TESTIMONIALS
Pennye Nixon, Executive Director, Etta Projects
"The cultural issues, the travel, the emotional turmoil of working in the developing world while living and finding funding in our advantaged and wealthy culture creates unique problems in our professional and personal lives. The contradictions pose scenarios not experienced by leaders in the for profit business world and ones not always experienced in the US NGO world. GLF meets a need for INGO leaders to connect professionally and personally with other leaders struggling, rejoicing, and living with the difficult job of leading organizations in global development."
"The cultural issues, the travel, the emotional turmoil of working in the developing world while living and finding funding in our advantaged and wealthy culture creates unique problems in our professional and personal lives. The contradictions pose scenarios not experienced by leaders in the for profit business world and ones not always experienced in the US NGO world. GLF meets a need for INGO leaders to connect professionally and personally with other leaders struggling, rejoicing, and living with the difficult job of leading organizations in global development."
Tim Schottman, Chief Global Officer, SightLife
"There are a number of elements to the Global Leadership Forum that makes it uniquely valuable to global non-profit leaders and their development.
First, the outcomes of the program are highly actionable; every participant has commented how they are able to apply what they learned from each session. This comes from the program's customization around
the participants' key needs and the consistent linking of leadership concepts to the day-to-day issues we are facing. This Forum is providing problem solving for our issues, helping us to see the "forest through the trees."
Second, the Forum is building valuable community and networking across local global leaders. Many of us feel isolated in trying to address our challenges and this provides a valuable peer group to share your issues and offer up solutions.
Third, you and Peter offer a breadth and depth of facilitation experience that makes this Forum so valuable. Your experience and focus on what is best for the group has made you flexible to modifying the curriculum to match the changing needs of the group and your appreciation of the value of community has led to delightful events, like cooking meals together."
"There are a number of elements to the Global Leadership Forum that makes it uniquely valuable to global non-profit leaders and their development.
First, the outcomes of the program are highly actionable; every participant has commented how they are able to apply what they learned from each session. This comes from the program's customization around
the participants' key needs and the consistent linking of leadership concepts to the day-to-day issues we are facing. This Forum is providing problem solving for our issues, helping us to see the "forest through the trees."
Second, the Forum is building valuable community and networking across local global leaders. Many of us feel isolated in trying to address our challenges and this provides a valuable peer group to share your issues and offer up solutions.
Third, you and Peter offer a breadth and depth of facilitation experience that makes this Forum so valuable. Your experience and focus on what is best for the group has made you flexible to modifying the curriculum to match the changing needs of the group and your appreciation of the value of community has led to delightful events, like cooking meals together."
Sydney Munger, Chairman of the Board, Pangea
"The opportunity to join a cohort of experienced leaders of small ngo's in the Seattle area who are working on international development issues has been enormously valuable and a joy! GLF workshops and meetings introduce leadership topics that lead to in-depth learning via real life situations brought to light by individual forum participants. For me, this has led to deeper learning than the typical lecture approach.
The design of the forum has provided sufficient structure and flexibility, combined with skillful facilitation, to allow group learning to emerge in amazing ways. Peter and Bob bring a wealth of experience that allows them to teach in the moment – seizing on opportunities as they emerge in group discussion."
"The opportunity to join a cohort of experienced leaders of small ngo's in the Seattle area who are working on international development issues has been enormously valuable and a joy! GLF workshops and meetings introduce leadership topics that lead to in-depth learning via real life situations brought to light by individual forum participants. For me, this has led to deeper learning than the typical lecture approach.
The design of the forum has provided sufficient structure and flexibility, combined with skillful facilitation, to allow group learning to emerge in amazing ways. Peter and Bob bring a wealth of experience that allows them to teach in the moment – seizing on opportunities as they emerge in group discussion."
Ginna Brelsford, Executive Director, Sahar
"The Global Leadership Forum (GLF) has provided me with a peer-to-peer environment that draws upon holistic approaches to international development: our incubator for collaboration opens up new ways of thinking about strategies, goals, mission, vision, purpose. The breadth and depth of our cohort anchors our discussions in reality while also allowing for the intellectually curious to pursue case studies, books etc. to better inform organizational development issues within a global context.
