Authenticity Is Key: Bring Your True Self To Your Leadership

”Why not bring your authentic self?”

Sandy Ko, founder and principal of Customer Contact Week Women, says her background as a South Korean immigrant shaped her leadership style and gave her permission to “exist loudly.”

“Growing up in the 90s, in my second corporate job, senior leadership was the Boys Club of all white males.” She adds that she found, “There is power in connecting outside of your wheelhouse.”

After moving with her family to New Jersey when she was six, she found, “Everyone had a network. We didn’t have any family here. It was difficult to find Korean communities.”

Moving To Equality: Power Up Conference A Critical Success In Intentioning for Equity, Access, Partnership

“We need to move to keep movements moving,” Laura Vega, Power Up Conference Chair and Associate General Counsel & Senior Director, Legal Affairs of MicroVention, Inc., told the robust live and virtual audience in her welcome greeting at the recent Power Up Conference & Conference on Women’s Equality Day.

Introducing Gloria Feldt, the powerhouse behind the day’s events, as well as co-founder and president of Take The Lead, Vega says, “She is such an inspiration and role model.”

Taking the stage with an enthusiastic crowd of leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, managers, media leaders, students, writers and philanthropists, Feldt says, “In order to make big systemic change, we need to be big, be bold and be out there.”

Change Leadership, Career successMichele WeldonSeptember 1, 2023Power Up Conference, Women's Equality DayComment

Exclusive Fireside Chat with Liz Elting

Do you have the entrepreneurial itch, but need inspiration from successful businesspeople to boost your untapped potential and lead YOUR intention? Are you an entrepreneur who can use some inspiration and practical advice? Do you have a vision of making enough money to become a philanthropist?

This chat is a unique opportunity to hear from a visionary leader who not only established her own successful enterprises but also champions other women’s achievements and their ventures.

Career success, Change Leadership, EventGloria FeldtAugust 17, 2023Power Up Conference, Equality Day, Gloria FeldtComment

Wow Factor: Power Up Conference On Women's Equality Day Helps You Lead With Intention

You will be wowed from the start. That is the intention.

Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference & Concert on Women’s Equality Day, “Lead Your Intention,” offers a full day of keynotes, panels, roundtables and sessions with acclaimed speakers, leaders, founders, consultants, entrepreneurs and authors —all with the mission to help you achieve your career and life goals with specific strategies, alliances, information and insights.

Harmony in Work & Life: Founder, Innovator in Manufacturing, Marketing on Passion For Change

“Having trusted relationships is how I got here today,” says Kara Demirjian Huss, vice president of T/CCI Manufacturing and recently appointed to the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board, overseeing the United State Plan for Illinois workforce development system.

“There is a lot of talk about work/life balance, but it’s not balance, it’s harmony.”

Yes, You Can: Hillary Clinton On Owning Ambition, Power & Happiness

“Accomplishment and happiness go together,” Hillary Rodham Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd during her recent talk for the Chicago Humanities Festival Joanne H. Alter Women in Government Lecture.

Class of 2023: Support, Skills, Advice Grads Need To Succeed Now

All hail to the 2023 college graduates, the class that was sent home from their dorms and classrooms in March 2020 of their freshman year due to COVID concerns.

As commencement season peaks, wisdom rings from podiums around the country in speeches from illustrious icons offering what they may hope is affirmation at the start of careers.

Applauding Good Work: Activists Advocating For Women, Girls Across Generations

The first Chicago Foundation For Women award went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2005, at the age of 72, when she was a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, 125 women leaders have been honored, and this year, 17-year-old Azariah Baker, Youth Leader of A Long Walk Home, won the Vanguard Award.

“I have been encouraged by so many women in my life and am so thankful,” says Baker, an artist and activist, senior at George Washington College Prep High School, who is attending Spelman College in the fall. “You see women here doing everything in their fullness. My work is an ode to my Black experience.”

12 Great New Books By BIPOC Women for Black Women Entrepreneurs, Leaders

Black History Month is just one month out of the year but it is necessary to honor and heed the work of Black women forever and always. Now you have a reading list that can take you through every month of the year.

In this collection of 12 recent books by Black women authors, Take The Lead salutes the energy, advice and brilliance of authors producing nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels and more.

Ardern/Wojcicki/Sturgeon/Sandberg: Are Women Leaders Who Leave Setting Women Back?

Issue 222 — February 20, 2023

I love this phrase from Susan Wojcicki’s letter, announcing she is stepping down as CEO of YouTube: “It’s an incredibly important time for Google — it reminds me of the early days — incredible product and technology innovation, huge opportunities, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.” (Emphasis mine).

Open the Door and Nurture: Exec VP On How To Recruit, Hire, Retain Diverse Tech Candidates

Talent is ubiquitous. Opportunity is not. Getting in the door is key.”

Montreece Smith, executive vice president of people for Per Scholas, a national tech training initiative with 20 campuses and a staff of 500, placing 20,000 alumni at more than 850 employer partners, says she is helping to drive the company mission of opening doors to tech careers for persons of color.

“We are changing the face of tech,” says Smith.

23 & You: 12 Monthly Lessons To Make This Your Best Year Ever

It seems everyone starts the new year with a sterling list of goals aimed at making this a shiny year of professional successes. Some are reachable, some are aspirational, all seem plausible in theory.

To make this year 2023 truly monumental and to zero in on actively achieving the goals you assign yourself, it is important to be realistic about where you are in your career, who you are and what skills and resources you have at your disposable—and can acquire.

Take The Lead has a bounty of instructive and inspiring content, resources and courses available for you and your team to make these goals a reality and to see that 2023 is your best year ever in terms of reaching your heights as an entrepreneur, leader, innovator, manager and colleague.

View Newsletter Archive

Info

Action