Corporate executive: Joset Wright-Lloyd - The Many-Splendored Faces of Today's Black Woman

Ebony, March, 1997 by Lynn Norment

Determination. Focus. Perseverance. These are the words that Ameritech executive Joset B. Wright-Lloyd uses to describe herself. And these are the qualities that have made it possible for the Chicago-based executive to succeed in the highly competitive environment that epitomizes corporate America.

Last October, Wright-Lloyd was promoted to vice president of procurement and property services for Ameritech, the communications giant that serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. The company has 66,000 employees and $23 billion in assets. An attorney, Wright-Lloyd previously served as vice president and general counsel for Ameritech Enhanced Business Services.

She now has responsibility for three areas at Ameritech: real estate operations and management, security operations and the procurement of more than $4 billion in goods and services from vendors around the world. She oversees about 1,200 employees. In addition, she manages fleet operations, food services, an information center and a document management center.

What Wright-Lloyd enjoys most about her job are the people and the opportunity to get involved in the "guts" of the business. "The whole process of watching people work together to achieve an objective, to be successful, is fascinating," she says. "I like being part of the process."

A native of Indianapolis, Wright-Lloyd earned a law degree at Georgetown University after earning a bachelor,s at Denison University in Ohio. She worked for several years as an attorney in Nashville while her husband finished his studies at Meharry Medical College. They then moved to Indianapolis, where she was a Marion County state prosecutor for several years. She conducted grand jury investigations ad got an up-close view of the criminal justice system. "It was really stressful," she says of that experience. "I had some cases that involved some particularly brutal crimes."

In 1987, Wright-Lloyd was offered a job as legal counsel for Ameritech Indiana. When Ameritech offered her a job in Chicago, she says she and her husband, Riley P. Lloyd, M.D., an obstetrician/gynecologist, made a "joint decision" to move based on a "total family perspective." They have two sons, Evan, 10, and Joseph, 7.

Wright-Lloyd says the key to her successful balance of a demanding career and her demanding family life was having a close network of extended family and friends nearby in Indianapolis when her sons were younger. (Her mother, Delores Wright Wood, is a retired business and law librarian for Eli Lilly & Co.) "I had to reinvent that network in Chicago," she says. Crucial to making it all work was finding a good caregiver who shares her philosophy about child-rearing. "That is very important," she says, adding that "being organized" and having "one calendar with everything on it" also are important. "From there, it's really a question of setting priorities," she says.

When she's not working, Wright-Lloyd is an avid movie-goer who loves to read mysteries, historical novels and poetry. She also enjoys the symphony, opera, ballet and jazz. She also is a devoted "sports mom" who cheers her sons on at basketball, soccer, baseball and football games.

When asked if she is competitive by nature, she ponders for a moment. "I would say no, but everybody else would say yes," she answers. "I feel that I have to set a standard for myself, and that usually is independent of anyone else.... I never set out saying `I'm going to beat him or her.' Rather, I say that I want to accomplish this objective or this goal. Then the question becomes how do I get to my personal best."

For anyone who wants to succeed, she says first you must define what success means to you as an individual -- not what it means to parents, family and friends. "And then you have to be committed to achieving success," she says, "and that means sacrifice. People often comment, `Gee, you've achieved so much. How do you do that? I don't know if I can work as hard as you do.' The issue is your willingness to commit to and go after your objective.

"I also feel that you must like what you do," says Wright-Lloyd. "If you don't like it, you'll never put the energy into it to be successful."