At the end of the day, the connections amongst other INGO leaders and the support systems we have created are what will remain important. Communication about industry standards, best practices etc. are vital but not nearly as important as remaining open and genuinely curious about the world and ways that leaders are addressing pivotal issues around poverty. GLF took me out of my comfort zone so that I could enter into a new level leadership."
"The Global Leadership Forum (GLF) has provided me with a peer-to-peer environment that draws upon holistic approaches to international development: our incubator for collaboration opens up new ways of thinking about strategies, goals, mission, vision, purpose. The breadth and depth of our cohort anchors our discussions in reality while also allowing for the intellectually curious to pursue case studies, books etc. to better inform organizational development issues within a global context.
At the end of the day, the connections amongst other INGO leaders and the support systems we have created are what will remain important. Communication about industry standards, best practices etc. are vital but not nearly as important as remaining open and genuinely curious about the world and ways that leaders are addressing pivotal issues around poverty. GLF took me out of my comfort zone so that I could enter into a new level leadership."
Fr. Josh Thomas, Executive Director, Kids4Peace
"The Global Leadership Forum has been a steady source of support for my leadership of Kids4Peace. GLF offers a unique combination of expert coaching and a community of colleagues that helped me navigate key decisions, guide our organization's growth, and develop my own role as a nonprofit executive. Kids4Peace's work occurs in a complex, volatile and rapidly-changing context, as we tackle deep, long-term issues of violent conflict and social division. GLF is the place I turn for wisdom and expertise to help me address these many challenges."
"The Global Leadership Forum has been a steady source of support for my leadership of Kids4Peace. GLF offers a unique combination of expert coaching and a community of colleagues that helped me navigate key decisions, guide our organization's growth, and develop my own role as a nonprofit executive. Kids4Peace's work occurs in a complex, volatile and rapidly-changing context, as we tackle deep, long-term issues of violent conflict and social division. GLF is the place I turn for wisdom and expertise to help me address these many challenges."
Heidi Breeze-Harris, Co-founder, One-to-One
"These past six months of meetings with a peer cohort, who face many of the same challenges we face here at One By One, has already been transformational for me as a leader, and we’re not yet even done!
The opportunity to take time to reflect, in a peer group, is a true gift to me as a leader and to One By One as an organization. My thinking about leadership for myself and for my staff, both here and in Kenya, has progressed in ways I could not have imagined. The fruits of this program are already apparent as I recently returned back from Kenya where I led a leadership training with my own Kenyan staff, the ideas for which and some of the tools I used I got from our Forum leaders and from my fellow participants. The training I led has transformed our cross-cultural team’s ability to solve problems in deep and genuine ways. For me, feeling equipped to take on a cross-cultural leadership training was invigorating and having it go as well as it did gave me satisfaction as a person, relief as a leader, and confidence to face challenges with the true belief that I and my teams can successfully find our way through any challenges together. That feels like “Leadership” with a capital “L” to me."
"These past six months of meetings with a peer cohort, who face many of the same challenges we face here at One By One, has already been transformational for me as a leader, and we’re not yet even done!
The opportunity to take time to reflect, in a peer group, is a true gift to me as a leader and to One By One as an organization. My thinking about leadership for myself and for my staff, both here and in Kenya, has progressed in ways I could not have imagined. The fruits of this program are already apparent as I recently returned back from Kenya where I led a leadership training with my own Kenyan staff, the ideas for which and some of the tools I used I got from our Forum leaders and from my fellow participants. The training I led has transformed our cross-cultural team’s ability to solve problems in deep and genuine ways. For me, feeling equipped to take on a cross-cultural leadership training was invigorating and having it go as well as it did gave me satisfaction as a person, relief as a leader, and confidence to face challenges with the true belief that I and my teams can successfully find our way through any challenges together. That feels like “Leadership” with a capital “L” to me."
Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International, discusses his own principals of leadership and his most recent book with GLF community members.