Her Story
About Glenna
Glenna Hecht is a speaker, author, and Leadership Strategist with more than three decades of executive experience leading in high-performance environments where decisions carry weight and people feel the impact.
She works in the moments most leaders are not trained for, when expectations are high, situations are unclear, and what you say and do matters more than ever. Her perspective is direct, grounded, and built for how leadership shows up when it counts.
Leadership isn’t something I learned in a classroom. It’s something I lived. For more than three decades, I worked inside organizations where expectations were high and decisions had consequences. I learned quickly that leadership isn’t about what you know. It’s about what you do when it counts.
Then everything changed.
When my mother was diagnosed with dementia, what I knew about communication stopped working. I couldn’t reason with it. I couldn’t fix it. I had to learn to meet her where she was.
What started as a simple question — “How old are you?” — became something more.
A ritual.
Then a game.
Then a way back to each other.
It wasn’t about getting the answer right. It was about finding a way in.
That experience didn’t just change how I connected with her. It changed how I see people. All people.
Because whether in a boardroom or a living room, the moment is the same:
The situation isn’t always clear. The answer isn’t always logical. And what matters most is how you show up.
This work lives in that space — where expectations are real, people are human, and connection is still possible.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Glenna
01What do you attribute your success to?
My passion for making a difference to others.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Probably the best career advice I received was to have and know your values, especially with what I do with HR. Always be able to hold those tight and refer to them, because you may find that you're put in situations that will cause you to question them, and I was. So I was very thankful to be able to have those in place. The other best career advice came from my mom. She was just cool as all get-out, and everybody used to come and tell her all their problems because she would listen. When I was probably in my twenties, she said to me, 'I want you to have FU money.' I had no clue what she was talking about. I said, well, why do you want me to have this kind of money? And she said, because I never want you to feel like you have to stay in a bad situation because you're scared or because you're not able to take care of yourself. Do you know how many of my friends have said to me, or people, women I know, have said, gosh, I wish my mother would have told me that? She was cool, it was fun.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I have a scholarship for young women entrepreneurs, so this is something I'm passionate about. I would say to them, pick something to do that you're passionate about, and then be committed to doing it. I find that people see blinky shiny now, and they go, oh, I'm gonna do this, oh, I'm gonna do that, and then they wonder why am I not successful? Well, because you've got to stick with something for a period of time and give it some breathing space. So I would say, identify what you're passionate about, know your gifts, and stick with it. I believe that the way that I kind of live my life is, learn something every day, be grateful for what you have. And I start my day writing that out. Some days it's coffee, right? But if you come from that place, then you never feel like you're empty or afraid, or less than, or not worthy. So I would say just identify your passion, know your gifts, be grateful, and then try something and stick with it for a while, and give it your best shot.
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