The World Turns on Human Connections
Photo courtesy of Led Light Station.
After a whirlwind year of creating an organization, hosting an amazing launch, and being overwhelmed with gratitude for the scores of organizations and individuals who have supported our cause, donated to it, and who want to align with Take The Lead’s mission and programs, we’ve been taking stock. Asking ourselves what works and what not so much. What are the highest leverage activities that will move us with most alacrity toward our vision of leadership parity? How in the world will we ever get the resources we need to implement this vision fully?
And over and over, as we embarked on the questions, the answers come back to our human connections. As you will see by other articles in this newsletter, it comes back to our circles where we network with link minded colleagues, to the relationships we build in courses and webchats and the #SisterCourage campaign.
And here is what I know from being a leader and working to advance women in society as well as the workplace: Women need each other. We need to learn the stories about how other women succeeded, the barriers they faced and how they overcame them. We need to know the barriers that our sisters and friends didn’t overcome, or didn’t overcome the first time, or the second, or the tenth, but finally on the eleventh attempt, succeeded.
Or how someone found a different path when the barriers were too great on the first path she started traveling. And if there were days that she was distraught and depressed and angry and ready to throw in the towel. We need to share stories of worst moments as well as the best. We need to learn our problems are not unique and we are not alone.
This is why Take The Lead places such a high value on collaboration. Because #SisterCourage extends to organizations as well as individuals, to Brother Partners who share our mission as well as sisters.
Perhaps you know the story of the mother who had five daughters. She gave each daughter a stick and said, “Break it.” They easily snapped the sticks. Then she had the daughters gather five more sticks, which she bound into one bundle. Each sister in turn tried to break the bundle, but none could do so. “You see, my daughters,” said the mother, “Together, you are unbreakable. Together, you can do anything.”
The world turns on human connections.
You are not alone in your concerns.
Reach out. Be a sister. Ask for help when you need it.
Have courage. The courage of convictions, the courage to take action.
Put the two together with a strategy and you have a movement to make the change you want to see or be in the world.
Thank you for your support that enabled Take The Lead to get such a meaningful start. Please stay connected, whether by joining our circle, taking a course or funding someone else to take one, inviting us to speak or train personnel at your organization, attending an event, contributing to the cause financially or with your talents, or simply subscribing to this newsletter to stay on top of our progress. Tell us what you think—help us get better at what we do.
And please stay engaged so we go can forward together to turn the vision into reality.
About the Author
Gloria Feldt, Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead, is the author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power. She teaches "Women, Power, and Leadership" at Arizona State University and was named to Vanity Fair's Top 200 women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers.