A Few Tips to Shake Things Up!

We’re not going to belabor the ‘stuck in your comfort zone’ thing but after our last email, we would be remiss if we didn’t pop in and share a few tangibles ways to break free from the grips of your comfort bubble. (-;

If you’re truly ready to take steps away from your comfort zone, here are some tips that can help.

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Dangly Earrings and Other Breaks with the Past

Issue 138 — August 10, 2020

CBS Sunday Morning reminded me, in a piece about President Gerald Ford’s photographer David Hume Kennerly, that August 9 was the anniversary of the date in 1974 when President Richard Nixon resigned from office. Why is this relevant?

Well, it is quite relevant to me, for it marked a major turning point in my life and my career. As it happens, that is also the date on which I was offered and accepted my first CEO position. I became executive director of the small young Planned Parenthood affiliate in West Texas.

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Is your career disrupted? How you can regroup, refresh, and rewire for success

Issue 135 — July 13, 2020

What had you planned to do in 2020?

I could hardly wait for 2020. It was going to be an epic year. The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. So many events were already being planned that my calendar was filled with places I wanted to go to join the celebration. It was to be the year that Take The Lead was finally poised to scale up with our strategy to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2025.

I had so many plans. Just the sound of those round numbers 2020 were enough to signal a special year.

We were about to find out just how special.

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7 Tips for Networking Even in a Pandemic

Issue 133 — June 29, 2020

One thing COVID-19 has done is make life easier for introverts.

If you break out in a cold sweat at the thought of networking, in the sense of walking into a large room full of people you don’t know and trying to make connections that will be useful to you in your professional life, while balancing a beverage — it might seem in first blush that at least that worry is over.

But the reality is your network is your net worth.

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The Sum Volume #9: Stop

“The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.”—Warren Bennis. Word of the week is STOP. I know, I know!  I’m usually telling you to GO. To set your intentions higher and embrace your power TO achieve them, and to go full bore to lead your dreams, not follow them. How do you like my…

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Take The Leap (Day) to Make Your Own History

It’s Leap Day! February 29 is the every-fourth-year calendar adjustment for the Gregorian calendar’s imperfections. The extra day appended to February inspired a leap of vision and blazing hope for women in 5th Century Ireland, when St. Bridget persuaded St. Patrick to declare that a woman could do what was then the unthinkable: ask a…

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Maxisms: 8 Things I Learned from My Crazy Father

My father, Max Feldt, stood 6’ 3” with a personality so big (and the towns we lived in so small) that the postal service once delivered a letter to me addressed only: “To the eldest daughter of Big Max, Stamford, Texas.” Family lore says he roared, “Who said I wanted a boy?” when reminded that…

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8 Ways to Erase the “Can Women Have It All?” Question

8 Ways to Erase the “Can Women Have It All?” Question

If it’s so darn hard to be a parent and a CEO, why doesn’t Indra Nooyi resign from PepsiCo? Nooyi, who receives high marks as a CEO, fell several notches in my estimation as a leader who apparently doesn’t realize the impact her words will have on younger women’s aspirations. And don’t even talk to…

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