Written by Jessica Tocco
Whether you celebrate Easter for religious purposes or it’s just that time of year that symbolizes spring has sprung. The Lenten season, culminating in Easter Sunday, is a time of reflection, pause, stillness, and preparation for the future. As working women, we often get caught up in the easter egg hunt, the family dinner, the quarterly review, and even quarterly filings this time of year. It is essential to complete all of these tasks on time, but female leaders often are driven to immediate and repeated success, without any time for pause or reflection.
This past Easter season, while flying to and from D.C., completing quarterly reviews, preparing for spring break, and dealing with a few fiascos, I realized that I never had time to pause and reflect, even on Good Friday. That was a shame because Good Friday represents a moment of pause before renewal; many leaders face strategic delays before breakthrough moments occur in both public service and business. As business leaders, we must stop and hit the pause button to reflect and strategize when we need to, in our personal and family lives.
Why Stillness Is Important
According to CNBC, adults make at least 35,000 decisions per day. Some of these decisions are as insignificant as what to eat for breakfast, and others are related to significant patterns, life changes, and ongoing choices that direct the future of our lives. When we start making bad choices due to overload, exhaustion, or routine, it’s hard to undo what we have done and can lead to chaos, disorganization, and worse.
However, leaders who consider those crucial moments during personal decisions or even government negotiations or policy rollouts when progress seems stalled are using their time wisely and preventing redundancy, inefficiency, and even significant loss. Pausing to reflect is not idle—it’s a period of reflection, retreat, recalibration, and preparation for the following decisive action. In fact, many studies show that leaders who take regular strategic pauses demonstrate 23% better decision-making capabilities and higher team satisfaction scores.
The Power of the Pause
Some of the best decisions and moments in human history came from a leader deciding to take a mere pause… For example, in 1963, Martin Luther King took the stage before the Lincoln Memorial with a lengthy written speech that didn’t mention a dream. Suddenly, when he took a deep breath and paused, he heard his dear friend and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the crowd shouting, “Tell us your dream!”
He stopped, changed tunes, and gave his entire “I have a dream” speech from scratch, ignoring what had been distributed to the press earlier that day.
Unseen Effort & Invisible Wins
Not all wins must be visible and public for all to see and “count” as success. Many women leaders in public affairs spend countless hours behind the scenes—cultivating relationships and building consensus long before public recognition. This quiet diligence is like the stillness of Good Friday and the Lenten season, where vital work happens out of the public eye.
Of the world’s 500 biggest businesses, only 41 are led by women CEOs, according to Catalyst. Companies with higher gender diversity are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability. Women reinvest up to 90% of their income back into their families and communities, compared to 30-40% for men. This reinvestment plays a crucial role in lifting communities out of poverty and driving social progress.
A great real-world example of women preparing and leading is the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, and their heroic story to solve over 17 million pieces of mail that were backlogged all over Europe between soldiers and their families in World War 2. I may have watched this movie with Kerry Washington as Major Adams about 20 times! In any event, these ladies trained and trained for months in Georgia, feeling underutilized and underappreciated, preparing to suddenly be thrust into action by the decision of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. A true story, thank goodness these dynamic women prepared for the task ahead – working together to solve problems that no one else could and against all odds.
Have Faith in the Process
At A10 Associates, we know that the journey toward significant policy wins or client successes is rarely immediate. Like the assured promise of resurrection, having faith in our work—and in the process—leads us to breakthrough results. As a results-based, action-oriented firm, we pride ourselves on creating actual jobs, securing tangible non-dilutive capital for our clients, and providing them with business strategy that ensures they will succeed in their markets. That is why we have created over 4,500 jobs in the past decade through U.S. economic development efforts and secured millions of dollars for clients in states like Minnesota, Texas, and Maryland.
Sometimes I look back on A10 Associates and my motherhood and wonder how we got here… There were definitely times I feared the business, kids, or myself would not survive! I still knock on wood when I think about this. The greatest thing I did to pause for my kids and career was to be at Hult International Business School when the kids were little. It was very hard to walk away from a prominent lobbying firm and my love of politics for a time – I felt very left out of the mix… To the point that, the day that Donald Trump and Mike Pence were elected in 2016, I was out walking the kids in a stroller with no idea that it had happened! As hard as it was to take some time away from politics, it was probably the best pause that I have ever taken.
Being at Hult taught me more about business and the private sector than I expected. I learned valuable skills they don’t always teach you working in government – shaping A10’s business strategy today around return on investment, profit and loss, and monetizing value for clients. Moreover, I was able to be with the kids during very critical times when they were little, working fewer hours, and prioritizing my schedule around feeding, naps, and general snuggles!
This pause allowed me to set the tone for the schedule I keep to this day – taking a break to pick the kids up from school and focusing on sports, dinner, tubby and bedtime as sacred rituals… Now it may mean some nights I sit down to a plate of work at 10 pm, but I have found a way to balance my work and life to get as much done as possible and not miss special moments.
Hope is More Than Wishful Thinking
Ultimately, this is just one example of how women endure and learn to multitask. Although anecdotal in my life, the Peterson Institute for International Economics research indicates that an organization with 30 percent female leaders could add up to 6 percentage points to its net margin.
The Lenten and Spring season ultimately is a season of hope. It is about renewal and rejuvenation as those little baby bunnies pop out of their nests and chicks hatch out of their eggs. As Emily Dickinson once said, “Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.”
Hope isn’t just wishful thinking—it’s a practical strategy. Taking inspiration from Good Friday, this perspective encourages us to embrace challenges with optimism. At A10 Associates, hope shapes our commitment to nurturing policy change and fostering innovation. This is why at A10 Associates, we invest time in internal strategy, political retreats, check-in calls, and quarterly reviews to foster a positive and productive work environment that gives our employees and clients a genuine sense of hope. Studies have shown that a positive corporate culture, where hope and resilience are promoted, can lead to employees being 14% more productive, 10% more likely to be engaged, and 20% less likely to experience burnout.
Whether you are an executive facing a lengthy approval process, a leader championing change behind the scenes, or a mom trying to get the kids to school on time, know that every moment of perseverance builds towards a transformative breakthrough. This season is a time to reflect on your own “waiting” periods and consider how steadfast commitment has led to eventual success in your career, family, or organization.
