Leadership Link Fall 2023

LEADERSHIP LINK

ELEVATING LEADERSHIP & ENGAGEMENT

Iwanted to take a moment to reflect on the importance of leadership and engagement in our community, especially in the context of current trends in the business world.

Leadership is not just about guiding a team; it’s about inspiring and empowering them to achieve their best. Today, leadership is no longer synonymous with authority but is characterized by collaboration, adaptability, and inclusivity. As leaders, our role is to foster an environment where every voice is heard, every idea is valued, and every team member feels motivated to contribute their best.

As an Engagement Specialist, certified through Gallup, I recognize that engagement is the fuel that drives an organization forward. Engaged employees are not only more productive but also more innovative and committed to the company’s success. To enhance our engagement, we must actively listen to our team members, provide regular feedback, and create opportunities for growth and development. A culture of engagement is a culture of continuous improvement.

Some current trends in leadership and engagement:

1. Remote Work and Hybrid Models: The rise of remote work has challenged traditional leadership models. Effective leaders now need to navigate the complexities of remote and hybrid

by Stephanie Werren

teams, ensuring that everyone remains engaged and connected regardless of their physical location.

2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Inclusivity is non-negotiable. Companies that prioritize DEI initiatives not only create a more equitable workplace but also attract top talent and foster creativity through diverse perspectives.

3. Well-being and Mental Health: The well-being of our team members is a top priority. Leaders should actively support mental health initiatives and encourage open discussions about well-being to ensure a healthy and productive workforce.

4. Purpose-Driven Leadership: Today’s employees want to work for organizations with a clear sense of purpose. Leaders who can articulate and embody this purpose will have a more engaged and committed team.

5. Technology and Data-Driven Insights: Leveraging technology and data analytics can provide valuable insights into employee engagement and performance. Leaders should be open to using data to inform their decisions and strategies.

Leadership and engagement go hand in hand. To thrive in the ever-changing business landscape, we must adapt our leadership styles to align with current trends and priorities. By doing so, we can build a stronger, more engaged, and more successful organization.

FALL 2023

now offering loans for graduate studies

available to any stark county high school gradUATE!

Last year alone, over $1.5 million was distributed to Stark County graduates. Now, GRADUATE SCHOOL LOANS are also available to any Stark County High School graduate.

$ 8,000 currently available! $ 4,000 available each year for 2 years.

• The Casper Graduate School Fund was made possible through contributions made by George and Anna Casper and is administered by The Stark Community Foundation.

• The Canton Student Loan Foundation has put Stark County students first since 1922!

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LSC CELEBRATES SUCCESSFUL INAUGURAL SUMMER SERIES

Leadership Stark County is delighted to share the success of its first-ever Summer Series, a set of professional development workshops designed to empower individuals with the tools and insights needed to lead with courage and authenticity.

The cornerstone of this series was the exploration of Brené Brown’s groundbreaking work, “Dare to Lead.” Over the course of three engaging sessions, attendees delved deep into the principles and practices that underpin the four essential skill sets of courage: Rumbling with Vulnerability, Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise.

We were privileged to have Dr. Margaret DeLillo-Storey, a Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator (CDTLF) personally selected and trained by Brené Brown herself, lead our sessions. Dr. DeLilloStorey’s expertise and passion brought Brown’s transformative teachings to life, inspiring our participants to embrace vulnerability, foster trust, and elevate their leadership capabilities.

The feedback from our inaugural Summer Series has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants sharing their transformative experiences:

BY

KRISTINA BELLIVEAU

“The Dare to Lead experience was highly beneficial for me. It helped me further develop my courage and leadership skills and encouraged me to view certain aspects of my leadership style from a fresh perspective.”

“This series was nothing short of amazing. The valuable insights and knowledge shared are essential in today’s world. It’s the first training I’ve attended that left me yearning for more. Thank you for this enriching opportunity and for inspiring us to apply these principles in our respective environments.”

“Participating in this training will not only enhance my leadership skills within my organization but will also transcend into my personal life. Dare to Lead is not just a training; it’s a way of life.”

