Women Leading the Charge in the Pandemic Age

There are some people that make their work just another thing they have to do, and there are those that make their work something that they want to do. Welcome to Working on Purpose with your host Elise Cortez. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration from those people who have found deeper meaning and personal connection to their work life. It's beyond nine to five, it's working on Purpose. Now. Here is your host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose Program. Thanks for tuning in again this week. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez, joining you live from Dallas, Texas, which is home base for me. If you've been tuning in for a while, you know this program is a thought leadership series that enlightens and inspires listeners with insights from distinguished business leaders and subject matter experts. Here on Working on Purpose, we're committed to realizing our world where work is enriching and a purposeful part of life. Leaders inspire people to realize their own greatness while contributing their passion and business is related to unlishing spectacular cause in the world. Each week in these conversations, I hope you walk away with something that changes the way that you think and that you can immediately put to use. Much of the content we discuss on this program as a reflection of the work I do. So as you listen, if you catch a glimpse of anything I can do to help, go to my website at least Cortez dot com and use the contact me feature to message me. Let's talk about what's going on for you and how I might be able to help at a rate. I'm glad we're connected, and thanks for listening. Now on to this week's program with us today is Linda Crompton, and internationally recognized thought leader, senior executive and strategic advisor focused on all aspects of the organization of the future for tomorrow's women leaders. She serves as president and CEO of Leadership Women. We'll be talking about her experience of leading this forty two year old organization in the midst of the pandemic, what she and her team are doing to pivot away from business as usual to serve their members, and our own collaboration we've cultivated in the process. She joins today from Dallas, where we're each sheltering in place Linda while working on purpose. Thank you, Elise, so great to have you. I always like to share with my listeners, Lenda, how it is that we get we got acquainted with my with my guests. So in our case, I took one of your programs called Leadership Texas in twenty fourteen. That was my first brush of getting acquainted with the organization called Leadership Women, and then I took the next program, Leadership America, in twenty fifteen. You became president of the organization in twenty fifteen, and I've been speaking for various cohorts of yours for the last few years. So before we talk about Leadership Women, let's let's start with what I know to be a long standing interest of yours women's issues. So where did that come from? How did it develop? All those good things? Okay? Well, of course that's my very favorite question to answer. Okay, Good's that's why we started with it, right, good, Right, Well, So you know we're all kind of a sum aren't we, of our of our experiences, our background, our education, and that's where our perspectives on work and leadership performed. So my own background is maybe slightly unlikely one in banking, in finance and insurance, but I was always intrigued by the non financial aspects of that world, you know, the financial world, meaning sort of the social impact of banking, what role it plays, and the impact that different approaches have on different communities. So very early on in my career, I started looking at issues like why so many more business loan applications from men were approved than for women, for example, And as a result of starting to look into that, I created I ended up creating a review team to sort of get to the bottom of it and see what we could do about it. And then, as so often happens, one thing led to another, and I heard from so many women both inside and outside the bank. We established a Women's Advisory Council to look at other areas where there might be you know, unintentional discrimination, and then that led to creating the Return to Work Program to help women that we're wanting to come back into the work plans after having children if they wanted to do that. And I even wrote a column, which my staff sort of scoff at when I say that, but I did. I wrote a column for a women's magazine for a while on various issues to do with women and their leadership. So so that's really been a constant thread throughout my entire career, and when someone sent me the ad for the CEO role for this organization, I jumped at the channels. What a spectacular way to cultivate a life and career, Linda, I really appreciate, and again, what we're focused on, what I'm focused on, what I hear is passion, and of course that's a that's a big part of what I'm trying to help nurture and development people who listen to this program. So thank you for illustrating it so beautifully. So but why why did you join Leadership Women in two twenty fifteen. You know, there's so many many other sandboxes you could play in in life. Why Leadership Women, Well, you know more than one reason, I guess. First of all, the reputation that it enjoyed. I mean, everybody that I spoke to or talked to about about the organization, asking if they knew anything about it, everybody said nothing but great things. So the reputation for the kind of work that it did and how unique that it was. I was also impressed by the longevity of the organization and it's close to fifty years now, really that it got started by sort of the feisty group of Texan women led by former governor and Richards. So it's been around for a long time. Everybody seemed to say nothing. I couldn't get anybody actually to say anything negative about it, although I did try because I thought that would be part of my ongoing due diligence. But then, of course, ultimately it's mission so developing and delivering programs to improved the personal, economic, and