Calm Down: 5 Steps for Leaders To Reduce Employee Work Stress

How can women leaders deal with the issue of workplace stress among their employees?

Nearly every employee today is experiencing work stress, perhaps in varying degrees and in different forms. This is especially true given the current global health crisis brought on by COVID-19 and the resultant changes in today's workforce.

Even prior to COVID, a 2018 Fidelity Investments survey found that in America, the workplace has been deemed the top stress factor among employees. In the U.S. workplace stress is responsible for losses of up to $300 billion.

Seriously Unfinished Business: The 100th Anniversary of the Suffrage Amendment Didn't Turn Out as Planned, but We Can Make It Turn Out Better

Issue 139 — August 23, 2020

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock in your quarantine, or have put yourself on a strict social media and television diet to get away from the political talking heads, you know this year, 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment giving women across the U.S. the right to vote.

Thousands of women’s organizations had planned celebrations leading up to this auspicious anniversary, some on the various significant dates leading up to August 26, the anniversary of when the amendment became formally part of the Constitution.

47 Years of Women’s Equality Day: 5 Ways To Celebrate Now And Why

Forty-seven years ago Bella Abzug’s push to make August 26 Women’s Equality Day a national day of recognition became reality. It is still not a federal holiday. While Americans have yet to reach gender and racial equity, Take The Lead’s mission continues to be equality, equity and fairness for all women.

According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, less than half of Americans, or 49%, “say granting women the right to vote has been the most important milestone in advancing the position of women in the country.”

Feel The Heat: Co-Founder, CEO Develops Tech Solution to Reopening

Seeing nurses and other frontline healthcare workers wearing trash bags to protect themselves during shifts at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic because of a shortage of PPE equipment made Amy Lu upset. It also made the engineer CEO and co-founder of Antlia Systems get to work on a solution for protection.

“It broke my heart,” says Lu, co-founder of Chicago-based Antlia Systems (named after the constellation). “So I used my connections to get more PPE and donate them. Then I was working hard to figure things out with engineering teams to find the best solutions to make safe places.”

Resilience of Black Women’s Businesses: 6 Entrepreneurs Offer Timeless Advice

August is Black Business Month in this country and it is prime time to check in on the effects of the last four months on Black women entrepreneurs. They have been hardest hit by the economic downturn nationally. It is also time to heed the advice of Black women who have started, maintained and succeeded with their businesses in good and bad tines.

According to the Chicago Tribune, “The number of active Black-owned businesses in the U.S. plummeted 41 percent during the early months of the pandemic from February to April, more than twice the 17 percent level of white owned businesses, research by Robert Fairlie from the University of California Santa Cruz shows.”

The Great Reset: CEO Says New Ventures Serve Greater Good

“As painful as it is now, the focus is now on meaning. This is a permanent innovative change.”

Jocelyn Kung, CEO of The Kung Group, says her executive coaching and organizational consulting firm’s recent survey of more than 400 startup founders revealed that the ongoing global pandemic has deleteriously affected the growth of companies, but also shifted priorities to a new era of sustainability,

Corresponding to the release of the Q2 Venture Report by Crunchbase this week, that shows the volume of less than $100 million m fundings is down 63% from the same time last year. The number of companies in the second quarter of 2020 is also down form 2,660 in 2019 to 1,254 companies this year.

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.

The Right Moves Now: 5 Tips For Hiring, Retaining For Gender, Racial Fairness

Gender discrimination in the workplace has been affecting women and underrepresented minorities for decades, but has become even more critical today as racial disparities across multiple systems are at the heart of global protests.

About her 2016 book, Women Matter: The Why and How of Gender Diversity in Financial Services, Daralee Barbera, co-author, tells Forbes, “A persistent obstacle is that our profession is primarily white, male, and older.”

Share Your Story: Take The Lead Wants Your Power To Change Stories

Your story matters.

Take The Lead introduces the new initiative, Power To Change Stories, to highlight your personal story of specific experiences, strategies, insights and solutions to create change where you work and where you are.

At Take The Lead, we are committed to racial and gender parity as our mission. We recognize the importance of stories especially now during the pandemic of COVID-19 and the calls to action to affect ongoing racial injustice.

Nonprofits So White: New Report on Lack of Inclusion Offers Strategies

Nonprofits in this country are failing on their diversity and inclusion efforts, even as their missions address social justice and fairness issues, according to a new report of more than 5,000 workers in nonprofits.

“The sad — but unsurprising — truth is that people of color and whites have a different set of experiences in nonprofit organizations. This gap in how professionals experience their workplaces — whether they receive mentorship, are granted promotions, or face microaggressions — is partially reflected in what we call the ‘white advantage,’” write Frances Kunreuther and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, Co-Directors of the Building Movement Project, and authors of the report, Race to Lead Revisited: Obstacles and Opportunities in Addressing the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap.

Dads In Lockdown: Research Shows Unequal Share Of Parenting

As Father’s Day approaches it is noteworthy that more fathers in the U.S. and globally are working from home and sharing in childcare duties, even homeschooling. More of them are sharing Zoom screens on business calls with their children at home in the background.

Yet an abundance of new research shows mothers are not faring as well as fathers in the lockdown days of COVID-19.

A May report from the National Women’s Law Center shows “women — and particularly women of color — hold the majority of health care, child care and other jobs now deemed both essential and dangerous amid a pandemic,” according to Benefits Pro.

Be Proud: Maintaining LGBTQIA Inclusive Workplaces

J.K. Rowling offended trans individuals and groups on Twitter with an offensive definition of women. Pride parades were cancelled across the country due to COVID-19 safety concerns. New research shows workplace discrimination against LGBTQIA employees is prevalent.

Listen to Take The Lead’s podcast on “Pride in The Workplace”

To be truly inclusive, diverse, equitable and fair to all persons, company and organization leaders have work to do.