This month marks Crafted Leadership’s final Leadership Hot Spot, a monthly leadership series for local professionals to learn and practice leadership skills that I’ve been hosting in Fort Collins since 2016 and Julianna Christie in Salt Lake City in 2017-18. I want to share why we did the series, why we’re ending them, and what’s next.
In addition to our geographically dispersed work with leaders and teams and our 1:1 coaching, the heart of Crafted Leadership is about making a difference in our own communities. Hearing from lots of people that they wanted professional development but resources for such were tight, we created these workshops to give back to our communities. The Leadership Hot Spots fulfilled three needs:
to build a community of conscious leaders in our backyards
to give people a trusted space to practice skills
to offer high quality, accessible (e.g. free or nominal cost) leadership training for the public
The first Leadership Hot Spot was May 2016 at the Fort Collins Country Club with Paulette Hansen and Emily Amedee sharing advice on giving feedback. As I watched people engage, I had the feeling we were on to something. One of the functions of leadership is to offer a fuller picture of what can be and a way to get there. This is what the Hot Spots were about.
The format of each Hot Spot was the same: share a conscious leadership skill, offer encouragement and coaching to practice the skill, provide a takeaway tool for their teams so they could pay the learning forward.
Many wonderful guest speakers and over 200 participants attended the Hot Spots over the years to learn and practice such critical leadership skills as giving and receiving feedback, resolving conflict, building emotional literacy, resonant speaking and listening, and integrating play and appreciation into work. All skills were based on Crafted Leadership’s Architecture of Inspiring Leaders framework, a set of 13 vital leadership skills that can be applied immediately and for a lifetime.
Recently I heard a podcast interview with Alice Waters talking about how she built Chez Panisse, her famous restaurant in Berkeley that inspired a revolution in the restaurant industry. In describing the genesis of Chez Panisse, Waters said something so simple but so utterly at the core of her success: “It was a labour of love ... I knew that if the food was really good, people would come. I knew that.” Simple in concept, but not easy to do! She’s dedicated her life to showing the world what “good” food tastes like and teaching us that good food is a product of intention.
I share this because the Leadership Hot Spots have been our own labor of love and part of our bigger mission: to spread conscious leadership throughout the global workplace, from the inside out, starting in our local communities. We believe that if the quality of our leaders is high, people will benefit and workplaces will change for the better. Like good food, high quality leadership is the product of intention.
Ongoing community commitment
At this point we feel we’ve completed our original goals with the Hot Spots, and it’s time to spread conscious leadership through other platforms. We remain committed to building leadership capacity in our communities through small groups we run and boards we serve on. We have personal commitments to serve particular populations at minimal cost or pro bono. These include women stepping into leadership and organizations serving people with developmental disabilities.
We are actively seeking opportunities to serve in those places. Please reach out to us if you know organizations in those areas who would find value in leadership training.
New project for Crafted Leadership
Some of our best work is supporting teams to move from dysfunction to high function. As we expand in this area, we’ve created a new offering: a Lead by Design taster for organizations.
The Lead by Design Taster is a 90-minute to two-hour workshop for teams that introduce conscious leadership in a low-risk, easy-access format. We come to the organizations — in person or virtually — and introduce a fundamental leadership concept and a collaborative method for clearing conflict. If you’d like to learn more or know of organizations who might benefit, contact me at nancy@craftedleadership.com or julianna@craftedleadership.com.
Lead By Design
Lead by Design is our three-day leadership training program for the public that is a powerful mix of skills, guided coaching, and bonding with other leaders. Our upcoming Lead by Design programs are Estes Park June 12-14 and Salt Lake City July 31- August 2.
Thank you
In conclusion, I’d like to thank the people who helped bring the Leadership Hot Spots to life:
Elizabeth Krauss, for the initial inspiring conversations and encouragement to launch the Hot Spots
My mentor Julie Colwell for living the conscious leadership skills she creates and teaches
Kristie Steinbock, Melanie Meador, Cathy Morris, Julianna Christie, Berry Koelman for their faith in this project
Sue Heilbronner for modeling commitment to community and for so consistently walking her talk
Jack Butler, Micki McMillan, Julia Munson, Paulette Hanson, Emily Amedee, Bob Tomes, Jane Warren, Kathy Kucsan, Andrea Isaacs, Odeke Kwantes, Carl Dierschow, Renee Walkup, Brian Fuller for so generously sharing your time and talents as presenters and for your commitment to conscious leadership
Diana Chapman of Conscious Leadership Group for generously sharing her wisdom and experiences of expanding conscious leadership into workplaces
Stefanie, Sarah, Shelby, Jo, Bill, Ann, Pete, Bryan, Amy, Jami, Kathy, Katie, Derek, Dave for your commitment to these trainings – you’re inspiring to me
The many participants who chose to be vulnerable and authentic and willing to practice skills with real situations — you inspired me
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