When Leadership Gets Real: What I Learned From a Very Rough Chapter of My Life
I was hired unanimously to lead a regional Innovation Hub with collaboration and equity at the center. I did not walk in to keep the lights on.
I walked in to build something new. Here is what happened when intention met execution.
I stayed in the work long after it got hard. I continue to seek guidance from mentors, board members and even HR.
I always try to create space for hard conversations. I like to think I tried everything to make this JOB work. Eventually, the staffer left. So did I. Here is what I learned, and why I keep building Business 4 Good!
Architect of Change: Building a Future Rooted in Equity
I come from a lineage of resilience: women who built lives from the ground up, who led with instinct, intelligence, and grit. Being an Architect of Change is not about simply adapting to what exists. It is about imagining and building something radically better. It means building a cooperative where the newest member and the founder have the same vote.
My artist mother taught me that leadership cannot be cramming oneself into outdated systems. It has to be building better ones from the ground up. Check out my three pillars for being an Architect of Change, and why Richard Florida's Great Reset is exactly the moment we are in right now.
Golden Ticket: Empathy as the Leadership Advantage
Empathy is the most profitable leadership skill you have not fully made yet. It cannot be just because they have to. That is the era of the Soft Boss. We are already in it. I am writing this from a couch in my Soft Boss era, escaping the late-stage capitalism grind. After-all, what does AI eat for breakfast? Human Intelligence, of course.
Thanks a Lot: Gratitude, Community, and the Systems We Accept
I give thanks weekly, sometimes even daily. I also find certain holidays to be a bit of a farce, followed immediately by one of the most massively marketed days of gross consumption as a national sport. I promise, this is a glass half full article. But gratitude lists are not enough and I think we can do better.