Watchen Nyanue is a strategic marketer, business development executive, and speaker who immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in 1991 after living through the Liberian civil war for two years. She is the Founder and CEO of I Choose the Ladder, a career development agency that helps corporations develop and retain their high performing Black female talent through professional development workshops, curated events, and digital resources. 

As an advocate for female leadership and empowerment, her journey has been filled with more than twelve years of executive experience, where she has excelled as a proven business strategy leader who understands the importance of building relationships and capitalizing on a firm “it” factor in order to take the organization to the next level.

Before founding I Choose the Ladder, Watchen was the Senior Vice President of Marketing Partnerships for the WNBA, Chicago Sky. During the past 15 years of working in Corporate America, Watchen has had the privilege to work for many renowned companies, including Comedy Central, Hearst Digital, Yahoo!, and Johnson Publishing Company. 

Watchen holds a bachelor’s in communication from DePauw University. She is currently pursuing her MBA at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Watchen is a member of the Ruderman Foundation Mental Health Taskforce as well as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has been recognized as a Chicago Scholars 35 Under 35 Honoree, a 2018 Chicago Business Journal Woman of Influence Honoree, a Biz Women 2018 Headliner, and a 2019 Black Women's Expo, Presented by BET Her, Phenomenal Woman Honoree.



Topics:

  • Over the last year, Watchen has led conversations with brilliant corporate leaders and thousands of Black women and learned that the two groups are like two ships passing in the night. Both groups are very well-intentioned and want to see change, but there is a blockage preventing the conversations that need to happen to see impactful change. The myth that there is a way forward towards a more inclusive workplace that is strategic, but does not include having really tough conversations, will negatively impact retention rates—hard stop. But the elephant in the room is that while conversations are being had, they only go so far because, Black employees are not saying what needs to be communicated to help inform the strategy, out of fear of retaliation or getting fired. Employers aren't saying what needs to be said out of fear of saying the wrong things, being labeled, or even worse, sued. In this talk, Watchen shares her insights into how to bridge the gap between employers and their Black female employees to help companies retain their talent. This talk serves as a bridge for decision-makers who intellectually understand the value of a workplace where everyone feels welcome, but may not have the data that transparency provides to help inform their retention strategies. Through her own goals with I Choose the Ladder, Watchen can help your organization examine and rectify the issues to help grow and improve Black talent.

  • Many make assumptions that everyone with a college degree understand how to navigate Corporate America, but, in reality, a lot of your employees are moving along blindly with hope as their number one strategy. In this talk, Watchen explores the areas of professional development that will help put your employees in the driver seat of their careers, while lessening the burden on your management team. Not all skills impact your career in the same way, so she guides audiences on how to focus on building a solid professional development foundation that your employees can then build on.

  • While corporations invest a lot of resources into mentorship programs, many of them are not successful because the one size fits all approach to mentorship and mentor matching has not proven to generate consistent results. Often, employees are seduced by titles, and leaders are driven by a savior complex. Fit becomes an afterthought. In this conversation, Watchen shares some strategies that have proven to result in high-impact mentorship and a different lens through which to consider the role of mentorship in employee retention.

Twitter: @icuwatchen

Instagram: @icuwatchen