professional status of women, which of course is right up my alley. So all of those things, and then I guess on top of that, the final thing was just in the process of being recruited and doing my own due diligence, I met so many women and they were also impressive, and it just felt it just felt right. You know, my entire career up until that point had been in banking and in corporate governance corporate law, which are vitally important and interesting fields. But I think I just kind of got to a point at least where I wanted to wake up in the morning and say I can't wait to get to work, right. I just love what I do. And as much as banking was interesting and corporate law was, you know, it was great and engrossing, and but you know, it never made me feel like that. I never woke up with that feeling. So so I can happily say I made the decision to join it, and I have woken up every morning that way. Since sounds like meaningful, fulfilling work to me, that is working on purpose, I'll take that any day. So I heard your phone go off, So if you can later on silence that that'd be great. But just briefly, Linda, for our listeners who don't really know how this works, if you could just say a little bit about some of the programs the Leadership Women does so they can get acquainted to what the world has looked like traditionally in Leadership Women as programs, because we're going to talk about how it's changing throughout the course of this conversation. Yes, sure, so Leadership Women has really been offering what it still does today for you know, three decades or four decades. And essentially the idea behind it is on what differentiates us is that, yes, we do leadership development training and so do a number of other organizations, but we really don't put the emphasis on skilled development. We think there are lots of people who do skilled development. What we do is something something different from that. So our emphasis is on first of all, diversity. So all of our classes. I'm sure you notice this and you saw this and I loved it. Yeah, and continue to write you when you work with the classes. I mean, there's great diversity of ethnicity and age and in perspective education career, because we think that is what makes for richer conversations. So an emphasis on diversity, On experiential learning, so not just reading about something but going to see it, meeting the women that are running it, so experiential learning. And then the importance of networking, so as you know, much of what we do has to do with people meeting women, meeting other women who are doing exciting things and leading in new directions, and that makes them they've now got a new contact and a new person to call on for advice or help. And then I guess the final thing is that the organization is all about issues, what is going on in the world, what role do women play because we all know, you know, thinking back to that sort of foundation point of the organization, I mean, much of history is written as though there were no women at the time, right, or at least women have no importance. There were no really no real women artists or explorers, or writers or scientists, And of course we know differently now, so it depends on who writes that history. So our women are in senior roles across almost every sector that you can think of, and they so every class gets to be introduced to these women and then has the opportunity to maintain that connection to them through through the network that they build. So those are really the differentiators, and we are we now have leaders in every sector that you can think of, and we you know, we're obviously every day aiming to increase that impact and increase the number of women that we have in positions of real leadership in this country, which I have completely endorsed. And I'm grateful for our partnership that I do get to work within your programs because as you know, our missions are aligned there. So happy, very happy that we're we're doing this to other And for this conversation, Linda, part of what I wanted to make sure and surface for our listeners because what you and I have talked about in our various conversations as we prepared our work together and for this conversation is leadership is not for the faint of heart, especially not during a pandemic. So what I'd like to talk about next is I want to contrast that before and after COVID nineteen for you in terms of your stance on leadership. So, first, before the pandemic hit, what did leading leadership women mean to you? Right? Okay, yeah, yeah, the good old days before the VIRA Yeah, those days years ago already, right. So I guess what I'd say is, when I was first hired into this role, I felt as though the baton or the torch, or however you want to think of it had been passed on to me. You know, that this great organization that so many women loved was now in my care. So what I stood for then was that we had a responsibility as an organized not to just survive, and lots of nonprofits struggle to do that, but also to thrive because there is, and there was at the time, so much to do. So I'm not sure what the founders thought about where we'd be this many years down the line. Perhaps they thought fifty years later this battle would be won, you know, full gender equity in all sectors, women having the opportunity to be leaders across the board, but of course we're still very far away from that. So in fact, the World Economic Forum, I think now, as they originally said one hundred and eighteen more years for gender equity, and now they bumped that up. Apparently they thought that was too optimistic, so they they've made it even even longer. So I guess, you know, to try and put it succinctly, I stood for the sustainability of the organization and continuing to hold that torch and then expanding our impact across the country beautifully said. Okay, now, let's now we're situated in April two thousand money the pandemic has officially hit across the globe. So now what does lead in this ordination mean to you? What do you stand for leading it? Now? Well, I guess, first of all, I would say the same things. I mean, it's it's not just taking the easy option, it is the truth. I