How Are We Doing? 10 Years of Take The Lead
Issue 253 — February 26, 2024
The late bombastic New York mayor, Ed Koch, was famous for going around the city asking, “How am I doing?”
So as Take The Lead kicks off its 10th anniversary year, exactly 10 years after its first big public launch event at Arizona State University’s Gammage Auditorium, we’re asking you, “How are we doing?”
We took stock of our 10 top accomplishments during our first decade. Believe me, it was hard to narrow down to 10; please feel free to let us know if you would like to see another area of impact highlighted.
Thank you for your support and participation in our work for intersectional gender parity in leadership.
So how are we doing? Take The Lead’s top 10 accomplishments in our first 10 years because of supporters like you:
To solve the problem of women being stuck at only 18% of upper leadership, Take The Lead was cofounded by Gloria Feldt and Amy Litzenberger in 2014. While there were thousands of women’s leadership programs and endless discussions about the disparities, it was clear that a different kind of leadership development program was needed, one that started with introspection and mindset, not just skill set, and not one that simply taught women to lead like men. In fact, we knew from the data that women were the solution, not the problem.
Companies with more women in leadership are more profitable. Political bodies with more women have better decision processes and get more done. Yet women weren’t walking through the doors that had been opened for them by previous trailblazers. There were plenty of external barriers to be sure, but we also had to confront the culturally learned barriers in our own heads that were holding us back.
That was the impetus for founding Take The Lead using the research and practical tools I had done for my bestselling book, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power. In a nutshell, I found that women were often ambivalent about assuming power, for very good reasons, having borne the brunt of so many effects of power misused. To break through the remaining barrier once and for all, it would be necessary to change the power paradigm from oppressive power over to generative power TO. And that’s where we began.
Here are the top 10 accomplishments in our first decade:
The Take The Lead Challenge Launch event blasted us into prominence on February 19, 2014, with the bold mission of intersectional gender parity in leadership by 2025. In partnership with Arizona State University, we filled the 3000 seat auditorium and live-streamed to 500,000 globally before live streaming was common. Power women Sheryl Sandberg and Carla Harris keynoted.
Using the research-based curriculum rooted in changing the power paradigm from oppressive power over to generative and expansive power TO from No Excuses, Take The Lead’s unique approach enables women to embrace their power with authenticity, higher intentionality for leadership, and joy.
To reach a critical mass of people quickly, we launched an online course — The 9 Leadership Power Tools to Advance Your Career — in 2014, years before online learning was routine. This remains the core curriculum that we continue to build upon. It has been successfully adapted to all career levels. We can deliver it in person, online, or hybrid, custom designed for any organization, or industry.
Because there is no one silver bullet to move women forward, we created a comprehensive program of training, coaching and cohort building, role models for inspiration, and thought leadership to focus on solutions rather than admiring the problems. The synergy among those elements makes this program’s results more effective than any one strategy alone.
Launched our unique, most immersive version of the curriculum: 50 Women Can Change the World in (fill in the sector). We have delivered 10 cohorts, including nonprofits, healthcare, journalism, law, entrepreneurship, and media and entertainment. External evaluation found 40% of graduates have received significant promotions or raises within 6 months of completion. 90% feel more powerful, and 100% would recommend it to others. Now we aim to deliver finance, tech, sustainability, public service, and more to foster movements in each sector.
6. Delivered statewide executive women’s programs in Utah and Iowa. Launched “Intentioning” live online Mastermind Series for women in upper leadership.
7. To meet the need for more effective diversity and inclusion programs, we developed and delivered Creating a Culture of Inclusion.
8. Trained over 5,000 individuals and reached over 1,500,000 with all programs combined including webinars and events.
9. Started annual Power Up concert and conference in 2020, now held on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, every year. To highlight women and men who walk the walk, we give Leading Woman, Alexander Barbanell Leading Man, Leading Company, Leading Philanthropy, Leading Media, and Wear the Shirt Awards.
10. Other notable events and content creation include Play Hockey Like a Girl, Powertopia, virtual happy hours, four podcast series, our award winning weekly blog and newsletter, Power to Change stories amplifying the voices of individual women, and collaborations with aligned organizations. And on the 10th anniversary 2/19, almost 1,000 people registered for a one-of-a-kind intimate virtual conversation on “Women, Power, and Leadership” delivered from Gloria Steinem’s couch. Missed it? Here’s the replay.
