As I look back on this past year, I’m filled with gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to your businesses and to your lives.
Leadership Hand works with mission-driven leaders who value people, performance and contributing to a better world. Our clients come from a variety of industries. They range in size from $50m to Fortune 500 firms. Some of them are in the field of international development. Most are not. We’ve worked with CXOs, senior leadership teams, cohort and cross-functional groups helping the extraordinary emerge and their capabilities increase.
I’m proud to say that we’ve helped our clients achieve their business objectives and contribute to a better world for all–going beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to engaging in business with a sense of responsibility for the whole–as Global Citizens.
More specifically, our work with our clients supports six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for transforming the world.
The Uphill Climb
Sometimes, because I know all the difficult steps it takes to reach a goal or meet a challenge, it’s stunning to see the impact of a small business come to fruition on the global stage.
It’s like making a long, difficult climb up a mountain to an overlook where mist obscures the view. The mist clears, a valley appears and the skyline is bathed in glorious sunlight. You don’t forget the journey. Really, how could you. How could you forget the trips and falls where you wondered if it would ever get easier on a trail that never seemed to end. But suddenly, as you get a glimpse of the whole, even difficulties have their place.
2017 Leadership Hand Highlights
- We led a workshop filled with 35 senior managers, subject matter experts in climate change, from five departments in a large international institution. The focus was on sharing knowledge and bringing forth innovative ideas to increase climate change financing by $5 billion a year. Our work helped meet an organizational mandate and protect the planet.
- We led a leadership team alignment day to help a small, non-profit leadership team shaping children’s lives. Their mission statement has had the important value of inclusion in it for nearly 30 years. True visionaries. Our work helped them discover and execute on strategies to spend 25% more time each month focused on strategic initiatives and to reduce time in the whirlwind of busyness.
- Advised and led a multi-day, strategic decision-making session for a newly founded international consortium of eight organizations from different continents that came together to collaborate for competitive advantage (yes, it’s true—collaborative competition) and to feed humanity in the future.
- Launched Productive Conflict™, a powerful approach to help women and men navigate conflict successfully and discover innovative solutions within it. We did a soft launch at the Columbus Women-in-Tech Conference to a standing room only audience. I’m so appreciative of the response: visionary leaders recognize the urgent, important need for people on their leadership teams and in their companies to develop this lifetime leadership skill.
Some of you will read this and think, “Well done.” Thank you. Or you’re thinking, “We’d like your help.” We’d love to explore the possibility with you and invite you to contact us. Whether we’re the right trusted advisor or not, we can promise you’ll have more clarity and confidence in the choice you ultimately make.
Keep the Faith, and Keep at It
As 2017 comes to a close, my message to anyone who may be doubting their ability… who may be struggling with the thought that making a difference–globally, nationally or in your own backyard, that’s deeply meaningful to you can never happen for you, your team, or your company is this:
It can.
Keep the faith, and keep at it. Remember to ask for help and trust your intuition. Remember to pause. It’s in the pause that the mist will rise and the sun will shine. You can contribute to a more peaceful, prosperous world for all.
With heartfelt gratitude to each of you,
Beth