mean, I guess the same things I stood for when I accepted the role, except now underlined and in capital letters. Right. I feel that once I accepted the role, that I had a responsibility to the organization, but then also to the women and communities that we serve and so that is that just became that that commitment or that sense of responsibility became even more acute once the flu hit, once the pandemic hit. So I think I told my staff on that first day that when we were sort of just realizing what was actually going on, or beginning to realize what was going on, that you know, the circumstance of this the crisis, made me even more determined to ensure that we would be able to continue the work that we were doing. And I was not I think I might have said to Julie's I was not going to let an organization it's been around for decades fail on my watch. And I consciously thought that I had that thought, and I shared that with the staff. I think I'm fortunate enough to bring to the table both experience on the nonprofit side and the corporate side, so both sets of perspectives to this role. This organization is absolutely mission driven, but we also have to make sure, you know that we employ sound business practices to what we're doing to ensure that we stay around to do that work. And I suspect that this was something that the board of directors saw when they were and we're maybe looking for when they recruited me for this role. So, you know, I just think that for me it became a critical thing that this not this organization not be allowed to you know, to fail. But then I also felt, you know that there's all these discussions going on at the moment, I just felt that we shouldn't be returning to just the way our lives were before. We need to exercise some real leadership in the kinds of changes that need to happen, because much of this that we're experiencing is just kind of a direct result of the way we live our lives on this planet, right, And that just accentuated my conviction that women should and they need to be part of those changes and should be leading some of those changes. And so as a women's leadership development organization, we need to play a role in that. So my purpose now is to be here and make that happen. In fact, as you know, since I will be speaking with you for your speaker series on Tuesday in a couple of days. What am I talking about? It's really that place of anchoring yourself in purpose during the crisis. How to discover that and boy, what I stand for there, Linda, is I especially believe now more than ever, we need to really reach down deep into our purpose and bring it to be able to help create this new world that we're making for ourselves. And so you're a beautiful, walking billboard example of that, Lenda, So thank you for that. I couldn't have said better myself. Okay. So one of the things that you and I talked about as we were preparing for this conversation is we were talking about the enormous consequences of leadership, especially in times of crisis like this, just how problematic weak leadership can be. Say more about your perspective on that. Yeah, well, I mean I think you know, I believe that very strongly. And it's because you know, in good times, I mean, you have to be careful how you say this, but in good times, it's just it's a lot easier to be seen as a good leader, okay, because in good times, people have got money to spend, their lives are going okay. You know, your company is doing okay because people are spending, so you can look good just because you're at the helm of that organization. So I mean, obviously I'm simplifying here, because we just still get fire in good times. Too. But I guess what I'm saying is it just it just doesn't demand as much from that leader as when times are not so good. That's when you need strong leadership, not you know, not because that person is necessarily any smarter. Lots of times. I mean, in my various jobs, I found my employers or employees are much smarter than I am. But not for that reason, or because you know things that other people don't know, or but because when things are falling apart, people just instinctively look to the person at the top of the pyramid to take charge. And by that I mean to be visible, to communicate quickly and frequently and clearly, and to be able to work with others to determine a path forward. No one brain is the match of many, right, So you've got to be able to work with many people to forward that to forge that path, and then to communicate that path, just to give people the confidence that there is in fact a path forward and that this too shall path, hopefully sooner than later. And that's why inspirational leadership is so important. And on that note, Linda, let's grab our first break. I'm your host, doctor Released Cortez. We don't here with Linda Crumpton, an internationally recognized thought leader, senior executive and strategic advisor focused on all aspects of the organization to future for tomorrow's women's leaders. She serves as president and CEO of Leadership Women and joins it today from Dallas, Texas. We've been talking a bit about her perspective on leading in these times, before and after the pandemic. After the break, we're going to talk about her organization pivoting in the pandemics as a viable value to its members. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Alis Cortez as a speaker and engagement and development gast. