Close your eyes and bring to mind someone in a position of leadership. Who is this person? What makes him or her a leader? Did you think of yourself? Why or why not? Some leaders inspire us, some may be fearsome or worse, and some may not give us much to think about at all. The greatest leaders are, in many ways, are just everyone else – they wake up every day, choose what to eat and wear, communicate with the people they encounter, experience successes and challenges, and ma

I recently had coffee with a new friend – I’ll call her Iris. Unlike the beautiful women with me in the photograph, with whom I have shared the joys and pains of growing up, moving out, finding independence, becoming wives, mothers, and professionals, I have NOT known Iris for close to 30 years. At the time of writing this, I have known her for about 12 hours, plus 10 minutes we spoke on the street, plus the dozens of times I have seen her walking to or from the subway in my