You wake up Monday morning, pour yourself a glass of orange juice, and get breakfast ready for your clan. Off to the office, you battle the traffic, thinking about how to tell your rebel employee that there have been complaints about his behavior. You dread the meeting and yet know it can’t wait. Pulling into the parking lot you feel a wave of frustration, seeing that … [Read more...]
When Being GUTSY Starts Young
I recently spoke at a women’s networking group and asked the bright and creative professionals to think about the earliest time they could remember when they spoke out for themselves. To jog their memories, I told a story about unfairness when a boy in my elementary school class was yelled at when I was the one “sneaking” in front of him in line. (You can read the whole … [Read more...]
You Never Know What Impacts
I was having an amazing conversation with my grown daughter who is a free spirit. She is a film maker and raw food chef who has a ton of friends and opinions about, well, just about everything. Here’s what was fascinating. When she was little, way before You Tube, she loved to listen to songs and stories by Marlo Thomas from the album “Free to Be You and Me”. She went … [Read more...]
What Do Women Want?
It’s really simple. What women want is to be heard! We do not need to have the problems solved for us. However, before we can make change happen we require dialogue, discussion, debate. In my book “GUTSY: How Women Leaders Make Change”, I did some digging to consider basic things that have been handed to us that have become part of who we are, part of our culture. I … [Read more...]
Women and Responsibility
Times, they are a changing, always. However, changing times seem to happen in the blink of an eye. I do believe we women leaders need to stop and take a deep look at what we are doing and the profound consequences of our actions. In days of yore, we were to be kept “barefoot and pregnant” and now we have “freedom of choice”. The big question is, what are we choosing and … [Read more...]
The Intricacies of How We Learn
The following is a validation that we still have a long way to go to make change happen when it comes to beliefs and perceptions about little girls and education. When I did research for my GUTSY book (due out in January) I was both frustrated and delighted with the studies that show how our own adult anxieties are picked up by little learners. The more we can … [Read more...]
Women, Food, and Being GUTSY
This is the perfect time of year, when food is front and center in our minds, to honor a woman who has been in the food services industry for several decades. Yet, it’s not about her relationship with food that we’ll discuss; it’s about her relationship with women. Victoria Vega is the National Director of Business Development, Corporate Dining for CulinArt Managed Dining … [Read more...]
A Gutsy Woman Leader Occupies Wall Street
There she was, tufts of purple hair framing her face as she stood daring the policeman to arrest her. “What if I punch you in the eye?” she queried. “What if I knee’ d you in the groin?” she challenged. She was told she would not be arrested if she stayed with the protestors and that made the day much brighter. Think about it. What do you do when you feel the passion … [Read more...]
Gloria Steinem and Fear Busters
There were all kinds of sizes, shapes and ages at the Pa. Women’s Conference in October. Close to 4,000 women gathered to listen, compare, critique, and collaborate. It was stimulating. One well deserved standing ovation went to Gloria Steinem, still beautiful in her 70's. With hair pulled back and little make-up, she is a great example of how one can age gracefully and … [Read more...]
GUTSY WOMEN RELATE RADICALLY at WORK
Knowing the difference between men and women is easy when we look at body parts. It is not so easy when we think about how our brains operate differently, yet they sure do. Let’s just take the example of men and women in meetings. Now, we all know meetings are most likely to have some stress components. Knowing the differences in ways that we respond to stimuli can make the … [Read more...]