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose if you're just joining us. My guest is Linda Crompton, President and CEO of A Leadership Women. I'm your host at least Cortez. So before we get into this next set of questions here, Linda, let me just grab a couple of questions that are in the chat room right now and I'm gonna try to roll a few of them up. So, Pam, Janis and Gene, I see your questions. Thank you so much for listening and for weighing in on a conversation. And I think this next question that Gene is going to ask is going to be addressed in this next question I'm going to ask you. So i'ming to first do this, Gene. Your question is what do you feel a person needs to possess to do an outstanding job in and out of a crisis. So think about that if you will, Linda, as I pose you this question because I think the answer is contained in this your answer here. So, Leadership Women is an organization that's really been built on convening cohorts of women together for your programs, their personal live sessions, and so here we are sheltering in place and social distancing that has put a hard stop to all of that. So sharing with us how you and your team evaluated what to do to keep this forty two year old organization moving forward. Sure, so you know, I guess what I would say. First thing is you have to absolutely work together. It is up to the leader, however, because it's who everybody looks to to determine the overall direction. So the first thing is I did that right? And my first priority, I guess, and maybe this goes to the question that was asked to some degree, I know that all you have really when you're looking at an organization is your staff. If your staff lose confidence, if they become demoralized, if they get confused, they don't know what you're doing, they don't know where they're going, they're worried about their future, you're not going to be able to accomplish accomplished very much. So for me personally, my first my number one sort of you know segment in terms of what I was going to focus on is keeping up their morale and their spirit. So there were a number of things that I did, you know, to do to achieve that, which I'm happy to tell you about. And then the second thing was you really I mean, obviously this is the case even when you're running an organization day to day, but in times of crisis, it absolutely is imperative that you are on top of every single detail that affects this organization because if you aren't, things can happen fast. I mean, gosh, this whole virus sort of at the end of the day unfolded very quickly. So you really have to know, you know, is what the organization depends on, where it's what form, it's moneys are coming in, it's revenues, what's going out, all of that to the absolute nth degree. Okay, And then the third bucket, or the third segment, is that what I said to staff is that I want us not only to survive this, but also to make it through and end up in an even stronger position than we were before. So using this to fix problems and create some new offerings that I wanted to do. So my job is to come up with that message and to convey that message. Okay, but in the doing of it, you need staff, right, so you have to discuss and agree and decide on all of these things. So how are you going to communicate? And I personally think that's imperative because the minute that people aren't hearing from you, they're reading or hearing something else, and that causes some doubt. And so we decided right away that we would be speaking every morning at a particular time, and then as we needed to through the day, but we always had that one set time to communicate and that I was available twenty four seven to them. Now, I didn't expect them to be calling me at midnight on a Saturday with a you know, small issue. I mean, obviously, use your discretion, but the main message is just that I'm I am here, like all normal sort of timelines are off. So so that was the second part of it. And then the issue of the details. You know, I learned this from my banking day. If you're not on top of accounts receivable, that can be very serious, very quickly. So but I let staff work that out. I don't, you know, I don't have to decide how they're going to collect that data and how they're going to present that to me. That gives them something to do, they want to do it, they've got the better ideas. So it really is a sharing of who's going to do what. You set the direction, You stay calm, You set an atmosphere of optimism, but you trust that they know this stuff well enough better than you probably to be able to come up with the mechanisms. So so we did all of that, and then we looked at you know, all right, we're building and creating our survival temper, but we need something more than survival. We need to, you know, talk about what would we do if we could do anything right, if we if we were able to address issues that we could have addressed some time ago, how would we do it, how would we finance it? And again we worked that out ourselves. Everybody had a perspective, and everybody put that perspective in and then we said, all right, what are the top three issues and we decided on those and that's kind of how we that's kind of how we went about it. So so I do think that's where your leadership kind of comes in. That people are looking even for environments that appear to be well, what's the word pretty, even like it's hard to figure out who is the boss leaders play a very important role at times like this, and they set the tone and they by the way they present things and the consistency and the clarity, that's how you stop people from panicking. And that's I don't know if I've answered your question. I went off on a bit of a tangent there a league, but I like that tangent and I do think it very much answered Janis question about the key qualities and a good leader. A couple of things that I want to emphasize in there for our listeners. So in terms of learning takeaways that I heard and not all of what you said there, but what I want to emphasize is I heard you talk about the criticality of a leader painting an inspirational future that followers want to live into, that inspires them, that motivates them, that helps quell their nerves and excite them to that possibility. And I also heard you say the importance of being a strong communicator, and I would say a fantastic storyteller. You tell the story that they're all working to live into. Horribly important qualities skills for leaders to have. So that's a couple of things that I heard that I just wanted to emphasize and celebrate. Okay, So next question, because I want to get as much out of you as I can the time that I have you, I want to understand, help our listeners understand, Linda, what this pandemic has forced you and leadership women to confront. Well, I mean, as I just gave a very brief brief reference, I mean, the main thing that it got us to confront is that we have really relied