Dear Reader, Somebody in your circle keeps asking what is next for you. A bigger title. A bigger seat. The next rung. The question sounds like encouragement. It is really an assumption, that growth only moves in one direction and that a woman with your record should be reaching for a higher shelf. The Catalyst Perspective Here is something your MPA program or your training never covered. A seat can already be the right size for your sharpest strengths and still get treated like a waiting room...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, 𝙉𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙖𝙙𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙠 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙟𝙤𝙗 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙 𝙪𝙥 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩. You know what 2 a.m. looks like on the ceiling above your bed. You have run the numbers in your head so many times you could recite them in your sleep, except you are not sleeping because the grievance you have not resolved yet is still open somewhere behind your eyes. The Catalyst Perspective When I became Village Manager, the HR function was in transition. While I searched for the right...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, The man who recruited me became the man who tried to destroy me. He knew my record before he ever offered me the job. He needed my competence enough to hand me the seat. Then my competence became the thing he could not forgive. The Catalyst Perspective Before I sat in a Village Manager's chair, I had already built a national profile in public leadership. I served on the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities, representing small cities and towns across the country. A...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, The Catalyst Perspective You already know how this works. Someone who has followed your reputation for years finally makes the call. Comptroller to city manager. Finance director to assistant village manager. Director brought in from outside because the organization needs exactly what you have built. The person recruiting you knows your record. That is precisely why they want you. What they rarely tell you, and what you cannot always see coming no matter how carefully you ask, is...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, Your Record Was Never the Problem. The Catalyst Perspective For the past several months, I have been building real connections with women in local government leadership across LinkedIn. I did not expect how much these conversations would move me. A woman wrote to me about a city manager seat she had earned and was doing well in, until a new mayor came in who did not trust her. The emails started arriving late at night. The scrutiny had nothing to do with her performance and...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, Over the past four issues I have walked you through building your narrative anchors, documenting your impact, naming your community witnesses, and protecting your longevity inside the seat. Today I am closing the series with the component most women never think to build. Not a document. Not a strategy. A relationship. The private advisory relationship the role demands and the system never built for you. The Catalyst Perspective I want to tell you about a woman who changed what...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, In Issue 43 I told you about the Community Foundation and the moment their words became testimony rather than advocacy. What I did not tell you is what happened after the meetings ended. What happened when I walked through the door and my husband could tell from the way I closed it what kind of night it had been. Nobody warned me about that part. The Catalyst Perspective I served as mayor of a city with 14 council members. Approximately half had been aligned with the previous...
4 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, In Issue 42 I told you about the day I stopped explaining myself. I told you the documentation was already older than the attack. I told you the people who wanted to understand already understood and the people who did not never would. What I did not tell you is what made it possible to trust the record enough to stop. It was not the paperwork. It was the people who watched me build it. The Catalyst Perspective When I decided to create the Mayor Chasity Wells-Armstrong...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, In Issue 41 I introduced you to The Record™ and why every woman in public leadership needs to build it before anyone comes looking. I told you that the criticism is not coming because you did something wrong. It is coming because you did something visible. What I did not tell you is where I learned that. This issue is that story. The Catalyst Perspective I served as the first Black mayor of Kankakee, Illinois. The City of Kankakee loves St. Patrick's Day so much that they...
5 months ago • 6 min read