To be honest, I was hesitant to spend thirty minutes pointing out the challenges facing women leaders, as I’m not sure we need to be reminded of what’s not working in our favor. However, as I started putting my notes together, I quickly decided that if I provide this list as a bit of a “Hey friends! Just a heads up…” and included some options for strategic responses we can all enter 2025 feeling better informed and well prepared to do our work to the best of our ability.  

So, here we go!!

For me (and I hope for you!), when the world gets messy, my values become more clear. When my values are more clear, my decision-making becomes easier. When decision-making is easier, I can mitigate a lot of mental gymnastics and get to work.

In 2025, I plan to get to work. I’m not wasting time dilly-dallying in decision fatigue. I am clear on my values, the work I want to do, the impact I want to have, and how I can best share my gifts with the world. I am ready to GO.

I am acutely aware of those who are relying on me to be clear-headed and focused. I am prepared to show up for them. In calling out our challenges and creating strategic responses, we can focus on our vision and stay in momentum even when things are falling apart around us. 

In this episode, I address these 5 challenges facing women leaders in 2025:

Professional Landscape Challenges

After I talk through these challenges, I provide strategic suggestions which I hope will offer you some HOPE. Will 2025 be hard? Absolutely. But, hard isn’t new to us. So, we got this.  

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This might sound counterintuitive, but great leaders aren’t afraid to be a little messy. Being messy is not a hall pass to be careless or cause harm. Being messy is about being your most authentic, imperfect, high-integrity self who isn’t afraid to make mistakes and be fumbly in front of others. This is an invitation for women leaders to embrace and model imperfection as a transformative professional strategy. Being an imperfect, messy-at-times leader can be a massive demonstration of strength, self-trust, and confidence. Leading with this level of vulnerability challenges long-standing workplace myths about how women should show up at work while deconstructing the unrealistic expectation that we must be superhuman performers. This opens the door to reimagining leadership as a dynamic, authentic, constantly evolving-for-the-better journey of continuous learning and growth.

In this episode, I unpack how modeling mistakes creates psychological safety within teams and organizations, reducing a culture of anxiety and fear of failure. By openly acknowledging our own learning processes rather than putting on airs about having it all figured out, women leaders can dismantle harmful stereotypes that suggest competence at work requires flawless execution. I also share how emotional intelligence and genuine self-awareness actually build deeper, more trusting relationships, signaling to team members that professional development can be a non-linear path filled with exciting opportunities for innovation, self-improvement, and personal transformation.

If we check our egos, let go of our internalized perfectionism, and embrace the humility that comes with not having to get it 100% right all the time, we will start to see that being imperfect, modeling learning from mistakes in live time, and letting others know that we don’t always get it 100% right is the pathway to building trust, advancing relationships, unlocking creativity, and driving better outcomes.

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Through my own evolution as a business owner in recent years and then through watching my son evolve as an athlete recently, I’ve had the opportunity to personally and professionally consider how our culture's obsession with performance and winning consistently creates toxic narratives that tend to diminish our inherent human value. In this episode, I do a deep dive into separating self-worth from achievement - something I have had to work really hard on as someone who likes to achieve, achieve, achieve at every turn! I have found that when we let go of our ego and lead with an intentional combination of heart and heart and a healthy dose of self-compassion, we begin to own our inherent worth rather than constantly trying to earn it, allowing us to redefine our success in more fulfilling ways that extend far beyond traditional parameters.

I am hoping leaders—especially women who have been conditioned to prove their worth through constant high achievement—will find this episode liberating. This is an invitation to untie your self-worth from external validation and implement new strategies for developing a more curious, compassionate, growth-oriented mindset. 

As you consider how you judge yourself, how you judge others, and how you demonstrate a sense of self-worth to the world, I invite you to think about what would it be like if you disconnected your self-worth from winning, success, and high achievement at every turn. What would it be like if you knew you were innately worthy no matter how you performed? What would it be like if you could confidently walk onto the proverbial field without fear of peer judgment? And, if your life and/or work plays out on a field of constant judgment, what would it be like to find another field to play on?

This episode is an opportunity to challenge the traditional leadership paradigm by suggesting that true power comes not from constant winning, but from understanding our intrinsic value, supporting collective growth, and co-creating psychologically safe environments. My hope is that you'll see yourself—and your potential—through new eyes, unshackled from the damaging belief that your value is something to be constantly proven.  

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As you spend time within your team and organization ideating, creating, and growing, are you conscientiously co-creating a place where each person can participate fully with their best gifts? Is there enough safety and trust for people to take creative risks and ask seemingly silly questions? Have you created a culture where people feel safe to make mistakes?

An excerpt from an exhibition on place at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC defines “place” as… “about geography - but also about memory and imagination. People make places even as places change people. Places are secured by individual and collective struggle and spirit. Place is where culture is made, where traditions and histories are kept and lost, where identities are created, tested, and reshaped over time.”

