The Sum
In tribute to female mayors, taking the lead
Issue 136 — July 20, 2020
The passing of Civil Rights leader and legend Congressman John Lewis made me deeply sad. A wave of great lions and lionesses of the movement for racial equality is moving on just as the country is at the crossroads. Either we’ll make the systemic change that they visualized, that they risked their very lives for, or we’ll let the elements of xenophobia take us back to pre-Rosa Parks days. As tributes to Lewis fill the media, I became aware that his career in elective office started on the Atlanta City Council.
Read MoreIs 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.
Read MoreThere’s Power in Naming and Power in Knowing your Name
Issue 134— July 6, 2020
My cousin Elizabeth is making good use of this time of sheltering during the pandemic to dig into our family history. It was rooted in the small town of Birzai, Lithuania for hundreds of years until two world wars either killed them or dispersed them to many corners of the world. One of the most intriguing and yet exasperating parts of this exploration is getting the names right as spellings varied from language to language. Vinn became Vinh or Bein, Henne to Hannah, and even some in the same nuclear family some people spelled their last names differently.
Read More7 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.
Read More8 Ways to Be an Effective Leader for Change
Issue 132 — June 22, 2020
I first learned about the power of organizing to make change when I was about 15 years old. In the small town of Stamford, Texas, where I lived at the time, there were two short order restaurants in town. One was called Son’s City Pig and it had indoor tables with juke boxes where we kids could sit and kibitz, as teenagers do. And as teenagers were inclined to do, we created various fads. One was eating our French Fries with mustard. OK, I admit I started that one.
Read MoreHow Do You Become an Intentional Woman?
Issue 131 — June 14, 2020
There is ambition and there is intention. Ambition is I hope, I wish, I want. Intention is I will, I am doing it, there was never a question.
Elma Beganovich’s intention is clear: to win the same size contracts that any of the big four ad agencies would get based on her company’s ability and the talent she and her sister and cofounder Amra bring.
Amra and Elma founded A&E, a digital agency with an impressive client portfolio of Fortune 500 companies like J&J, P&G, Netflix, VF Corp, and Wells Fargo. They are mega influencers with over 2.2 million social followers.
Read MoreShock and awe; building a movement for real change
Issue 130 — June 9, 2020
On the day of George Floyd’s funeral, let me just say it. I’m shocked that anyone is shocked about the blatantly obvious systemic racism and discrimination experienced by African Americans. The data has been in front of our noses since — forever. Even if one has never met a Black person, I don’t get how anyone can be oblivious to the rampant injustice unless he or she never consumes news, goes to the movies, or walks about a city. If you read no further, please read this straightforward overview of Black life in America by Julene Allen, CEO of Women of Color in the Workplace. She clearly documents that we are NOT living in a post-racial world.
Parallel Pandemics, Convergent Solutions
Issue 129 — June 1, 2020
We are in a profoundly disruptive time. A time when just a week ago, I could see many opportunities to reshape a better world post-pandemic. That’s until another pandemic, a pandemic of racism was laid so bare that layered on top of COVID it feels like a leaden blanket we’ll never be able to throw off.
As New York Times contributing editor Roxane Gay says, “Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait, despite the futility of hope, for a cure for racism.”
Read MoreThe Sum: Mother’s Day in a Pandemic
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.
What’s the matter with Dr. Deborah Birx? 5 Reasons for her epic #Leadershipfail
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?