on our in person programming. That's what people love, and that's very deliberate, and we're not going to just continue that. I mean, there are lots of things that we achieved through that that are an important part of who we are and what we do. But when you are really only offering that, that presents the problem when for whatever reason, people can't be there in person. So that was the first thing we had to confront, is that our main kind of delivery mechanism, if you like, was suddenly cut off because people can't meet. And then I guess, you know, we've always known. I've always known that we're staffed very sparely. But you know, when you're trying to design and develop new things that you would like to do, it's hard because you just have very few staff to do that. So you always have known, I mean I always knew that we rested on a very small number of staff. But the capacity limitation becomes a bit of an issue. Now what saves you is that you are saving some time, if you like, from not having to deliver the problem, so you can free that up. But that was I guess a big learning and of course it never have to admit it didn't occur to me to day two that when you're reliant on corporations as corporate sponsors, and you just count on them because they do it every year. Now all of a sudden in these circumstances, corporations are hurting, so they're going to pull back on everything that's not absolutely necessary, and who can blame them, So you end up getting hit in every revenue stream. So it's the perfect storm, right. So diversity to those revenue streams is really the answer. And I know that academically. I learned that in my MBA. But you know, knowing it and doing something about it are two different things. So I guess I would say all of those things and in a way, just saying to yourself that something's work that has worked very well for years and years doesn't mean it will work forever perfectly, and that in all circumstances. So we've really had a number of key learnings from what's happened. Yes, I think we all have, which is another reason I wanted to have you on air and then extending that ideal. And you have a very fine One of the things I appreciate about you is your strategic fine mind. And I think our listeners can learn a lot from the way you think and process the world. So can you share with us it's just a couple maybe key insights about life or business that you've gained in this COVID nineteen pandemic. Oh sure, Well, you know so ties into my last coming that unless you've gone through something like this, you know, bad stuff comes at you fast, right Who knew? I mean from a pretty casual beginning. So I was in New Orleans in the beginning of March and nobody really said anything. There was not any question about not being potentially unsafe. You know, I'm a meeting with people and going out for dinner and restaurants, and nobody said anything. Came back on the plane and then it felt like a couple of days later, suddenly you know things are starting to close up. So things happen a lot faster than we are used to. And that was a that was a real learning. So I wrote that one down, and I think nobody is really no matter how many kind of crisis preparedness courses you've been on, nobody's ever really prepared for this kind of shot where the pressure is on from both the supply and the demand side, so people can't get them materials, and also there's no real market, so where's your money going to come from? Right, you begin to understand. I mean, I've had a number of people say to me, try to if alto to explain how the economics works when the government just prints money like this, And I have to admit I am at a loss. I cannot explain that. I can give you my theory, but I can't explain it. But nobody is really prepared for this kind of crisis. So really, the speed at which things happen, and then just all those things that you learn right when you go to prisis preparedness. I went to one through one of our programs last year, and they say the time to gather supplies and figure out what you might need and how you're going to communicate with other people. Is now, not when it hits, because when it hits, you're too busy doing other things, right, So you should have all these things in place. And then just finally, I guess it's sort of a and it's a personal reflection. So now I should do a disclaiver that this is not necessarily the view of leadership. But you know, it's kind of funny. We all live as if as if we're surrounded by certainty. You know, you've done this and done that, you've worked hard, you've got an education, so of course you're going to get this good job and you're going to make good money and you're going to start living the life. But of course the reality is there's none of that certainty actually exists, right, But it's hard to live with that because if you have to make decisions every day and carry on, you know, and if you think that you are a loved one could die a minute, It might be true, but it's kind of dis empowering. But you know, I do think that that that is the reality, and it's good for us to if we can stand it, to remind ourselves of that that it's because the positive side to that is that you know, we can some degree right that future, not entirely. And I'm very mindful that we're not all even though we say it, you know we're all going through this together. I'm not so sure we are all going through this together. I think a lot of people are being hit extremely hard. But nevertheless, you know, we all have to some degree control over how we're going to react to it and what sort of future we're going to write for ourselves. So beautifully, beautifully narrated, and let's now that brings us to our last break. Let's grab that now. I'm Elise Cortez, your host. We are in the are with Linda Crumpton, and internationally recognized thought leader, senior executive and strategic advisor focused on all aspects of the organization for the Future for Tomorrow's Women leaders. She serves as president and CEO of Leadership Women and joins the day from Dallas, Texas. We've been talking a bit about how she and organization are pivoting in the pandemic. After the break, we're going to talk about our collaboration to move forward. