Carla Moore: Awakening the Enlightened Leader Within

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By Evan J. Cutts

Carla Moore is an empowering leader who finds strength in her spiritual foundation, family and friends, and personal transformation. Ms. Moore has twenty years of sales and marketing experience, holding executive roles such as Vice President of Domestic Network Distribution and Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Home Box Office (HBO) in New York. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Sales Strategy and Education at HBO.

Ms. Moore’s leadership pushed her team to bring their best selves forward, to think more critically and globally in order to discover innovative approaches to better achieve company goals. As Vice President of Sales Strategy and Education at HBO, Ms. Moore led her team in redefining the company’s brand training narrative. “Our sales strategy team designed the sales training curriculum, brand training messages, and approaches for our national trainers in the field. These trainers teach frontline sales brand ambassadors in cable call centers on how to talk about and offer HBO to their customers,” she explains. 

Outside the office, Ms. Moore is an active public speaker, delivering conference keynotes and facilitating workshops on a variety of subjects, including her passion—activating personal power. Activating personal power also became a central theme in her Amazon best-selling book, Crash! Leading Through the Wreckage: Using Personal Power to Transform Your Leadership (2018). “My book is a testimonial about the power we already possess to change our very own lives quickly. I humbly share my story of awakening, my personal transformation from 300 pounds to triathlete in one year, and the cascade of positive events that followed in every facet of my personal and professional life,” she says. 

Crash! Leading Through the Wreckage: Using Personal Power to Transform Your Leadership (2018) is available for purchase here

Carla Moore has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Channel 4 News, and other outlets. She is an active member of the media industry and currently sits on the board of the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC). 

She holds an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Business in Chicago and is a graduate of two leading industry programs, Cable Executive Management (CEM) at Harvard Business School and NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program (EDLP) at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. In the following interview, Carla Moore reflects on leadership and legacy and shares her advice for succeeding in 2020.

With the new year approaching, what advice would you offer women and professionals of color who want to “live the life they have imagined” for themselves? 

There’s a Chinese proverb that goes: “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” So my advice is simple, get clear and get started. Write down, envision, and speak what you want your life to look like every day, then do something to support that life every day. 

Let’s keep looking ahead. How can organizations ensure they remain relevant and effective in the D&I space as the socio-cultural landscape shifts in the US?

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is not a workshop; D&I is in you. CEOs and other key leaders in organizations should promote and support the training and development of self-mastery and personal achievement in leaders and rising stars. As a leader having clarity and awareness around your own passions, purpose, and power erases the need to compete and prove. It’s called “Enlightened Leadership.”  Enlightened leaders are more open to new thoughts and ideas from others. When leaders are more calm, happy and relaxed in their own lives, it’s easier to allow room for freedom and creativity from others.  

What do you want your legacy to be?

I often find that my most fulfilling work comes through community service as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. With that in mind, I want to leave a legacy of inspiration, serving the world by helping others understand and use the power they were already born with. 

Considering where you started and where you are in your career now, how has your perspective on leadership shifted? What do you value now that you may not have then?

My leadership viewpoint has absolutely changed. Before my own personal transformation, I felt leadership was just about showing how great you are, exhibiting technical and functional expertise. Today, I know leadership is about helping others see the greatness in themselves.  Leadership is not a position you’re in, leadership is within you. It’s about achieving your personal best in life, bringing that self to work and teaching others how to do the same.  Success at work will inevitably follow.