Happy/Not Happy Fifth of July: The Case for Action

Issue 234 — July 5, 2023

Happy Fifth of July. It’s National Bikini Day in case you hadn’t noticed. And National Graham Cracker Day (who makes these things up?).

I needed that moment of levity coming off a Fourth of July that was tinged with anger, sadness, and a new resolve, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week eviscerating academic affirmative action precedents. Best selling author of The Memo and Right Within Minda Harts called it a sucker punch in her LinkedIn Post responding to the ruling.

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Failure As True Growth: Abby Wambach On What Makes A Good Leader

“Failures are things I feel most proud of. Stop calling it failure, it’s true growth,” says Abby Wambach, former two-time U.S. Women’s National Team Olympic gold medalist, World Cup Soccer winner and author.

At the recent Customer Contact Week Conference in Las Vegas, Rebecca Jarvis, ABC News chief business economics correspondent describes Wambach as someone who “turns failure into fuel.” Jarvis adds that Wambach is also “the highest international goal scorer of all time” as well as an “advocate for pay equity and LGBTQ rights.”

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No Lie: Gabrielle Union on How Entrepreneurs Can Create Success

“If you can’t be honest about yourself, you will go through life as a lie,” said Gabrielle Union, entrepreneur, award-winning actress, producer and author in a recent conversation at Pride Summit 2023 with B. Pagels-Minor, podcast host and founder of DVRGNT Ventures.

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How About We Solve a Problem Instead of Admiring It? Building a Solution-Focused Mindset

Issue 232 — June 19, 2023

I often quote Mellody Hobson, President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, in my speeches and training. She said, “We have admired the problem long enough.”

I don’t remember what she was referring to but to me this wry comment applies to every injustice people face, every complaint we may have even if it is fully warranted. We can spout data about how awful this is and how discriminatory that is, but until we are willing to roll up our sleeves and take action, we’re just “admiring the problem” and failing to get to the solutions.

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Dangers of AI? Yes To Replacing, But Mostly Embracing A Whole New World

“This may be as big as the hype now and it may be underhyped in the longterm,” Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, told Kara Swisher, journalist and podcast host, at the recent Pride Summit 2023 hosted by Lesbians Who Tech. “This is closer to a societal revolution, not a technical revolution.”

He spearheads the company launched in November 2022 with an estimated 1 billion monthly users and 100 million active users.

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From Mass Disruption to Critical Mass of Progress: Lead YOUR Intention

Issue 231 — June 12, 2023

Are you ready for the 2023 Power Up Concert and Conference, as always on Women’s Equality Day August 26? Learn about it and get your super early bird tickets here.

I am excited to invite you to join in this pivotal moment to seize opportunities in the wake of pandemic recovery. The last 3 years have exacerbated disparities and revealed fault lines in our culture. The time to advance racial and gender parity in leadership is now.

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Practice Hope: Legend Joan Baez on Activism, Music and Making Good Trouble

“Who wants to sit next to Juanita?”

Born in New York, and growing up in California, and later Massachusetts, Joan Baez says she felt like an outsider as a young girl of Mexican heritage in a small public school where her grade school teacher taunted her with a name that was not hers.

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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.”

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What’s Tina Got to Do With Women’s Leadership?

Issue 230 — May 28, 2023

Back in the day, a friend of mine used to say that she wanted to BE Tina Turner.

As the tributes flowed following Turner’s death on May 24 at 83, it was obvious that she had an equally significant impact on countless people around the world. (In Australia, the whole country stopped to dance to “Nutbush City Limits.”)

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