When we think about the places you co-create with those you lead, how are you creating a place with intentionality and sensitivity to the impact that place will have on all those who inhabit it? People make up a place and each person’s unique gifts, talents, and struggles make that place entirely unique. For a place to be secure enough to build culture and traditions, there must be a foundation where the basic needs of security and safety are met. People must have enough trust in this place and the people who inhabit it that they can show up without fear of judgment, criticism, or harm. From there, the people can co-create a place where members can connect with others over shared values, common goals, and a similar sense of meaning and purpose.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of place, the steps to take to establish place, and how to overlap and collaborate with other people in other places in mutually beneficial and ethical ways. 

Links and Resources Mentioned:

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Shame can be a pervasive and isolating experience, but by examining your relationship with shame more closely, you can gain the tools to understand better and transform it. When you’re experiencing shame, it’s important to ask yourself a series of thoughtful questions designed to break down shame’s hold over you. These questions begin by addressing the specifics of a situation, identifying your feelings about the situation, and acknowledging the story you’re telling yourself about the situation. Recognizing the stories that fuel your shame can be the first powerful step toward reframing them in a way that aligns with your true values and goals.                      

When you challenge shame with curiosity, asking yourself, “What else is true in this situation?”, “What is mine to own here?”, and “What is not mine to own here?”, you can more accurately assess how you want to untangle your shame in order to move forward from it with valuable lessons learned. By considering both responsibility and release, you can find a path to emotional clarity and identify whether apologies or reconciliations might be necessary steps for growth. 

If you are carrying shame, it’s important to understand how it is holding you back and acknowledge how releasing it will free you. In this episode, you will learn how to rewrite your stories and reframe your narratives around shame in order to move forward with a more compassionate, supportive, and productive inner dialogue. Ultimately, reframing your shame and releasing its stronghold on you will allow you to be a more resourceful and resilient leader. 

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When I facilitate conversations about inclusion and allyship with groups of women, someone inevitably says, “Men need to hear this too!” When I lead mixed-gender rooms of people through similar conversations, I am consistently heartened by how open to listening, learning, and practicing the men in the room are. In my experience, many male leaders want to be better allies, advocates, and accomplices. So, today I’m excited to talk about exactly how to make that happen!

In this episode, I unpack the concept of allyship and how male allies can support women through active, meaningful engagement. I introduce a spectrum of allyship, from Allies who support but may not yet take significant action, to Accomplices who leverage their privilege to challenge oppressive systems, often at personal risk. Further along, Advocates bring visibility to issues, promoting gender equity by calling attention to injustices. And, Activists, the most visible allies, directly address social and political issues, often leading change movements to deconstruct systems of oppression. By understanding where they fall on this spectrum, men can find ways to support women in ways that go beyond token support.

Allyship becomes actionable when male allies engage deeply with feedback, prioritize active listening, and amplify women’s voices in their networks. True allyship requires men to listen to women’s experiences and thoughtfully respond to their input, creating spaces where feedback is valued and action is taken. Allies can further their impact by recognizing their own privilege, acknowledging how it affects their perspectives, and then using it to support and advance women’s visibility and credibility. When men publicly support women’s ideas and contributions, they can combat the common invisibility barriers women face in leadership and contribute to a more inclusive culture.

Creating inclusive environments requires men to go beyond merely designating “safe spaces.” Instead, they can work to establish trust, connection, and belonging in spaces that prioritize diverse perspectives. Furthermore, by promoting women’s career advancement through mentorship and sponsorship, allies actively work against the systemic limitations placed on women’s growth. Male allies who mentor women provide critical access to skills, knowledge, and networks, helping to bridge the gap to leadership positions.

Ultimately, allyship is a continuous journey of learning and growth. There is no final destination. True allies engage in ongoing education around gender diversity, emotional intelligence, and inclusivity. This commitment to lifelong learning is key for allies who aim to dismantle systems that only provide advantages to select people and desire to create lasting change in their communities and organizations as part of their leadership legacy. 

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I have had the opportunity to be in the room with some incredible groups of women leaders recently. One of the conversations that has come over and over again is mentorship and modeling. A question I’ve been inviting women leaders to play with is, “What kinds of values do you want to be modeling to other women leaders? Are there any values that you tend to abandon (likely unconsciously) in your leadership that you would like to do a better job of honoring?” A few things commonly come up as women dig into this question:

Because women have been conditioned to constantly over-give, overdo, and over-prove ourselves, it’s quite common for us to struggle to:

We are socialized to constantly self-abandon and self-sacrifice in our roles as employees, leaders, caregivers, wives, neighbors, and community members. What messages are we modeling to other women when we don’t set boundaries, trust others enough to ask them for support and give ourselves permission to rest? And, when we self-abandon in front of other women, how are we undermining women in leadership everywhere? 

