When Leadership Gets Real: What I Learned From a Very Rough Chapter of My Life
Leadership is not always a title. Sometimes it is a decision: to stay, to try, to hold the line when things get hard. 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 It means challenging outdated systems and replacing them with structures that center people, not power.
My artist mother taught me that leadership cannot be cramming oneself into outdated systems.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.