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Having a peer group to share wisdom and learnings is key to success.

Our August/September cover story: The 2023 Outstanding Directors Awards. Board directors keep abreast of unfolding trends and challenges to offer the best insights about a company’s future. They're also being called upon to weigh in on strategies for navigating current obstacles likely to have financial consequences for several years. Those include workforce shortages, shifting consumer preferences, federal and state governments gripped by polarization, and climate change. Meet this year's honorees: Dan Abdul, Debora Frodl, John Himley, Lynn Casey, and Patrick McGuiness

While navigating loss is part of work of systems change, it doesn't make it easy! In this post, I navigate loss at a personal, organisational and system level. Last week a chapter closed for Collaboration for Impact. After much preparation and planning, Liz Skelton stepped down from CFI's Board. Liz co-founded the organisation 10 years ago and steered its governance as our inaugural Chair. At a system level, Australia's social change sector is stronger and more able to do the hard work of shifting systems because of Liz's leadership and immense ability to build the capacity of others. She pioneered adaptive leadership practice in Australia and its critical role in systems change - training and mentoring 1000s of change leaders to see the system and their role in maintaining it, and then find ways to use their role and power to change systems towards equity and inclusion. Liz co-created the practice of Deep Collaboration with Mark Yettica-Paulson and 100s of people now think differently about how First Nations leaders and others can lead together. At an organisational level, CFI is one of Australia's leading intermediaries for changing systems because of Liz's vision and leadership. CFI relentlessly centres those most impacted by inequity, and has deep understanding of how collaboration, diversity, power, and leadership become the pathway to equitable systems because of Liz's values and practice. At a personal level, one does not set up an organisation that has a purpose to disrupt the status quo with just anyone. One does that only with a partner who has unshakeable integrity, an immense amount of courage and grit, always has your back, and an uncanny ability to see humour in pretty much everything. Liz was all of that and more. While I feel the loss of this chapter closing, I am honoured to have been Liz's co-founder and immensely grateful for the learning, laughs, legacy and lifelong friendship that the last 10 years has brought. Thank you Liz Skelton. x

Join us: https://lnkd.in/etvqmVu6 Participants in this program are ready to learn new strategies and approaches to address their Family Council challenges, such as these: “Our family has entrusted our Family Council to do important work on their behalf. What can we do to add value, show results, and have a meaningful impact on our family enterprise’s overall success?” “Our family is growing and spreading out geographically. How can we keep our family connected to one another?” “How can we keep our family engaged and contributing to our enterprise?” “Change is coming in our family, our industry, our leadership, our assets. How can our Family Council best lead the family through it?” “What should we do to prepare our family members with the knowledge and skills they’ll need, and develop a pipeline of talent in the family to serve on the board, in ownership, and other important roles?” “We know we need some policies and rules to help organize and guide our family. But, what exactly should we develop, and how do we enforce them? How have other families approached this effectively?”

Very timely OpEd by the Crain's Chicago Business editorial board to highlight that we need new business leaders to follow the footsteps of highly civically minded business leaders like Jim Crown and Rocky Wirtz: "They also embodied a tradition that sets Chicago’s business community apart from other major metros: This city expects its business elite to play a role in its civic life, getting big projects like Millennium Park off the ground, contributing to the upkeep of beloved institutions such as the renovation of the Museum of Science & Industry, and helping elected officials to take on giant, seemingly intractable challenges such as combating crime, improving education and creating economic opportunity in the neighborhoods as well as the Loop." As I mentioned in yesterday's post here on LinkedIn, we need a new generation of business leaders who are civically engaged to build a better Chicago across all 77 neighborhoods. A sole focus on generating business growth and profit will not build a more equitable and inclusive region where the opportunities are as equally distributed as the talent already is.

Championing Excellence: Soul District Business Association Established in 1977, the SDBA is one of the oldest and largest business districts in inner N/NE Portland. Their mission? To ignite economic growth, empower local businesses, and create a vibrant community. As a voice, advocate, facilitator, and catalyst, the SDBA champions approximately 5,000 businesses and 64,000 residents within its district boundaries. What They Do: 🔸 Small Business Advocacy & Sustainability: Supporting entrepreneurs and fostering sustainable business practices. 🔸 Urban Renewal & Economic Development: Revitalizing neighborhoods and creating opportunities. 🔸 Resource Identification & Referral: Connecting businesses with essential resources. 🔸 Marketing, Events & Tourism: Showcasing the soulful spirit of Portland. 🔸 Youth Entrepreneurial Career Leadership Development: Nurturing the next generation of business leaders. 🔸 Neighborhood Beautification: Making our streets more vibrant and welcoming. 🔸 Strategic Planning & Collaborative Relationships: Building bridges for success. 🔸 Transportation Progression: Enhancing accessibility. 🔸 Workforce Development & Healthy Work Environments: Ensuring thriving workplaces. Join their mission by following the Soul District Business Association. Support their cause, and be part of the positive change. Let’s celebrate the soul of Portland together!