These are tough questions that take a decent amount of self-reflection and critical thinking. This episode is an invitation to start thinking about these questions in a new way that will not only position you to be a better leader but also to take better care of yourself. In this episode, we dig into four ways to improve your leadership by doing less and four small steps you can take to start today.

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In anticipation of basketball tryouts today, my 12-year-old went to the park to get in some practice with friends last night. When he got home, he proudly shared that an older kid at the park complimented “hoops”. On the way to school this morning, he told me that he’s feeling really nervous about tryouts. It’s the first year the kids will be divided into varsity and junior varsity teams. This is big time! As we were walking, I talked to him about the close, often overlapping relationship between nervousness and excitement.  

“Mom, I know. You already told me being nervous and being excited are the same thing.”  

That’s not exactly what I had previously told him…. They are not the same. But if you understand how they are the same and how they are different, you can often use your nervousness to strategically channel excitement.  

In this episode, I’ll tell you what I told my 12-year-old on the walk to school. Additionally, we’ll dive into the fascinating relationship between nervousness and excitement and how women leaders can leverage one over the other for powerful results. Both emotions share similar physiological responses—like increased heart rate, sweaty palms, and heightened awareness—because they are both driven by adrenaline. The key difference lies in how we interpret the situation: nervousness tends to arise when we see a challenge as a threat, while excitement comes when we view the same situation as an opportunity. Understanding this can be the first step in transforming fear into anticipation, empowering women to thrive under pressure.

Listen in to hear me share actionable strategies that women leaders can use to shift their mindset and embrace excitement in high-stakes situations. From reframing nervousness as excitement, to focusing on purpose and meaning, to coaching yourself with evidence-based positive self-talk, these techniques are designed to help women leaders feel strong and grounded when stepping into something new, big, or perhaps scary. By connecting to your “why” and viewing leadership moments through a lens of possibility rather than fear, you can approach stressful situations with confidence. This allows you to shift your focus from potential risks to potential rewards creating the excitement needed to succeed.

Whether you're preparing for a big presentation, leading a high-profile meeting, or stepping into a new leadership role, this episode will give you practical tips on how to harness excitement, reduce nervousness, and leverage your full potential as a leader.

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Ahhh, the elusive chase of work-life balance - increasingly referred to as life-work integration. Almost every time I am interviewed I am asked how women leaders can attain a better balance between their personal and professional lives. The struggle to achieve life-work integration impacts most women in leadership. Today, I’m going to invite you to forget about striving for the perfect balance. It’s time to rethink how you can blend your personal and professional life in a way that feels fulfilling, manageable, and aligned with your values. 

I’m going to share with you three mindset shifts that will help you see life-work integration through a bit of a different lens. Many of the women I coach tell me, “I’m completely failing when it comes to work-life balance”. What if the reason so many of us feel this way is because we have been socialized to be self-sacrificial at almost every turn to prioritize other people’s happiness and comfort over our own; we have to out-hustle our male counterparts to get half as far as them; and many of us have to work full-time hours (or more) while also being full-time caregivers.  

By the time we get done over-producing, over-giving, and over-proving ourselves each day, we have given the best parts of ourselves to everyone else and all we have left for ourselves is what feels like moldy leftovers. When we take a critical look at why women leaders feel so “out of balance” when it comes to our personal and professional lives, we can see how a shift in perspective can also lead to a shift in behaviors.  

In this episode, I offer actionable tips around calendar management, saying, “No”, modeling boundaries, and establishing personal accountability to help you practice reclaiming your time and energy while creating healthier personal and professional boundaries. Your leadership doesn’t have to be self-sacrificial at every turn. In fact, you will be a better leader if you learn to navigate life-work integration in a way that consistently acknowledges and prioritizes your needs and wants. 

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You may know by now that I could preach all day about how women are programmed by the patriarchy to show up in this world in very specific ways that primarily (and almost exclusively) benefit white men. Please know when I say “patriarchy” I am referring to a system that is not only harmful to women but also undermines and completely stunts the emotional development of most men. This system benefits few, but the few who benefit have the most tremendous power - globally.

Our patriarchal society has created numerous social constructs that lead us to unknowingly behave in ways that benefit some (mostly men) while holding others back (including but not limited to: women, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people with neuro diversities, people with disabilities, and people with larger bodies).

Over the years, I’ve talked about mom guilt as a social construct and imposter syndrome as a social construct. Both of these social constructs are part of a system that intentionally makes women and moms think and behave in specific ways that ultimately limit how they show up in the world. These limitations create more space for others (most commonly white men) to have more opportunities to find success, build wealth, and amass power.  

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about perfectionism as a social construct that largely impacts women. We will dig into different forms of perfectionism, as well as how you can start to reject perfectionism to get out of your head and get on with your life. Once you see perfectionism for what it is, I hope you are able to reframe your mindset around it to release some of the internal expectations that have perhaps been holding you back for years - if not decades. Buckle up. This is a good one!  

Links mentioned:

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