How Do You Have the Courage to Lead in Times Like These?
Issue 2850— June 23, 2025
You feel it.
The air is thick—not just with summer heat but with anxiety, injustice, and uncertainty.
Wars. Layoffs. Leaders assassinated. Families torn apart. Rights rolled back. Bombardment from the news cycle that leaves us breathless.
I don’t know about you, but I find myself flipping the news on to stay informed—and off to stay sane.
So how do we keep leading when the world feels like it’s breaking apart?
We start with three essentials:
🔹 Clarity
Take a breath. Tune out the chaos long enough to hear your own inner voice. What are the values you refuse to compromise? What’s your true north? Leadership starts with knowing what you stand for—especially when everything else is falling down.
Clarity isn’t obstinance. The willingness to engage in ideas, share yours and hear those of others is in itself a courageous act.
Even controversy can lead to greater clarity when you have the courage to be true to your own convictions, including when it is uncomfortable, and model respect for the convictions of others without compromising your own.
Sometimes I have to take another deep breath in order to do this because patience isn’t one of my virtues. But it always pays off.
🔹 Care
Care for others isn’t weakness. It’s strength with its sleeves rolled up. As former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern showed the world, empathy is not the opposite of power—it’s a source of it. Women leaders—across countries, industries, communities—showed during the pandemic that leading with care creates stronger, more resilient outcomes.
Ardern became known around the world for her effective handling of the pandemic. And it turned out, female leaders of nations as a rule did a better job of leading through that disruption.
In a study analyzing 122 speeches on Covid-19 made by 20 leaders, half male and half female, researchers found that while they all talked about the economic impact, men were more likely to speak to fear based tactics whereas women were more likely to focus on social unity.
But caring for others is just half of the equation. Care for yourself is equally essential so that you can replenish and maintain the energy that leading through difficult spots requires. For me that means daily exercise and remembering to do at least one thing each day that improves my sense of wellbeing. Today that’s getting a pedicure—finally!
What helps you fill your energy cup and feel ready for the challenges you face?
🔹 Community
You are not alone. In fact, no one leads alone. Connection gives courage, and courage shared becomes movement.
That’s why this August 26, Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert and Conference is inviting us all to connect in community while sounding the call with this theme: “Courage to Lead.”
You’re definitely going to want to be at the end of Power Up Conference BETTY concert and dance party. Aly Palmer of BETTY (left) with Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead at the 2024 Power Up Conference.
Join other bold women leaders and hear their stories, learn practical tools for replenishing your own energy and power, and find your people—because this moment needs you.
For example, if you’ve been to previous Power Up conferences, you’ve been blessed to see and hear internationally famous concert pianist and composer Marina Arsenijevic perform. But this year at the conference you will also get to know her personal story of courage to use her music to foster unity in her war-torn country, how she knew she had to leave after a concert that became controversial, and how she recreated her career in America, including one of the most watched PBS shows.
We can’t afford to wait. As I wrote in my book Intentioning, it’s time to lead like a woman—with authenticity, clarity, and purpose.
It's time to rewrite the power rules for everyone’s good.
If the world is on fire, let’s be the water and the spark to use it constructively.
Courage is contagious—and you’ve got more of it than you think. As Winston Churchill said, “Fear is a condition. Courage is a choice.”
Please choose to join me and hundreds of changemakers in community on August 26 at Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert and Conference. Learn more and register here. (Hurry, though because early bird lowest rate ends June 27.)
Remember, nothing changes until someone steps up with the Courage to Lead—and it might as well be you.
GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, and a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.