NGC Experience: Jordan Cain

Jordan Cain is Inside Sales Manager at the digital advertising company Adwerx in Durham, North Carolina. And when she first decided to enroll in the Foundation for Effective Leadership program with NextGen Center, she had some very specific challenges.

“This program really forces you to take a look at your day-to-day and implement the things that you’re learning. And I went back and revisited these very seemingly mundane things and I’ve just had a completely different experience.”

“I have a very young team,” she said. “For a lot of them, this is their first role. And my team is very fluid -- I could be with people for as little as three months before they grow and move to another team.”

Jordan’s goal was to establish a real leadership identity.

“I wanted to know exactly who I am as a leader, and I wanted that to be steadfast enough that everyone else understood that about me. But after the program, I left with so much more than I could have even imagined.”

As the program wraps up, participant are asked to identify a single word to define the program.

“My word to describe my experience was disrupt. It's a really special word. I could use probably fifty other words to describe this program, but there is something that helps you grow in a really impactful and quick way when you disrupt.”

The reason for the word was this: Jordan discovered she had some habits she wasn’t even aware of before. “They were stale and ineffective,” she shared. “And this program created so many opportunities for me to break through. That was was disruptive in the very best way.”

When she first started managing, Jordan felt she was treading water. She went through a list of what she thought was expected. One-on-ones? Check. Team meetings? Check. But that shouldn’t have been the end of her framework for leadership.

“This program really forces you to take a look at your day-to-day and implement the things that you're learning. And I went back and revisited these very seemingly mundane things and I've just had a completely different experience.” 

Her one-on-ones are now her favorite time of the week. “I learn so much about the team every single conversation we have. Our big team meetings have become really dynamic and different. I've established this real bond with my team that didn't exist before in the same way.”

Which brings us back to the word Jordan chose: disrupt. It wasn’t easy to decide on that word. “That's probably the hardest part, narrowing it down to one word. Because you really can't imagine the impact this program will have on you -- and on others, in fact. It's the gift that keeps giving because you get to share everything that you've learned with the people who are growing alongside you.”