Author name: linda_reddy@outlook.com

Recently in Chicago, I spoke on stage about the invisible games of corporate power.
At the USA Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE Summit.

If you are a high performer in a corporate system, you are competing inside power structures – not just performance metrics.

I recently celebrated my 50th birthday surrounded by trees, sunshine, water, fire, drumming beats, face art and 120 of my tribe people.

If I could sit across from my younger selves – driven, hopeful, overthinking – I’d offer love and honesty.
Because leadership doesn’t come with a manual. And no degree, mentor, or title can prepare you for the inner work it takes to lead well, live well, and stay true to yourself.

By age 50, the average career woman will have spent 6,500 days (average) deciding how to show up at work.

37 years later, I read Alice in Wonderland – a timeless (1865) story, with completely new eyes. What once seemed like a strange and playful tale now struck me as something far deeper: a brilliant reflection on psychology, power, identity, and how we respond when the world around us doesn’t make sense.

In 2017, at 42, I joined 174 leaders from 49 countries at Harvard, Boston — and it changed how I lead forever.

For weeks, I stepped away from being a mother, a wife, and a global executive.

I became a student again.

I come from generations shaped by oppression and suppression.

British colonial rule.

Indentured labour.

Apartheid South Africa.

For generations, survival depended on understanding power.