Take The Lead’s mission and work are more necessary than ever, not just to fight back, but to set an ambitious agenda to fight forward to achieve the mission for the good of women, men, families, and communities.
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Issue 221— February 13, 2023
February 14 is Valentine’s/Galentine’s/Palentine’s day. What are your plans? I first thought I’d see if any of my women friends wanted to celebrate together and then decided I’d follow my friend actor/activist Kathleen Turner’s advice and send myself roses.
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“I was the kid who loved all kinds of things.”
As a girl growing up outside Trenton, New Jersey at Fort Dix, where her father was based in the U.S. Army, Lily McNair loved books—a biography on Harriet Tubman especially, plus a psychology textbook—and a chemistry set that taught her how to make little volcanoes.
The miniature chemistry set her parents gave her one Christmas ignited McNair’s love of science. Tubman’s story inspired her to live a life helping others. And the psychology textbook her father bought (though he had not attended college) showed her she wanted to pursue a career in psychiatry or psychology.
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Sometimes a surprise email makes your day, or week, or year.
Take Lead Co-Founder and President Gloria Feldt opened this email recently from Erica Miles, a leader in tech.
“Gloria, you are my inspiration,” Miles writes. “Because of my work with you, your 9 Power Tools, and the Take the Lead training, No Excuses, I made a leap for a promotion. Thank you for your leadership; you encouraged me to step out, market myself and personally drive the next step in my career. I was getting stuck and not realizing my own value. I am hoping that all the inspiration I received from you will be realized by all your training participants, so they also realize their own worth.”
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Issue 185 — November 22, 2021
Before holiday season gatherings (in person or virtual — please stay safe), I’m taking a moment to say how grateful I am for all we have accomplished together despite pandemic-induced setbacks. Seriously, it has been amazing to look back at 2021 and realize that thanks entirely to your support, Take The Lead has provided over 10,000 women with resources and actionable tools to navigate career challenges and changes. You helped us help women rethink, refresh, retool, or revise their career intentions. And those are just the ones we can count.
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Issue 183 — November 8, 2021
Don’t you love the day each year that we get an extra hour?
Well, maybe not so much if you have small children whose body clocks still awaken them and their parents, at what will now be one hour earlier than before.
And maybe you’d prefer to keep daylight saving time all year to stave off darkness in the late afternoon, thus reducing seasonal affective disorders while avoiding the complications of a mid-year time change.
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Issue 128 — May 10, 2020
The phones are ringing, the texts are buzzing, social media notifications are pinging, and the Zooms and Zoom Rooms are being scheduled throughout the day to connect with family members so we can wish each other Happy Mother’s Day (almost) in person.
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Millions of us are testing the limits of our own strength—physically, emotionally, mentally—whether in isolation, working from home or facing the enormous challenges of essential work and the multi-dimensional threats of COVID-19.
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Issue 127—April 27, 2020
If you’re watching the Mrs. America series starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly, who mobilized the successful opposition to the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, you might wonder why in the world would a woman oppose equal rights for her own gender?
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Culture affects every aspect of your company, from the public’s perception of your brand to your employees’ job satisfaction to your bottom line. Because there’s so much at stake, it’s important that your corporate culture is adaptable and open to improvement – which starts with being able to articulate just what kind of culture your company has.
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Issue 125 — April 6, 2020
Making a grocery store run, I spotted a lone bottle of cherry wine on the shelf. Memories of my paternal grandmother Molly or Malle came flooding in.
I can see her in her small kitchen that smelled of garlic in Temple TX, cooking all day for her bustling household that usually included Granddaddy Isak or Isaac, one or more of their four sons living at home, and on the weekends their daughter Mayme home from her job in Houston, plus on Sundays my parents and maternal grandmother and sometimes other relatives.
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If only you had the time to write. Maybe now you just might.
Millions across the country are WFH—working from home—and have been for the past several weeks. They will be sheltering in place for several more weeks or months perhaps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many at the same time are e-schooling children, caring for family members and partners.
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