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Elise Cortez is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her expertise to your organization. She will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance and retention. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. If you're just tuning in, and my guest is Lynda Crumpton, President CEO Leadership Women, I'm your host Lee Cortez. So for this next segment here, Linda, I want to focus on the work you and I have been doing together to collaborate. But before we do that, I want a presence that one of the things that you said as we were speaking in our initial conversations is you did recognize that one of the things that you already knew was you wanted a better way to connect and communicate with your forty two years of members and graduates, and so you already were thinking about ways to do that, and I know you've begun by adding Facebook groups and such. So before we get into what you and I are doing together, what are you learning from your members that they want to get from you? What do they need from leadership women now? Right? So it's I mean, as the usual answer is, right, it's a diversity of things. It's a range of things. So I think we've seen kind of the mood change a little bit from the first few days. So the first few days there were a lot of questions that we're focused on us, you know, what's going to happen to the programs? What are we going to do? Is any of this ever going to happen this year? And then it moved to more personal questions and issues like is there anything that you can tell us about, for example, teaching our kids at home? We're struggling to try and make this work, and other people saying what should I be doing with finances? Right? I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing and is there anybody, is there anything that you can do that helps us with that? So it kind of reverted back after the initial the initial sort of flood of questions which was all which were all around the program, and the year two more general and more generic questions around coping during this crisis. So that's kind of what we have adapted to. Now. It's kind of in a phase. It's it's it's uneven. I mean, sometimes the requests are for really hardcore stuff like finances, like you know, healthcare, mental health. Do you have any suggestions what we can do? Is there anybody you know that can tell us something about I'm seeing the strain on a number of family members. And then others say, you know, gee, I'd really like just a just to get together on zoom with no agenda. Could we just bring coffee and just talk and anything that we want to talk about and just to have a relaxing session with you know, my fellow classmates or whatever. So so it's really been, it's really been, you know, a variety of requests along along all lines. You know, what, if I'm really interesting about what you just said about that free form connection, you know, what that presidence for me, Linda is it's what I got in the two years that I was in your two various programs, when you did bring us together and we got that ability just to connect. There was this organic, unfullment of conversation and that it was incredibly invigorating and connecting and meaningful. And that's probably what they're missing. I'm going to guess think it is. I think it is. I mean I think to some extent, you know, if you go through a program, well you went through it, you would know. I mean to some extent, as you go through with those women as your cohort, I'm bond with several of them and make real friends. You kind of create a community. Absolutely, it sort of becomes a community. And so initially they were asking us to help connect them to that community. Now they're kind of taking that more in their own hands, which is which is great to see. So did you want me to address the question about the Facebook groups? Yet you can? Yes, absolutely go for it. Well, I mean, I can't claim that that's a perfect example. Is where the leader pronounces from on high, I think we need, we need to connect these people. You go do it right, and thank goodness, the staff know exactly how to do that. So we've got every region in Texas connected. Now we've started with our national ones. We've got three connected in across the country. We've got more rolling out this week. And initially they were kind of looking to us and saying, you know, what we're going to do about content, like who's gonna do verse content? And now San Antonio is an the lead on this, but many of these areas are now starting even speaker groups in their area, and so they're starting to create create their own content, they're starting to create their own advance. So it's kind of perfect right there. They're starting to do that. We're still heavily involved, of course, because it's all representative of us. But but that's a good example of where, you know, coming up with the idea is one thing, but actually making it happen is another. So so that's gone well for us so far. It's wonderful and I love the excitement in your voice as you share it. It's just it's wonderful. Okay, So let's talk about the work that we've been doing here. So you and I had a call just about the same time the pandemic was hitting to explore collaborating. And the first thing I want to do for with you, lend to end with all the listeners, is to celebrate that that is exactly the right thing I think we need to do in a crisis, collaborate. I think there's a tendency for people to come of, you know, falling on themselves and just like they're stuck and they're shell shocked, and it's totally normal, and so finding way to get out of that, I think is so important. So but of course I want to understand why what made you choose me as someone to collaborate with. I don't know what least well that would That's an easy, an easy question to answer. I mean, you know, I know you. I've seen you, I've listened to you, I've seen what you do with people. I can see how how well you engage with people, you know, and I just got a sense that we were very similar in certain respects in terms of the way we see leadership, and so you know you, it was it