Debbie Majoras shares characteristics of an effective general counsel

Tenacious and enthusiastic legal leadership

In a career spanning big law, government, and the private sector, Debbie Majoras has demonstrated both perseverance and dedication. She puts a premium on inclusion and knows that we all sometimes feel we’re on the outside looking in.

I don’t care how old you are, you’re going to walk in and on that first day, and you’re going to get that feeling in your stomach that says, ‘What if the other kids won't eat lunch with me?’ You know, you just own it … we all feel that way.

She also knows that it takes a fair amount of grit to rebound when things don’t go according to plan. It really comes down to how you act when things don’t go as you would like—and those times show just how resilient you are as an individual and professional.

Every one of us is going to have disappointments. Every one of us is going to have tough stuff in life. It’s not whether you do or you don’t— because you will—but how you handle it. That’s what people are watching. That’s when people see if you handle it with grace and dignity.

Legal leadership in the time of COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, Debbie’s team at Procter & Gamble worked with governments and shared playbooks to help maintain the flow of goods while keeping workers safe.

It was literally like running a control center, where all of our people around the world were going immediately to these governments and saying, ‘we need to keep operating, here's why—because here’s what we make, and here’s what your people want, and we know how to do it and keep the employees safe.’

[As COVID spread around the world], governments had no playbook for this, right? They didn't have [the experience or] a regulation on the shelf that says, ‘Okay, during a pandemic, do the following things: temperature checks, masks, social distancing.’ But we had done it [in China], so we were helping them. We were saying, ‘Look, here's the playbook. Here’s how we think we can do this, and we'll show you how we can do it.’

Organizational citizenship

As organizations develop their own citizenship platforms, they should look to what equities they already have and build from there—it can help them be better at it.

The closer you can stay to your own equity, the more powerful you will be. And if every corporation [made] contributions based on their equity, then we would really make very significant contributions to society.

Driving diversity and inclusion

Debbie stresses that leaders can foster a more diverse and inclusive environment.

For me, it really does start with setting the tone of an inclusive environment where people’s views are welcome. And there are a lot of different ways to do that…Role model it…as much as possible.