Seth Grundhoefer Several community members were honored for their leadership and civic roles at the annual Economic Development Partners meeting at the Livery Stable on Monday night. The Madison Future: Young Professional Network Council presented five awards as part of its second annual “5 Under 40″ ceremony. The recipients included two local high school teachers, a health care worker, an attorney and a funeral director. The award recipients were Heather Foy, a health and wellness expert; Aaron Kelsey, art and theater teacher at Madison Consolidated High School; Kande McKay, journalism teacher at MCHS; Josh Webb, a funeral director at Morgan & Nay Funeral Centre; and Pat Magrath, attorney with Alcorn, Goering & Sage. “We should be proud as a community that we have so many young professionals doing so many extraordinary things,” said Abbe Ernstes, who presented the awards. To be considered for the award, a person must be nominated by someone in the community; show professionalism and leadership; and be younger than 40. Madison Future: The Young Professional Network Council makes the final decision. Corey Murphy, executive director of the EDP, gave his annual report before the award ceremony. He said facility expansion plans and new job commitments at Grote Industries and Madison Precision Products were strong economic highlights in 2011, as well as the ongoing environmental upgrades at Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp. Murphy said in 2008 the EDP board went through a strategic planning process and focused on four areas of improvement: business retention and expansion; development marketing; accelerated business park and visitor attraction; and leadership and collaboration. He said the economic plan is still in use in the community. This year, Murphy said the organization aims to expand its business retention and expansion program to the small business sector in the community and merge EDP and the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce websites. After Murphy’s presentation, the EDP presented Jefferson County Commissioner Julie Berry with its annual John Paul Friend of Economic Development Award. Berry, who also was named Indiana commissioner of the year in 2011, is the third recipient of the award. The EDP also awarded Madison Consolidated High School junior Lauren Goebel a $600 check for winning the area Maverick Challenge. The competition, which is only available to high school juniors and seniors, challenges students to develop a business idea, market research and strategy. Students present the information to the board, which then chooses an overall winner.
Courtesy of the Madison Courier |
EDP Recognizes Community Service
More young leaders earn recognition
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Several weeks ago, The Madison Courier printed a series of stories about young people from the Courierarea who we believe will develop into the next generation of leaders. Monday night, the Madison Future Young Professionals group honored five more individuals who already have made a difference. And the Economic Development Partners recognized two others for their work. The awards were announced at the EDP annual meeting. Honored by the Young Professionals were: Heather Foy, a health and wellness expert; Aaron Kelsey, art and theater teacher at Madison Consolidated High School; Kande McKay, journalism teacher at MCHS; Josh Webb, funeral director at Morgan and Nay Funeral Centre, and Pat Magrath, an attorney with Alcorn Goering and Sage. Another young person honored was Madison Consolidated High School junior Lauren Goebel, winner of the Maverick Challenge for high school students. The challenge was to develop a business idea and carry the process through the marketing of the idea. The Maverick Challenge is part of the Eco15 education/business initiative. It’s clear that there is no shortage of young talent in the area. Also to be congratulated is County Commissioner Julie Berry who was given the John Paul Friend of Economic Development Award. Berry has served the community well in a variety of capacities.
Courtesy of the Madison Courier http://madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=181&SubSectionID=301&ArticleID=67439&TM=76963.96 |
Volunteering – A Great Way To Learn Real Executive Leadership
One of the most powerful ways for younger managers to understand and experience the type of leadership needed for the C-Suite is to do volunteer work early in their careers. This is because the type of leadership at the top is akin to being a leader of volunteers, it is not about carrots and sticks but about persuasion and getting people to grasp and follow your vision.
This is written with Richard Pound.
It’s an irony of modern corporate life, but one of the greatest challenges in motivating employees to sustain strong business performance is to make them feel like there’s a larger purpose to their lives than just meeting financial goals and this need is only getting strong with the younger generation, the Postmoderns. Although business success and the raises, bonuses, and perks that come with it are intrinsic motivators, money and corporate extras aren’t everything for most people.
