Inspired professionally and personally

Apr 18

One of The Leadwell Group's (Leadwell) taglines is, "Leadwell brings substance and heart to the complex work of leadership development." What I am so grateful for is that our work fills our hearts more than I ever imagined.

Lately, we've shared mostly about our Leadwell Accelerator which is our work focused on helping school districts and organizations transform their cultures by investing in the individual leadership skills of their leaders. Today, I want to share more about the work we do with Growth Planning and how that work inspires me.

We have a niche working with small to mid-size (think $1-$5M in revenue, and typically around 12-15 FTE) organizations on their growth plans. Some of these are education reform organizations and some are small charter networks or independent schools serving primarily black and brown students in urban areas. They come to us with a core question, "Should we grow and if so, in what ways?".

We are in the midst of one of these projects with Beacon Academy, an incredible organization that "offers a 10-year program that prepares highly motivated students from communities with limited resources to succeed in competitive high schools, colleges, and careers." When we do Growth Planning work we go deep into an organization's program model, strategy, and financials. We understand their mission/vision and how their values align with their work. We enter their work world as completely as possible, and we do so by working side-by-side with their staff and Board.

As we've done these types of projects over the past three years, what is heart-filling is that we get to be a part of an organization (for a period of time) that has cracked the nut on something- their secret sauce. We get to uncover what that is and examine how to leverage that special sauce towards growth. In Beacon's case, they are doing right by kids. They have an approach that builds community so their students are truly and deeply known and feel valued. That comes from their incredibly dedicated staff and committed volunteers who invests in their students wholly. They also have rigorous and targeted academics and incredible supports for students.

This is where the personal inspiration comes into play. I have a child who is neuro-divergent and who is challenged daily by the traditional/status-quo school model we have in our country. As I've gone deep into Beacon's model, my heart yearns for schools everywhere to be like Beacon- to be about deeply knowing each student, to be filled with customized supports so each student can reach their potential, to be a safety-net so when things are hard, the students have multiple adults who care about helping them. I want that for my child, and I want it for all children.

Most days when I work, I am driven by providing all children with access to the opportunities my kids are privileged to have. When I work with Beacon, I am driven by providing my child with what Beacon students have.

Growth Planning work is a core service Leadwell provides, and we LOVE doing it. We hope you'll reach out if you're considering growing, or even if you're not sure if you should be considering growing. Referrals are always welcomed, too. Our partnership with Beacon Academy came from a referral from a Board member on a previous Growth Planning project with us.

In Partnership,

Jodi (and Christina)

As a quick reminder, below are Leadwell's core services. We work with mission-driven organizations, primarily in the K-12 sector, to help them achieve their desired impact