpose is to provide a guiding mechanism to solve problems strategically by accessing our power.
Karen is certified in Healing-Centered Engagement and integrates that with her coaching practices. She has contributed to initiatives such as the Women-Centric Design project, serves on the Advisory Board of Mercy University’s Women in Leadership program, and is a member of Education Leaders of Color. Karen is interested in transforming spaces, frameworks, and practices to intentionally elevate women's leadership and well-being in any environment.
As a woman of color leader, I've navigated challenging, toxic, and harmful situations in various capacities and environments:
- when I spoke up
- when I didn't speak up
- when I was successful
- when I was visible
- when I was honest
- when I had different opinions
- when I implemented change
In every environment in which I experienced challenges, I experimented with strategies until I found the ones that worked. Successfully and comfortably navigating power dynamics, fragile emotions, and sometimes harmful policies and practices was a part of this process. At the same time, I wanted to remain aligned with my moral values. I wanted to be responsible. And I wanted to make an impact.
In my own experience and my experience developing women of color leaders, I found recurring patterns in how we are treated, and how we navigate the unique obstacles we face. Additionally, as the stakes get higher, it is even more important for us to develop the competencies we need.
I built the Equilibrium Framework to address patterns of behavior that accelerate our depletion and demise, and replace them with the rock-solid leadership foundation that women of color need to survive and thrive as senior leaders in corporate, non-profit, and academic spaces.
The framework is founded upon competencies we are already familiar with, but not always leveraging optimally to address leadership challenges. I use this framework and other tools to assist women of color leaders in securing their current positioning, to stay in their organizations or industries, and position themselves for advancement, inside or outside of their current organizations.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Managing Up is much more than what we've been told. It's not just about giving feedback or criticism to someone in a position above us. Managing Up can transform our work experiences and build relationships. In this talk, Karen Patwa will offer approaches and strategies for Managing Up to move past awkward conversations and create opportunities for everyone involved to thrive and advance.
