Author Archive: Lex
Lex Schroeder is a writer and speaker on mindful work, leadership, and systems change. She is a blogger/convener with Take The Lead, a writer/editor at The Lean Enterprise Institute, and a host with the Art of Hosting community of practice. Lex lives in Cambridge, Mass. and works in Cambridge and NYC. She can be reached at lexwrites@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @lexschroeder.
Follow Your Real Work Inside and Outside of Institutions
Given the state of the world and our institutions, what work (paid or unpaid) do we really want to be doing? As individuals and women leaders, what work are we uniquely well-suited to do? What contribution can we make and do we want to make? I’m reminded of a line from Margaret Wheatley, “The leaders we need are already here.”
Dreaming 5 Ways the World Could Change for Women…
Sometimes this question of when the world going to change for women feels so complex and daunting, all I have energy left to do is dream! And it’s a bit of a paradox because dreaming ultimately is what gives me energy to get back to activism. So here are a few ways I dream the world could, just might, if we can help it, change for women.
Take the Lead, Change the Narrative
One of the most exciting things about movement building is watching a new story or a narrative, or a new powerful idea, emerge in our collective consciousness and take clearer shape over time. In the women’s movement, this is usually a new story about women or gender, our relationships to each other as citizens, what leadership looks like, or how change happens. This is not a process in which we are passive; we must be active players in the creation of new stories; but many of these stories are emergent.
Women’s Leadership and the Likeability Trap
Do we want to focus on the problem of powerful women being so darn unlikeable? Or do we want to work toward a solution: gender balance in the workplace, our communities, and all of our major institutions, which will inevitably mean new visions of leadership?
What Makes a Movement?
Movements don’t happen as a result of one individual or organization, but rather from the cumulative, coordinated, and uncoordinated efforts of many individuals and groups. If movement building feels chaotic, that’s because it is. And, as a mentor of mine reminded me recently, in other ways movements are very much controlled and rightly so.
Why We Don’t Have to Think Alike to Work Together
So often we try to minimize, or better yet, wipe out our differences, or get people to agree with us, so that we can move forward together. But what if our desire to be on the same page is holding us back?
Think Small To Go Big
Try to change everything and you’ll lose your balance. Focus your attention on small, simple movements and behavior changes, and watch as things begin to align differently.
Authentic Leadership, Yes, But for What Purpose?
What does it mean to be real with ourselves and others in our everyday lives and at work? What does it mean to lead from an authentic place and why is even important?
Work Isn’t Everything, But It Touches Everything Else
Everywhere I look women are redefining what work is, how it functions, and how work can support other areas of our lives rather than detract from them or cause harm. The same is true for money.
In the Wake of Violence, Notes On Power, Powerlessness, and Voice
Understanding power differently, as something accessible within each of us (not to be found elsewhere), does not mean we will find the answers to our problems alone, that any one individual has the answer or solution, or that we must go it alone in our work or activism. It does mean we must listen more closely to ourselves as individuals and then use our voices in service of what Martin Luther King called “the beloved community”.