At 10-years, we have the programs and the proof they work — they are effective in accelerating women into and up through leadership. Women currently hold over 25% of top leadership positions across all sectors, and that number is rising quickly. It’s time to scale with a robust campaign to fund 25 cohorts of 50 Women Can Change the World and other core programs to deliver on the mission of intersectional gender parity in leadership by the end of 2025.
Together, we truly can change the world.
P.S. Here are a few powerful stories of individual results:
“As a Hualapai entrepreneur, I know how tough it is to make connections, acquire the business mindset, and create community with other women founders. Here’s where Take The Lead’s 50 Women Can Change the World program for entrepreneurs provides women with the intention and skills to embrace their power to lead change in their businesses and communities comes in clutch. I have taken Take the Lead training with Gloria before and she helped me to release some fears I had around the concept of POWER and what that means to me as a Hualapai woman. This unlocked my personal and business growth and helped me make relationships outside of my circle of comfort. If you would like to define power in a new way that will bring clarity to your entrepreneurial journey- please feel free to click the link and tell them April sent you!” — April Tinhorn, participant in 50 Women Can Change the World in Nonprofits, former Deputy Executive Director of the Native Learning Center, now Owner of Tinhorn CX
“I was ready to throw the towel in. I was stuck in ‘what I felt’ was middle management. The penny dropped during your session. Why did I assume that they can guess what I want just because I have shown them what I can do? After my workshop, I scheduled meetings with the Head of IT, Head of Transformation and our Chief Operating Officer. I reminded them that I did not join the company as a junior developer and made it to where I am, and that I needed to move up the next level. The discussions were great. I found out that management did think I very much deserved the promotions and would work towards those opportunities.
The other thing I did as well, I knew they would not hand me a promotion just because, so I took the opportunity to initiate the discussions on leading key….Power tool — 1, 2, 3 & 4. So empowering! And, it gives me more power to march ahead to push the envelope. ‘Power to…Power Over.’”— International Women’s Forum Fellow in the banking industry
“This class was life changing for me. I feel more empowered than ever to take the lead, lean in and embrace the POWER TO own my career and development. Got my dream job 3–5 years sooner than I expected.” — Meg Middleton, Manager, Sales Training, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
“I am really excited about putting my strategic plan into action now, and seeing the results in 6 months. This course has helped me tremendously and I would love for more women to benefit from it. I feel very confident in my decisions now, and know that I can (and will) do the hard stuff to get where I want to go. I am ready to aim higher, and achieve higher-and just have fun along the way!
I don’t know what’s coming next, but I do know it will be awesome, because I’m not settling for anything less. I will definitely circle back in 6 months with a great update. Thanks again!” — Sreedevi
“I took your workshop a year ago and articulated that my personal action plan goal was to become a vice president of my firm. I used the power tool ‘Use what you’ve got’ to differentiate myself and demonstrate my value to the company as the cochair of the African American affinity group, and focused the group on bringing resources to the company. Today, I was informed I am being promoted to vice president.” — Valerie Brown Grant, VP, then Senior VP at Alliance Bernstein, now Managing Director and Lead Portfolio Manager at Nuveen, a TIAA Company
“The 9 Leadership Power Tools course re-shaped my thinking on personal power and how to embrace it to create the vision I want for my life and career. As a result, I received several job offers for leadership roles within the technology industry. If you have a chance to take this class do it!” — Deniece Moxy, Senior Manager, Product MarketingAppZen
“I LOVED the session today. I am one of three women leaders in a 40 person squadron which is made up of men. Your words today made me feel seen and empowered. I’m tearing up writing this only because I think I have been slightly jaded by the masculinity of the military at times (not to be accusatory of it, but that is its typical nature) and I hadn’t realized it (I’ve been in the military for 15 years). I truly feel like your presentation spoke to me directly. It woke me up to the fact that I am more than capable and deserving of promotions and higher level positions based on my performance, and that my glass ceiling (even working in the middle of nowhere Wyoming) can be broken.” — Technical sergeant Megan Stark
“Gloria, you are my inspiration! Because of my work with you, your 9 Power Tools, 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.” — Erica Miles, tech industry
I just participated in the great and powerful Women Leadership program by the Take the Lead Women!! I am so grateful for all that I have learnt, shared and all the great and building discussions we have!! All the power tools tackled in this program are so essential and great ingredients to Women in Leadership. I have also started implementing on my Personal Leadership Action Plan….every step counts. I interacted with and made friendships with very inspiring and strong women leaders whose stories inspire me so much!! Overall I am truly humbled and I just received my certificate of successful participation this week!! — Winter-Esther Okoth, Biomedical Researcher
GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, 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.