A beautiful example of authentic, heart-centered, powerful leadership. 👩🏻🎤 ❤️ ⚡ Ice jangles in my cup as I drink my milky iced coffee. I turn on WBUR, my local NPR station. I crave their insights, companionship, and quirkiness as much as the caffeine. Their annual spring fund drive is underway. The host explains there's a major shortfall because of a change in where underwriters are investing (e.g., big tech/large platforms). On comes Margaret Low (WBUR's CEO). She speaks to me (and the other listeners) with: *Clarity and integrity. She explains in precise terms what the situation is, why, and invites us into the context of her world. *Heart. Her voice is steeped with care, conviction, and love for the station and what they bring to Boston and beyond. I feel compassion for what she and the station are up against. *Values-alignment. She shares about WBUR's values, intention, and mission. As I listener, I am on her side. *Intentional action. She details how WBUR is creatively deploying resources, looking at new funding sources, and using their talent to think expansively about new ways of doing business (while acknowledging what has been working for them- and keeping at that). *People-first. She hypes her team, the reporters, talent across the organization. I think, "Wow, I bet that's a great place to work." If you lead with clarity and integrity, heart, values-alignment, intentional action, and people-first, what becomes possible for you, your team, and your organization? P.S. If you're in Boston, support WBUR. https://lnkd.in/em4-TffN #leadership #authenticleadership #womenleaders #coaching #leadershipcoach

New Charter Technologies certainly had a lot to celebrate at the Channel Futures #LeadershipSummit in Miami Beach last month!   Watch this Channel Futures TV interview with editorial director Craig Galbraith and Mitch Morgan, the CEO of New Charter. Mitch spills the beans about our cool new tool, the FrontRunner Maturity Model (a business assessment tool for MSPs) and chats about the future of the company. Check it out!   #NewCharterTech #MSP501 #FrontRunnerMaturityModel

As the legendary Nick Saban announces his retirement, we can't help but reflect on the profound impact he's had on the world of football. Saban’s career is a testament to excellence, resilience, and, most importantly, the 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆. Saban's philosophy extends far beyond the football field, however... In finance, as in sports, it's those small, disciplined daily actions and decisions that pave the way for major successes. Whether it’s consistently saving/investing, carefully analyzing a financial portfolio, or making strategic career moves, it’s the dedication to the little things that creates a foundation for victory. And speaking of strategic moves, we can’t forget Saban’s brief dance with my Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium 🐬 . While his tenure in Miami was a quick dip in the NFL head coaching waters, it certainly set the stage for his astounding success at The University of Alabama. Maybe it’s just like in finance – sometimes the best investments are the ones you don’t hold onto for too long! 😉 As we bid farewell to a coaching giant, 𝒍𝒆𝒕’𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒔. Here’s to making the big things happen by getting the little things right! #Discipline #SuccessMindset #LittleThingsBigImpact #JuliUS

A little known fact, I once worked for a presidential candidate and his subsequent PAC. I learned a lot that can be applied to product teams. 👇 Heading into the Iowa caucus in 2003, we were tied for last place, barely above 2%. We believed in our potential, but the facts told a different story. On caucus night, we shocked the world. We placed 2nd with nearly 32%, winning only two fewer delegates than the winner (the eventual nominee, John Kerry). With far less money and and a much smaller team, we had hugely outperformed the presumptive winner, Howard Dean. One little known secret of that caucus: we had made deals with other candidates that if either side had failed to reach viability in a given precinct (meaning, not capturing enough voters to garner a single delegate), they would support the other candidate. We won enough of those to stitch together a huge showing. That night, our donation servers crashed under the load of all the money come in. We thought we were it. We thought we were taking the world by storm. I’d never felt anything like it. It was exhilarating. A few weeks later, our campaign collapsed and our candidate dropped out. We simply didn’t have the time to establish a national organization and were crushed by the Super Tuesday primary schedule. We’d saved our one big swing for too late in the cycle. We left ourselves with only one out. To us the loss felt as shocking as our victory had only a month earlier. So what’s the lesson? Sometimes your only way to survival is a short-term gain. If you can only make the small bets, there’s a good chance you’ve already lost and don’t know it yet. What hurts a lot of products isn’t about ideas or resiliency or smarts or features. It’s just poor timing. It’s getting behind instead of jumping ahead. The most important cultural trait of an upstart or insurgent team is urgency. Nothing matters more than urgency. You can control a lot of things when growing a company or team or product — But can’t control time. The best choice - the only viable path - is to move as quickly as possibly. #culture #engineering #leadership