The Power of Showing Up
What a day.
Our favourite part of the Leadership Summit? Watching WORTH women, allies, volunteers, speakers, organizers, coming together and making it happen.
It was a powerful reminder of what showing up truly means. Across the room, that looked different for everyone: school drop-offs before arrival, busy careers paused for volunteering, pregnancy, postpartum, peri & menopause, IVF treatment, caregiving, mental load, invisible fatigue. Despite it all, women and allies made space to be present, learn, speak, and support one another.
We laughed too, especially during the Manel. As period cramp simulators were hooked up to our daring allies, Chatman Shaw, Chris Campbell, and Ned Bell, the pain intensity gradually increased throughout the interview. The room filled with laughter at their reactions. However, we were also prompted to reflect on what many women navigate every day as they work, lead, make decisions, and perform within systems that still fail to account for these biological realities.
Moments like these reflect what the Summit is really about: facing reality, having honest conversations and connecting big ideas to create change in our industry.
This year, many sessions naturally returned to one central idea: leadership is not only about performance, it is also about sustainability.
Here are five leadership reminders from the Summit that are WORTH carrying with you throughout the year:
1. Protect Your Health
Yoga, hydration, and morning routines are a start, but health is really about paying attention to your energy, your limits, and what you need to keep going when pressure becomes constant.
Sustainable leadership begins with knowing what restores you, not only what drives you.
2. Leadership Includes Life at Home
Leadership doesn’t begin and end at work.
It’s shaped in the in-between moments: caregiving, family responsibilities, and everything that doesn’t pause when the workday starts. These aren’t separate from leadership; they shape how it’s lived every day.
3. Say Yes Before You Feel Fully Ready
Growth rarely waits for perfect confidence.
One of the strongest reminders heard this year was simple:
“I would say yes before I was ready, a lot." - Julia Stewart
Sometimes growth begins exactly where comfort ends.
4. Take the Opportunity, Even the Less Visible One
Not every important step looks exciting at first. Sometimes the task nobody wants teaches the most.
"Volunteer for the thing nobody else wants." - Beth McMahon
Capability often grows quietly before it becomes visible.
5. Make a Plan
Showing up matters, but intention matters too.
Set goals. Track progress. Stay clear on what you are building.
Because leadership is not only about endurance but also about direction.
The Summit continues to remind us that showing up is already powerful.
However, showing up together, honestly, imperfectly, intentionally, may be where real change begins.
So now the question becomes:
What is your game plan?