Having corporate programs that encourage employees to work as volunteers for organizations in their community are one way to offer an extra corporate benefit that makes employees feel pride and satisfaction, and makes them happier and more productive workers. Marc Benioff, CEO ofSalesforce.com, promotes what he calls “the 1 per- cent solution”: 1 percent of the company’s equity, 1 percent of its profits, and 1 percent of its employees’ paid work hours are devoted to philanthropy. Software maker SAS, which has for years been among the Top 20 in Fortune’s annual list of the 100 best companies to work for, offers a volunteer initiative that lets employees use flexible schedules to take paid time off for projects in the community, or even work in teams with their managers on a volunteer effort during business hours.
To our minds, though, volunteer work isn’t just an outlet for employees in search of more meaning in their work lives; it provides an excellent way to prepare for a senior executive position. By volunteering for projects in nonprofit organizations, experienced executives can hone their supervisory and leadership skills, and aspiring executives can gain the experience and networking opportunities that could lead to plum positions in the company.
Permission Leadership
The management environment in volunteer organizations is often extremely challenging. Without the compensation and organizational authority to keep their teams productive and working toward shared goals, volunteer managers must be adept leaders and persuaders as they tackle all the same management issues they face in their corporations: setting objectives, developing strategies, raising and allocating funds, motivating and guiding people, and complying with regulatory structures. Because corporate managers volunteering in nonprofits don’t have titles to define their positions, they have to practice what some call “per mission leadership.” That is, they have to earn the trust and respect of the people they are supervising. Also, they need to do all this with what are usually much more limited resources than what they are accustomed to in their ‘real jobs’, which often requires significant creative skills.
Executive awareness of social issues, and of the needs and characteristics of different socioeconomic groups, is also sharpened through volunteer experiences. This is important for corporate managers who must increasingly reconcile the various, and often conflicting, demands of a multitude of stakeholders and special interests, many of which they may not completely understand. Volunteering in nonprofits isn’t just a charitable act; it’s a way for executives to hone their management and leadership skills.
For younger managers, nonprofits offer rare chances to learn intangible leadership skills, such as persuasion and mediation. With recreational, religious, political, or social organizations, a manager also has the opportunity to meet and establish friendships with people from a variety of backgrounds and vocations. For younger managers, a stint in a nonprofit organization provides rare chances to socialize with senior executives and work closely with them to learn intangible leadership skills — such as persuad ing others to follow your vision, mediating between conflicting parties, addressing workers’ concerns and insights, and knowing when to spur a team to action and when to let the team relax. Senior, financially secure executives who donate their time and energy with enthusiasm are role models for younger executives.
Incentives and Support
If helping others and the community is undertaken purely for the opportunity to network, the full and lasting meaning of volunteerism is missed. Some people who approach it with this attitude will surely lose interest. Still, many of those who start out as volunteers merely to add a credit to their CV begin, in time, to grasp the bigger picture. Even with all of the advantages of volunteerism — it’s good for society, companies, and employees — many employees still resist getting involved. Their main objection is that they don’t have the time to volunteer and do their “day jobs.” Or they say volunteering is not appreciated at their companies, and it certainly is not viewed as a way to climb the corporate ladder.
In fact, some employees feel that by volunteering, they are potentially derailing their chances for a promotion because of the time they’ll spend out of the office. Because of these attitudes, there is a growing recognition in both the public and the private sectors that corporations need to be more proactive in promoting employee volunteerism. To do this, companies must freely provide time off for participation in volunteer programs; publicly acknowledge, either with promotions or awards, employees who volunteer the most and do it successfully; and set up mentoring programs in which senior executives work with employees in one-on-one sessions to help them navigate obstacles that arise during volunteerism. Karl’s old firm IBM, has set up a program for high potentials where they go and live for several weeks in another part of the world and do volunteer work in dramatically different societies than their home country, a great idea!
Only when these approaches, and others, are used to demonstrate the corporation’s full approval of and engagement in volunteerism will these companies inspire reluctant employees and give them productive volunteer experiences that are good for them, for the company, and for the community.
