“It is so much harder to be a girl now than when I was growing up,” says Fran Liebowitz, 75, author and outspoken public speaker on the subjects of gender, bias, identity, work, democracy, popular culture and the future.
Today’s culture is perilous, she says, speaking in a packed Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium in Evanston outside of Chicago. “It is not perfect, it is not even good. It’s all misogyny. A lot is about being anti-woke.”
Read MoreIssue 2864— October 28, 2025
Remember the song from the wildly successful Disney movie “Frozen?” The song Elsa sings called “Let It Go?”
That’s what I’m feeling like right now, as we’re building something powerful that requires me to let go of holding so tightly to the curriculum I developed, now proven by external as well as internal evaluation to be effective in accelerating women’s leadership journey. It’s based on my book No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can change How we Think About Power.
Read More“You really want to have a reason why you make art,” declares Sally Mann, who was speaking at the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall, built in 1916 as the women’s clubhouse and gymnasium.
This physical storied past was surrounding hundreds in the audience at the Chicago Humanities Festival, eager to hear from Mann, named America’s Best Photographer by Time magazine in 2001, a Guggenheim fellow, and author of the new book, Art Work: On The Creative Life.
Read MoreIssue 2863— October 21, 2025
Wishing all who are celebrating Diwali a meaningful and light-filled holiday. The world needs all that the lights of Diwali symbolize: the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance.
Read More“I am not who you think I am. I am so much more,” said Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous scientist, botanist and best-selling author of Braiding Sweetgrass and the more recent, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance.
Speaking at the Chicago Humanities Fall Festival recently on National Indigenous Peoples Day at the Morton Arboretum in suburban Chicago, Kimmerer, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, offered lessons of gratitude, reciprocity and community in leadership and life.
Read MoreIssue 2862— October 14, 2025
"Ultimately, I’m going to say I look forward to women taking a stronger place in life. Because I think that may be our hope for the future."
—Actress Helen Mirren, who portrays Israel's first and only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, in the movie “Golda,” on her vision for the future of peace in the Middle East
Meir and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat famously became friends after being bitter enemies and fighting a war in which after a surprise attack on Israel by the Egyptian army, Israel prevailed and later relinquished much of the land it had taken.
Read MoreIt has been a week of global and national record-breaking milestones for female leadership across generations in business, politics, faith communities, music, media and more. At a time of intense cultural pushback, scrutiny and divisiveness toward leaders identifying as women, what lessons can we learn so these breakthroughs are not just one and done?
A look at the momentous achievements on the recent calendar represent different points of view and approaches. It is up to individuals to learn what each leader supports and why.
Read MoreIssue 2861— October 7, 2025
Note: I’m writing this post on October 7, the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. I didn’t deliberately choose the date, but sometimes fate sends a message. Turns out, this is the exactly right time.
When I started what has become a trilogy (here are part 1 and part 2), I intended to write only one blog to explain my leadership intentioning tool “Uncover yourself,” by revealing a part of my story I’ve not shared. I had kept it inside for three reasons:
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“Fear is my friend,” says Shirin Behzadi, author and C-suite entrepreneur who left her native Iran alone as a teenager and worked to become CEO of a billion-dollar home improvement franchise company. She also raised a family and survived a brain tumor.
In her new memoir, “The Unexpected CEO: My Journey from Gas Station Cashier to Billion-Dollar CEO,” Behzadi shares her inspiring story of how she refuses to be erased and uses her power for good.
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Issue 2860— September 30, 2025
Every kid fears they’re not normal. I had proof.
Last week I wrote about the power of telling the unvarnished truth of one’s story to enable leaders to build trust and credibility. I shared one layer of my story of growing up in small Texas towns and the chronology of my early formative years.
Yet life is a many layered thing. It tends to stack masks on us.
Read MoreWith YouTube’s recent announcement offering a banquet of creative tools for creators, it is impossible to deny the AI revolution is deepening influence for leaders, users, institutions and cultures around the world across generations, identities and genders.
Everyone needs to pay attention.
Read MoreIssue 2859— September 23, 2025
Life is layered. Some layers are easier to unearth than others.
Last week, I spoke at my friend Sharon Jackson’s “We Mean Business” conference. She scheduled 15 minutes in the packed agenda for me to talk about my 9 Leadership Power Tools.
So, not one to follow impossible rules, I used my 15 minutes on the stage to impart just one of the Leadership Power Tools. I chose #9, “Tell Your Story.”
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