was an easy thing to do. I knew that you were also an advocate for women, and you were always open to the idea that two heads are better than one, and three even better and I also think you know, at least we both share. This is where you say, no, no, you're wrong about that, but I know I'm not off. We both have a fascination for learning. You know, I have absolutely overly educated and I won't say that about you, but you can say that yourself. But you know, I hope we're both able to maintain that all our lives. And I find you a terrific source of ideas, and you love and support what you're doing and what we're doing. So you're a perfect partner. Well, thank you. It's it's such an honor, and you know, we've had more fun than I think we're supposed to have. It's almost criminal right to get to do this collaboration together. So so it's just amazing. So talking about the results of your various collaborations, and so starting with what you and I are doing working on together, you've birthed this idea as Leadership Women Cafe online speaker series and we're launching at this Thursday, April twenty third. So I love the idea, of course, So what does you do? You took a problem stoned to be able to connect with and support and grow your your members and so here we are, we're bringing this this, this program online, and I'm so grateful that I get to be your first speaker. Thank you for that beautiful privilege and opportunity. But tell our listeners more about your vision behind that and what do you have planned for that? Well, I mean, you're grateful for the opportunity. I'm grateful that you're going to be our opening speaker. So the idea there, just I think I referred to it earlier, is that recognizing you know that a weakness is if you only ever deliver your content in one particular way and you have no flexibility to do anything else. That's just not a way you want to do things. And of course nothing brought that home to us more than what's just been happening over the past few weeks. So the idea was born in my head. I have to say I cannot take credit, even though i'd like to, and I doubt that she's on this call, so I might even get away with it, but I want I said we need a speaker series. We need a speaker series, and Laura, one of my staff, said, okay, I'll come up with something. How about the Leadership Women Cafe. I thought that is brilliant, yes, and so she created the cafe. She came up with the idea of a menu, and the menu, of course, is our list of speakers, of which you are the first. So a lot of people are doing this, I know that, but I think just because our women miss the other women, you know, I think there's going to be We've had a good lot of interest in it so far. It's not that this will replace our regular programming, but it will augment it. And honestly, and now I hope my staff aren't listening, but I think this will probably go on indefinitely. I don't see this finishing after the pandemic is over, if the pandemic is in fact over, because what we're doing in the first series is we are addressing issues, as you know, at least that have to do with really dealing with this virus, so all the challenges that people have and bring in experts in those particular areas and having them address and the issues and answer questions and answers, and then our plan at the moment, my plan is to just continue doing this until women, you know, signal that they're not interested anymore. But you know, we do have at the moment Our programs run roughly once a quarter, and so I see this as a great way of both, you know, introducing those classes to different topics than we would otherwise have had time for in the in the program, and secondly it introduces them to those speakers and it connects them to us. So I think, you know, I think it's it's going to be a very successful move for us. So far, the reactions from people are being extremely positive. So so we'll see it all rest on your shoulders tomorrow. Oh gee, thank you for that a little bit of pressure. No. One of the things that I want to point out that I think is so brilliant about the idea. Yes, I believe too that it will it will compliment with when you go back to live in person programming. But again, I see it as such a beautiful way to stay in touch with and continue delivering value to those years of cohort women who've gone through the programs and they still care about you and still want to support and when by doing this you have created Now this is what I want to listeners to get and it's kind of a precursor to what I'll be saying on Thursday is it's the silver lining here, right, So you've been forced to do something totally different in your business, and in so doing, you're creating a way to be more meaningfully connected to much more of your membership than you were previously. I think that's absolutely right. So before I take give you your next question that I wanted to ask you, we've got Vincent here and he said he wants to know. So is this this is a national organization? He asked, And is it only for a women? Of course it is, but if you could situate for him and yet the listeners, you know the reach of the organization. Oh yeah, sure. So it began in Texas, but now it's national. So our flagship programs operate statewide, so that's like Leadership Texas and then Leadership America is the national program. And basically the way they work is that you sign up and register for the particular class that you want to join, and then you are in that class for a year. So if you're in Leadership America this year, we were supposed to be meeting in Washington, DC this coming weekend, so it would be two days in well it's sort of a full day and two half days in Washington, DC. Where you know, we had a private tour of the Library of Congress, and we were meeting with Treasure Minution, and we were going to the Press Club to have lunch and doing all these exciting things. So the program is four. There are four cities in Leadership Texas, stree in Leadership America, just because people in Leadership America find it difficult to take more time than that in their in their work lives. And then you're meeting with that same cohort, that same class. You're all meeting in