What are some ways to develop your leadership and entrepreneurial skills for social impact?

There's a lot to cover between leadership and entrepreneurship in the world of social impact! My summary would be these two key points: 1) Leadership: Have a deep understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and make sure you surround yourself with a team that balances you out. And TRUST that team to bring the perspective you may lack and proactively learn from them. 2) Entrepreneurship: Always consider your customers and what problem you are solving for them. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution you think you already have.

Entrepreneurship is changing, just like everything in this rapidly-evolving world. We cannot think about advancing our own materialisitc aims alone, but must take the wider community's needs into account. The areas of greatest need will provide the most singular opportunities for growing one's business. I have begun to see that coaching the next generation of Social Entrepreneurs must be central to my own purpose-driven career. As the economy in the USA has become so capitalocentric, there is nothing left to pioneer but development of the horizontal value-chain through hybridizing our focus. If we consider profitability our sole motive, we have ignored the promise of our time. Humankind now clamors for real social change agents.

Embracing experimentation and iteration allows leaders and entrepreneurs to be more adaptive and resilient. Instead of fearing failure, they see every outcome as a learning opportunity. In the complex realm of social impact, where challenges are multifaceted, this approach enables them to refine their strategies, making them more impactful over time. As they evolve, they're better equipped to drive change, demonstrating a commitment not just to an initial idea, but to the overarching mission of making a positive difference.

I join collaborative groups to discover whether I can help them create traction, encourage interdependence, and broaden the community's base of shared knowledge. Without the courage to wade through the morass of apparently disconnected ideas and initiatives, which is often an excruciating process, we will not have the chance to find a real synergy with anyone. It may feel at first we are throwing good energy after bad because no real sense of belonging is achieved at the outset. Yet when that moment comes wherein a real connection is made, then and only then will our investment pay-off. And, I'm not talking about a financial pay-off. It is most important our impact on others' sense of unique worth be at the heart of our daily efforts.

Volunteer. Join Employee Resource Groups. Attend and participate in relevant webinars and conferences and workshops. To develop your leadership and entrepreneurial skills for social impact, you must take the time to first embed yourself in those spaces. Then, raise your hand for interesting leadership opportunities. Whether you're the team lead for an employee volunteer day or you're organizing an upcoming fundraiser on behalf of your ERG or you're leading a breakout session at an event, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and gain new skills and experiences. The more you try, the better you'll get. :)

There's a lot to cover between leadership and entrepreneurship in the world of social impact! My summary would be these two key points: 1) Leadership: Have a deep understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and make sure you surround yourself with a team that balances you out. And TRUST that team to bring the perspective you may lack and proactively learn from them. 2) Entrepreneurship: Always consider your customers and what problem you are solving for them. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution you think you already have.

From my own story, what I can say with confidence is that if you have worked in resource constrained and relatively unstructured environments where everyone is required to be more than they thought they were capable of, then you have some of the very basic and necessary leadership and entrepreneurial traits required to contribute in social impact space. Among other things, you will have developed an intuitive sense of what adaptability, complexity, intersectionality, and dealing with constant ambiguity look like. So, go ahead and work for a start-up or a high-growth organization if you wish to someday enter social impact space!