Kiko Davis has made history. She is the owner of First Independence Bank in Detroit, Michigan, and trustee of the Donald Davis Living Trust. As the first Black woman bank owner in the United States, she has a passion for seeing women in leadership roles.
Davis has an entire portfolio of admirable accomplishments under her belt. Besides being the majority stakeholder of First Independence Bank and administrating her late husband’s trust, she is the managing director of Groovesville Productions & Publishing LLC, which controls her late husband’s Grammy Award-winning music catalog.
In an interview with Rolling Out, Davis spoke about her desire to mentor more Black women in leadership roles.
“I believe in the old adage: ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ I believe giving back is the rent you pay for occupying a seat at the table of success,” Davis said. “Everyone needs a good mentor or teacher to guide them on their journey to greatness.”
Cross-racial mentorship has its challenges. With corporate America’s constant failure to adequately execute the diversity initiatives it claims are important, minorities are often left without mentors that look like themselves. Being a mentee to someone who cannot relate to the idiosyncrasies of your life can make mentorship seem too much like a chore for both parties.
Davis said that courage is important when reflecting on what advice she would give her younger self and other Black women by proxy.
“Do not be afraid to fail. In fact, fail as much as you can. With each failure will come a valuable lesson that will be impossible for someone to teach you,” she said.
Perhaps the ability to face challenges and bounce back gives Black women what Davis calls a “warrior spirit” that will ensure that we always win when we try.
In 2018, Davis was an honoree on Ebony’s Power 100 list.
With Black women being the fastest group of entrepreneurs in the country, mentorship from women such as Davis will be increasingly important in the future.
It is important that we give each other a hand up, just as Davis has.
