My Purposeful Pivot

2020: A year of pause, upheaval, grief, growth, pain, and perspective. And sweatpants.

On February 3, 2020, I arrived at Doorways for Women and Families for my first day serving in the Interim President and CEO role the board hired me to fill. I was there to begin downloading from the exiting CEO, a woman who had been with the organization for 17 years, 9 of them in the CEO role, and was deeply respected and admired by staff and stakeholders alike. Everyone was nervous about this transition, including me. We were all doing our best not to show it.

After the initial two weeks of overlap with the previous CEO were over, I set out to do the job I was hired to do: keep the trains running. The board's goal was to launch a search relatively quickly and have a new CEO named within 6 months. Alas, I would enjoy just 4 (glorious in hindsight) weeks of keeping the trains running before the pandemic would arrive and require us to figure out, metaphorically, how to turn trains into spaceships.

The year that followed would be the most challenging, and most rewarding, work of my life. Within Doorways, I had the priviledge of working with dedicated leaders. Brave and kind leaders who kept our shelters open and running, continued to meet with clients, and showed up to maintain the back-office functions that kept the frontlines running; the board members who leveraged every skill and contact they had to support us; and the donors whose generous donations made all that work possible. Outside Doorways, community leaders rose up to collaborate and problem-solve. I attended meetings with representatives from human service organizations, the county board, and community foundation where we disseminated key information, collaborated, problem-solved, and occasionally commiserated that the challenges seemed never-ending.

I witnessed first-hand what I inherently knew from my years of serving non-profits: that these organizations are incredibly important to our communities. But I had never witnessed their collective power the way serving as an interim CEO during a global crisis allowed me to do.

It was here I saw that the multiple crisis we endured in 2020 could have, and would have, been much worse were it not for non-profit organizations and public servants coming together and problem-solving. We were essential workers coming up with creative solutions to keep people housed and fed, ensure children had access to technology and connectivity for distance learning, provide refuge from the increased threat of domestic violence during lockdown, translate key information into multiple languages and help people navigate systems for aid, encourage communities not to be wary of the vaccine, stand up systems to distribute and track health care and vaccinations, trouble-shoot childcare alternatives so parents could keep working, and so much more. While many people thought the world outside their doors was largely closed for business, we were an entire army of problem-solvers working to ensure our community safety nets remained in tact, and even, become stronger.

What I also witnessed, and was ultimately a part of, was tremendous leadership. Servant leadership. Daring leadership. Courageous leadership. At times exhilarating, but more often exhausting. And yet, we kept showing up. Many times, when members of my team would wonder aloud how much more they could take, I likened it to being deployed to a crisis zone, except where most deployments have a start and end date, for us there was no end in sight. No fresh infantry coming to relieve us. No promised rest and relaxation at the end of our tour.

Pre-pandemic, I had committed to two other big projects for 2020: completing my coaching certification through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and writing my book, "How to Make the Matriarchy: The Power and Promise of Prioritizing Women." At times, it seemed insane that these three very big responsibilities were on my plate in the same year, but ultimately, the experience of serving as a CEO in a crisis, while being supported in a coaching program, and writing about how women literally change the world, overlapped beautifully to what I am proud to announce today: the launch of my new brand Candor & Company: Coaching and Consulting for Changemakers.

The mission of Candor & Company is to ensure the leaders of today and tomorrow are equipped to change the world for the better. My vision is one where the people doing the hard work of creating critical change in our world, aka changemakers, have the support and partnership they need to persevere through their toughest challenges, while also leading with empathy, balance, and courage.

All of this is built on something else I discovered (or perhaps finally decided to own) in 2020. I love leadership. I've loved it for a long time and I've been a leader for a long time too. How long? My brain recalled this newspaper clipping saved in a scrapbook where I'm on a stage dressed in a costume cleverly designed by cutting two leg-holes into a garbage bag and tying off the top with a ribbon to make me look like a Christmas present. Understandably, there's a hint of shyness in the expressions of the other classmates in the clipping. But, there I am in all my gap-toothed garbage bag glory leading that pageant with the passion of a Broadway star on opening night.

That fearlessness for leading is embedded deep in my soul and I've always thought if it as a complimentary skill to whatever roles I find myself in. Living and leading through 2020, however, allowed me to see it for the calling that it is. It's a skill underpinned with passion that I want to share with as many changemakers as possible. Because great leaders lead great teams, and great teams do great work, and great work is how we change the world.

So, here I am today, proud to announce my business pivot into coaching and consulting for changemakers, rooted in the idea that with candor (truth) and company (partnership) changing the world is never a lonely venture.

I hope you'll join me on this purposeful pivot!

• Find contact details and a list of coaching and consulting services at www.candorandcompany.com. Shoot me a message if you or someone you know is ready to explore the transformative power of coaching.
• Subscribe to the Let's Get Candid monthly newsletter for inspiration, resources, and learning opportunities to support our important work.
• Follow and share Candor & Company with the changemakers you know.

I'm looking forward to this new journey with all of you!