We extend our gratitude to all the participants and the organizations that supported their employees in completing this program. Your commitment to personal and professional growth is truly commendable.

As we bask in the success of our first Summer Series, we are already hard at work planning an even more enriching experience for 2024. Stay tuned for exciting updates and announcements!

Your journey to courageous leadership continues with Leadership Stark County.

O U R M I S S I O N

Stark County Hunger Task Force fights hunger in our community by providing financial, logistic, strategic, and food support to our network of local food pantries and Backpack for Kids programs.

Includes 33 emergency food pantries in 11 cities

Supplies critical food assistance to 34,000 Stark County residents each month

Provides monthly budget to 26 of our network food pantries

Operates an emergency pantry at the Community Campus at Goodwill (visit our website for hours of operation)

B A C K P A C K F O R K I D S P R O G R A M S

Combats childhood hunger by providing weekend meals and snacks for local schoolchildren

Serves nearly 1,600 children per week in 16 schools among four school districts

Offers additional food support for children during summer months and winter breaks

G E T I N V O L V E D

V O L U N T E E R

Community Campus Food Pantry Volunteer

Weekdays, flexible shifts between 9am and 4pm

Located at the Community Campus at Goodwill

D O N A T E

All non-perishable food donations are graciously accepted at the Ken Weber Community Campus at Goodwill. For large donations or food drives, contact us for pickup.

CASE FOR RECOGNITION AT WORK CONTENT FROM GALLUP®

Employee recognition isn’t just a nice-to-have. It also supports your organization’s bottom line.

One powerful tool leaders have to drive engagement and performance remains untapped in the majority of organizations: employee recognition.

Today’s employees feel more disengaged from their work than they have in a decade. Business is changing, and uncertainty is everywhere — and workers want to feel like they’re valued and that they belong. Amid the turmoil of recent years, it can be easy to forget that every organization is ultimately made up of people. And what those people feel — about their leaders, their team members, themselves and their lives —provides the fuel for high performance.

In previous studies, Gallup and Workhuman found that employee recognition is critical to creating and maintaining an organizational culture centered around DE&I and wellbeing.

When done right, recognition boosts engagement and strengthens connections between people and across the company. But beyond the ways recognition can improve employees’ lives, it can also improve an organization’s financial success. As noted in Gallup and Workhuman’s first report, recognition comes with significant cost savings. In fact, by making recognition an important part of company culture, a 10,000-person organization with an already engaged workforce can save up to $16.1 million annually due to reduced employee turnover.

But that made us wonder: If recognition has such an impact on reduced turnover, are there other cost savings it can yield throughout the organization? Spoiler alert: The answer is an emphatic “yes!” This new analysis from Gallup and Workhuman reveals exactly how a strategic investment in recognition can boost a company’s bottom line.

In this report, we break down three ways recognition improves business performance through increased productivity, safer workplaces and decreased absenteeism. We also unpack what leaders can do to start their organization on the path to human growth and development with strategic recognition.

The truth is this: When employees feel valued for who they are and what they do — and are treated like they’re more than cogs in the machine — they act differently, in ways that positively impact their teams and organizations.

What We Found

In this study, Gallup reviewed correlations between employee recognition and employee outcomes across hundreds of organizations and thousands of teams in different industries. Globally, one in four employees in Gallup’s database strongly agree that they have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the last week. We found that if the median business in our database doubled the number of employees who strongly agree to this item, that business could see:

• A 9% improvement in productivity

• A 22% decrease in safety incidents

• A 22% decrease in absenteeism

Using these results, we calculated how much an average U.S. business of 10,000 employees could expect to save based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, and the results are striking. By doubling the one in four employees who strongly agree, in Gallup’s database, to receiving recognition or praise for doing good work in the last week, an average business could expect to save:

• $91,989,474 in gained productivity

• $2,807,200 saved due to decreased injuries

• $3,244,416 saved due to fewer unscheduled absences

Of course, safety, absenteeism and productivity influence each other. For example, when employees are safe and show up to work, they are going to be more productive. This means that the dollar amounts cannot be added together to create a total savings amount. But it also means that when employees feel authentically appreciated, they drive improvements to several interrelated and compounding business outcomes.

