Leadership development

We are living through times like none we’ve experienced. Rather than a single crisis that may come and go, we are facing the complex reality of ongoing, significant challenges: heightened awareness around and calls for dismantling oppressive systems, devastating effects of climate change, the global pandemic wars, economic instability. Philanthropy and the charitable sector are viewed as essential lifelines, but the stressors inside and outside of organizations are stretching leaders thin. These times call for courageous and resilient leaders who can lead from a new and more sustainable leadership model. 

There is no single approach to leadership development that works for everyone and addresses all goals. Instead, I offer tailored professional development experiences designed to challenge, inspire, sustain, and restore leaders, underpinned by the following core practices and approaches: 

• Emotional intelligence—developing skills in self-awareness, self- management, empathy, and compassion (relationship and social awareness), and relationship management.
• Equity, diversity, and inclusion—elevating EDI and leading in the context of systemic racism, power, and privilege.
• Sharing leadership and power—moving beyond power over and into the realms of power within, power with, and power to.
• Mindfulness and self-care—grounding and managing oneself amidst complexity and change, maintaining boundaries, and recognizing the need to be well. 
• Stewarding change—growth requires learning and unlearning, the ability to be with complexity, ambiguity, emergence, and flux, and the courage to take risks. 
• Tending community—leadership is relational. Building community, relationships, and trust is part of the work and requires space, listening, curiosity, and focus.
   

Assumptions: 

• Leadership is competency-based, not a natural state. It can be learnt and strengthened over time.
• What we focus on is what we get. Discipline, experimentation, and reflection are the anchors of learning.
• There’s no one answer and no off-the-peg leadership program that works for everyone. Leadership is not static, it is messy. It’s about adaptation, trial, and error.
   

Learning philosophy: 

• People will support what they create. The same is true of learning. I aim to elevate what is known by inviting the wisdom of the individuals and group and then stretching beyond the known with scaffolded learning. 
• We are each unique. I invite people to come to learning spaces as their full, integrated selves. I engage the whole person in learning and meet them where they are—by honoring and inviting in their unique perspectives, strengths, gifts, knowledge, and emotions. 
• Experimentation: Big changes come as the result of focus, iterative small experiments, and structured reflection. I approach learning with an assumption of, and planning for, implementation.