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...
about 1 month 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...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Dear Reader, If you saw my LinkedIn post yesterday, you already know about the man who questioned my leadership development on Facebook. The one who could not spell the word he was using to question my ambition and competence. What I did not tell you on LinkedIn is what I chose to build in private.Because the public response is not what protected me.The record I had already built before he ever showed up is what made his accusation groundless. That is the story behind this issue. The Catalyst...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, Last issue, we talked about the rooms. The ones built without women's voices. The ones where budgets were written and policies were set by people who came home to someone else managing everything. The kitchen table has been absorbing the consequences for generations. This issue is about what happens when you decide to take your seat anyway. By the way, nobody puts this in the campaign brochure. Many women who lead at this level end up divorced. Not because they loved their...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Catalyst Coaching & Transformation Dear Reader, Women's History Month ends in three days. What comes next is up to you. You feel it every time you sit at that table. The neighborhood that keeps getting passed over. The policy that looks reasonable on paper and lands like a boulder on the families who feel it most. The community resource that disappears from a budget because no one who uses it was in the room. You feel the distance between those decisions and your community's actual reality....
3 months ago • 3 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal leadership gets real. Each issue delivers direct, actionable insights on building cultures that perform, leading teams that deliver, and driving the kind of accountability that earns community trust. Want tools you can use this week? Upgrade to Premium for this week's featured Leadership Vault Resource™: FY'27 LGDF Advocacy Messaging Guide™ plus full-length SCALE™ analysis, plus the full-length SCALE™ analysis, 5-step action checklist, and a premium...
3 months ago • 4 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal leadership gets real. Each issue delivers direct, actionable insights on building cultures that perform, leading teams that deliver, and driving the kind of accountability that earns community trust. Want tools you can use this week? Upgrade to Premium for this week's featured Leadership Vault Resource™: Budget Scenario Planning Template™ plus full-length SCALE™ analysis, book review insights and a premium Q&A inbox. $10/month or $108/year (save $12...
4 months ago • 3 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for service, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall. Want tools you can use this week? Upgrade to Premium for this week's featured Leadership Vault Resource™: Infrastructure Equity Assessment™ plus full-length SCALE™ analysis, 5–10 step checklists, and a premium Q&A...
4 months ago • 3 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for service, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall. Want tools you can use this week? Upgrade to Premium for The Leadership Vault™ and your Featured Leadership Vault Resource for this week: The Transformation Audit, plus full-length SCALE™ analysis, 5–10 step checklists,...
5 months ago • 5 min read