And we get it. Each organization is unique. Our analysis does not capture all the distinctive factors that influence an individual organization’s financial outcomes. But our findings do show a strong generalizable pattern between recognition and the financially sensitive aspects of any business.

The dollar amounts in this report give an example of what an average organization could expect, based on BLS data. A company may find its own results vary. Organizations with recognition levels below the median of Gallup’s database are likely to see an even greater impact by improving the frequency of recognition in their workplace.

Recognition and Productivity: Making Work Meaningful

Although rewarding good work seems like an obvious way to encourage more good work, how much does recognition truly influence productivity?

Gallup estimates that if the median organization in our database doubled the number of employees who strongly agree that they have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the last seven days, they would likely see a corresponding nine percent increase in productivity. Based on BLS measures of worker economic output, for a company with 10,000 employees, that gain in productivity amounts to $91,989,4741 in employee output, with some differences based on industry.

Productivity compares the output of goods and services produced to the inputs required to produce them. When we think of employee productivity, we look at labor share, which is how much employees produce compared to what they are paid.

Why Recognition Boosts Productivity

Many factors influence how much effort employees put into their work, but an easy way to think about it is this: Humans are motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors at work, such as getting paid, are the motivators we often think about. Pay matters, and monetary incentives can be effective if done right. But extrinsic factors alone can only go so far.

That leaves intrinsic factors to do much of the motivating on a typical business day. Intrinsic motivation is like a magnet that draws us toward activities that are fascinating, enjoyable and fun for their own sake.

Work feels engaging when people:

• Like the work they do.

• Like the people they are around.

• See meaning and purpose in their efforts. (continued on next page)

Recognition supports all three of those criteria: It celebrates individual work, it bonds teams together and it connects personal achievement to organizational success.

When employees feel engaged in this way, they show up each day ready to give their best. They also work harder, are more productive and are less prone to burnout. And then there is the quality of the work: Gallup finds that when recognition is an important part of workplace culture, employees are nearly two times more likely to rate their team’s performance as excellent.

Recognition and Safety Incidents: Caring for Each Other

Remarkably, Gallup research has found that employee recognition has a substantial impact on safety incidents. If the median organization in our database doubled the number of employees who strongly agree that they received recognition for doing good work in the last seven days, they could experience a 22% decrease in safety incidents. Using BLS averages, this estimated cost savings per 10,000 employees is $2,807,2002.

Every year, work injuries cost U.S. businesses $163.9 billion dollars. In 2020, 99 million days of work were lost due to work-related injuries. Not only do these events affect budgets and productivity, they also impact individuals and their families in ways that never end up on a spreadsheet. Injured workers can find it difficult to participate in ordinary daily life, including personal care, household chores or family activities.

Why Recognition Influences Safety

When social bonds are strong, people look out for one another. They do things the right way, not because the rules say so, but because they don’t want to see the people they care about get hurt. They don’t see potential risks as “someone else’s problem.” They take ownership of their friends’ wellbeing.

Many factors influence why safety incidents occur, but clearly attention is important. A recognition-rich culture communicates the idea that people are paying attention to how work gets done. Employees are less likely to think, “Nobody’s going to notice if I cut corners. Nobody cares.” if they are surrounded by team members who frequently recognize their coworkers for keeping things safe.

Another important factor is caring. Recognition increases social bonding. It says,

“You matter to me.” When employees are singled out for praise, or when personal milestones or important life events are celebrated, it increases their value to the team. We all want one another go home to our families safe and sound.

Lastly, recognition affirms the importance of quality. It says excellence is better than cutting corners, a job well done is better than hiding mistakes. Recognition likely increases conscientiousness on a work site, which in turn improves safety outcomes.

Recognition and Absenteeism: Being Where You Want to Be

Are missed days, here and there, simply a fixed cost of doing business? Surprisingly, no.

Gallup and Workhuman estimate that, by doubling the number of employees who have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past week, absenteeism can be reduced to less than four days per employee annually — a 22% decrease. This translates to multi-million-dollar savings for some organizations. For example, an organization with 10,000 employees would realize $3,244,4163 in savings due to fewer unplanned work absences.