This blog was written with Richard Pound. Richard Pound(rpound@stikeman.com) is the Chancellor Emeritus of McGill University and a partner in the law firm Stikeman Elliott. He has volunteered with the Olympic Games for more than 40 years. An earlier version of this was published in 2004 in Strategy & Business, since then the things we talked about have only become more urgent and more relevant to organizations and to their people, particularly their younger employees, the Postmoderns.
Follow Rethinking Leadership on Twitter at @profkjmoore.
Original post from LinkedIn.com
Millennials to Business: Social responsibility isn’t optional
The Occupy Wall Street movement is largely fueled by a relatively small set of young people who view the protests as a fight for their future. The vast majority, however, are getting up and going to work every day — or wishing they could. These individuals are part of a less dramatic but, perhaps, equally powerful movement of Millennials shaping the future of business. As consumers, employees and entrepreneurs, Millennials are shifting the norms of corporate America’s conduct, ethical imperatives and purpose. In his book, “The Way We’ll Be,” pollster John Zogby documents how these “First Globals” are more conscientious consumers than their predecessors, demanding greater honesty and accountability from businesses.
Millennials are bringing their values into the career equation by placing a premium on employers’ reputation for social responsibility and the opportunities those companies and organizations provide their employees to make a positive impact on society. Sixty-one percent of 18- to 26-year-olds polled in a 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT survey said they would prefer to work for a company that offers volunteer opportunities. Over the past decade, this generational shift has pushed these programs to be more sophisticated, generating billions of dollars of pro bono support for nonprofits and activating millions of skilled volunteers.
Even as the economy has slowed, companies are expanding volunteer programs because these programs attract, develop, motivate and retain the most dynamic and passionate employees. The most innovative of these companies also understand these programs as critical to their bottom line. IBM’s Corporate Service Corps, launched in 2008, has deployed 1,200 IBMers to more than 20 countries, in both a highly competitive leadership development program and a rigorous endeavor to bring the corporation’s skills to bear on complex problems in developing communities. IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano said at the program’s founding that “we fully expect [this] will make IBM a more competitive and successful business.”
Millennials, as consumers, are pushing companies to change the ways of doing business to align with the values of civic and global responsibility largely held by Millennials. Monitoring supply chains, safeguarding labor and environmental conditions for the creation of products and embracing environmental sustainability have become basic requirements to preserve relationships with customers and retain young employees. A recent market study by the public relations firm Edelman shows that consumers now expect brands to support causes. Many companies are responding to this market shift in ways that integrate causes fully into their business strategy and brand identities. Earlier this year, the Millennial founders of GOOD Magazine launched a subsidiary consulting business called GOOD/Corps, which is helping some of the world’s most recognizable brands navigate and profit from what they call the “Values Revolution” driven by this generation. Companies like Pepsi, Toyota and Starbucks are seeking their guidance on building the meaningful connections that these consumers demand.
While Millennials are transforming established businesses, they are also starting a new breed of businesses with built-in social missions that are resonating with the marketplace and revolutionizing their sectors. TOMS Shoes was founded in 2006 by 30-year-old Blake Mycoskie and has quickly become one of the fastest-growing apparel companies in the world. Well known for its groundbreaking “One-for-One” model that donates a pair of shoes in the developing world for every pair sold, it is also growing a fiercely loyal and active following through its anti-poverty advocacy efforts. It is hard to imagine a traditional shoe brand being able to mobilize a network of 1,200 campus chapters and 250,000 young people in a single day to promote its brand, but that is exactly what TOMS has accomplished with its “One Day Without Shoes” campaign.
Despite the economic downturn and the headlines, the nation’s private sector is still lively. The values behind Occupy Wall Street are manifesting themselves in the marketplace and companies that are failing to take notice should start. These people-powered movements may not have stopped the markets in their tracks, but they are creating the demand for new forms of corporate behavior and ethical imperatives. The winning brands of the future will be ones that authentically respond.
This may result in an aligning of private-sector muscle to address the very inequities, lack of transparency and poverty that Occupy Wall Street has spotlighted. A new generation of employees, consumers and entrepreneurs is stepping forward with a better way of doing business — putting its bets on the goodness of people rather than loading the dice in its own favor.
Original Post from LinkedIn.com: