This month, we hosted a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webinar for our community and partners. We had 40+ attendees from 20+ companies, and it was one of the most powerful experiences we’ve had.

I did something different. I provided a roundtable for CEOs and founders, in hopes we might crowdsource some of these issues. And also to help them realize that they weren’t alone.

As I’ve reflected upon the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, I kept coming back to a conversation I had with Pashara Black a few years ago about systemic racism, as we shared a cup of coffee at Beyu Caffe in Downtown Durham.

I don’t recommend many books, but one that I have recommended many times is one that a client recommended to me several years ago, called Multipliers. And it’s especially relevant right now.

I write this as the crisis around COVID-19 has the country firmly in its grasp, and I see something unique in the leaders I speak to and consult with.

I had multiple coaching calls over the past week, which was our first week under the work-from-home mandate. Almost all of my calls gravitated toward the same sentiment, which is that we are in a challenging and unprecedented situation right now and the unknowns are piling up.

Local leaders are the ultimate example of people making an impact. That’s why I was pleased to welcome Steve Schewel, the Mayor of Durham, to talk about servant leadership what it means to him to be a local leader in a servant role.

I want to highlight that one of the activities we emphasize in our training programs -— and that I encourage everyone to do — is to take time to reflect. The end of the year is a natural time to do that.

As I partner with inspiring leaders and companies across all sectors, demographics, and experience levels, the challenges I see with defining success is this: people struggle to discover and understand what success means to them.

Water is leaking into the boat and weighing it down, and the individual is spending his time shoveling water out of the boat to avoid sinking. It’s working, but you know what he isn’t doing? He isn’t moving forward, exploring, and navigating the open sea. That’s why we have a boat: to journey.

In July 2019, NextGen Center hosted our Community Module, welcoming Fulton Breen as our first guest speaker. It was fun to connect various alumni of NGC programs and to learn about the topic closest to Fulton’s heart: values-based leadership.

We all expect to see change overnight. Not just basic change, but drastic change. And frankly, it's just not possible. Losing 50 pounds in a week is not possible. Growing your sales tenfold in a month is probably not possible.