Washington, DC. We are still scheduled to be in Los Angeles the third week in June, and then in Atlanta in September, and then next year it will be different cities. So in those cities you're going to different different venues and meeting women that are in senior roles there. So if we go to Washington, DC, we almost have always have one of the Smithsonian leaders who are Who's Who's a woman to do a presentation, or we might have dinner there. So the whole idea is that you're meeting other people, you are meeting lead women leaders in that community where you're going, and then there's all sorts of things that you obviously that you do and here here from here about in the class itself, and thank you for that question. But sorry, sorry, Linda, I was just going to quickly say that we also have programs for young women leaders. Now, we don't exclude men in the sense that we you know, we are planning a national conference in Atlanta at the moment that is still on in September, along with the final Session in Leadership America, and men are invited to attend that that want you, and we're going to have a male panel or male panel as part of that. But the classes themselves are you are restricted to women. Excellent way way to respond beautifully to that. We're getting so close to being at a time, Lindon, I've got two more questions for you. Okay, So you've you've you've made it quite clear that you're an advocate for women's leadership in the future and certainly the programs that you run, and then I'm grateful that I get to be speaking out here and there are part of that. But tell us more about what this future looks like. Sure, well, and I'll try and keep it the saint keeping in mind your comment there, So just in terms of being an advocate for women leaders. I think my big AHA moment was the realization, I can't even tell you when it was that women come from the margins. So man are in the mainstream, Women for the most part, along with a lot of other groups, are in the margins, pushed to the margins. But the great news is is the margins is where you gain insight. It's not so easy to gain those kinds of insights when you're kept, you know, when you're kept out of the center. But that's that's when you can see what changes need to be made. And that was the origin of my passion for women's advancement. And I felt that women have an opportunity because they pushed to the sidelines to see the changes that need to be made and to be a part of those changes. And women have been doing that ever since they began agitating for the vote, and probably long before that. So so that's where my interests began, realizing, you know, what kind of a difference women could make. And now, of course, you know in these in this crisis, all sorts, there's all sorts of examples in this pandemic. You look at just Sinda Arden, you know, the prime Minister of New Zealand and the four to five Nordic countries that are led by women, they all took early action. They all have lower death rates than the rest of Europe. And I could give you more details, but at least well you will shout at me, but only still a situation where we've only got ten out of one hundred and fifty elected heads of state around the world as women. So this really needs to change. And I think, I think that we've been saying this for a long time. This is the moment, but I do see some real signs of change, and I just hope it accelerates and doesn't take it doesn't go backwards me and too listeners catch what she said there. This is quotable and usable. Margins is where you find your insight beautiful and so here we're at the end. I do like to give my guest the last word, if you will, So, Lindy, you know this program is about helping people across the world develop more meaning, passion, inspiration and purpose in their lives and their work. What would you like to leave them with today? I think you know, just just say that it's times like this that tests us and show us you know what we're made up. And that was kind of the essence of the Queen's speech. I'm British by origin. I always listen to the Queen's speech and the special one that she did. She reminded everybody that you know, this will come to an end and that you will want to feel proud of the way you conduct yourself, and you conducted yourself during the during the crisis. And so I think for me, you know, I find my passion and purpose in fighting this good fight, if you like, working with all of our supporters and our staff to help prepare more women to move into leadership roles. But I think everybody needs to find theirs, and that's your area of expertise at least, I mean, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. It's tied to our mental health, to what kind of a contribution we can make in our lives, and to what kind of leaders we can be. And if we've learned anything from this virus, it's that time is of the essence. You know, whatever it is that drives you, find it and get moving with it. And then and then lastly, just that I believe that not only are women uniquely suited to positions of leadership, but they also look at issues and priorities differently. Yes, okay, and with that we must cut in us. Thank you so very very much for joining us. It's a pleasure and privilege to be on the path with you and working together. If you want to learn more about Linda and the program's leadership Women offers, go to the website it's women leader ship dot org. Last week, if you missed the live show, you can always catch up you recorded podcast. We were on the air with David Grayson talking about future business leadership, sustainability, and his latest book, All in the Future of Business Leadership. Next week, we'll be on the air with Justin Barnes back to talk about his latest book, Siss Sue, Find Your Resilience the Finish Way. We'll be talking about how to unleash this concept across your life for greater achievement and results in life and work. See you there. Remember that work is at least a third of life, so let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune in to Working on Purpose featuring your host Alice Cortez each week on The Voice America. Empowerment channel this week, find your life's purpose at work.