The average full-time employee is absent for five unplanned workdays in a calendar year. People miss work unexpectedly for many reasons, from physical illness to mental health. And those missed days of work can have very different impacts based on a person’s industry and role. For example, a missing worker on a manufacturing production line can easily delay the delivery of products to customers. Regardless of the role, those missed days cost large organizations millions of dollars per year. According to Gallup research, absenteeism due to mental health alone costs the economy $47.6 billion annually in lost productivity.

Why Recognition Influences Absenteeism

It may sound surprising that something as simple as encouragement and praise for excellent work would make people show up more often. But, as noted in the previous section, pay only motivates people so much. Most people are motivated by caring relationships. When people receive recognition, they take pride in what they do. They are more likely to put in extra effort when they are part of a team that will notice them and appreciate them when they show up.

What’s more, the likelihood of positive social interactions plays a major role in

where we end up choosing to be on any given day. If we expect that we are going to be treated unfairly at work, we don’t want to be there. In contrast, a consistent environment of appreciation makes the workplace a place where people want to be rather than simply where they have to be.

Another possible reason why recognition improves attendance is that it supports employee mental health. Poor mental health is highly correlated with unplanned absences: Our data show employees who report fair or poor mental health miss four times more work than those who report good, very good or excellent mental health.

However, work itself can also negatively affect mental health. Forty percent of employees say their job has had a somewhat negative or extremely negative impact on their mental health in the last six months. Recognition can play a role in improving this. Prior Gallup and Workhuman research found that recognition acts as a buffer against job stress and enhances multiple aspects of wellbeing. This positively impacts employees’ overall lives and gives them the vitality and resiliency to show up for their employers.

CONCLUSION

In this report, we calculated the potential cost savings and improved business outcomes leaders can see with increased employee recognition (technically speaking, with a doubling of employee recognition in the median organization in Gallup’s database). As a practical matter, this is no easy task. Only two in 10 senior leaders say that recognition is a major strategic priority at their organization.

This means that, although the science validates the practical value of recognition, very few leaders are taking recognition seriously enough to see the benefits. To see these impacts, businesses need to create cultures of recognition where praise and acknowledgment pervade every level of the organization.

However, it’s not merely a question of frequency. Recognition is a powerful driver of organizational performance, but it only makes a difference — to wellbeing, inclusion, performance and profits — if it means something to the receiver. In short, it has to be more than a checklist item.

How to Create Shared Ownership of Team Engagement

Leaders often make a mistake in their approach to engagement. Building engagement is not a separate activity from the actual work that needs to be done.

The best leaders Gallup has studied do not see fostering employee engagement as a separate part of their job, but as something that informs how they should do every part of their job.

What’s more, leaders must realize that the key to engagement is through a shared ownership of it with their people. When leaders use shared responsibility correctly, it can become the best way to build strong and sustainable employee engagement.

What is shared ownership?

It is the process in which leaders work with their people to determine what needs to be accomplished in order to meet critical objectives.

Involvement is the key to shared ownership.

One of the most important tools to build engagement with is involvement.

When people are part of the solution and know they are a valuable part of the work and decisions being made, that is to say, when they have a sense of ownership – and if they know what excellence and success looks like – they are that much closer to being engaged.

When leaders don’t understand this, employee engagement efforts can produce strange outcomes.

Leaders can become consumed with being order-takers and social chairpersons.

They spend days trying to figure out what their people want and then trying to fill that order, or they focus on trying to make work fun with things like quiz bowls and pizza parties.

This is not to say that leaders shouldn’t provide the tools and resources to help their people succeed, but there is a right and wrong way to do this. It also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t attempt to bring some fun into the work environment, but again – it’s important to consider the why and how surrounding the fun.

Regardless of whether executed correctly or not, if these actions are leaders’ only attempt to affect engagement, these leaders are missing what’s at the core of engagement.

Instead of involving their teams, they end up coddling them.

Shared responsibility can actually help leaders provide resources that employees need, but to achieve that outcome leadership needs to have the right approach.

For example, one manager in a manufacturing environment recently fought to get his team members separate locking toolboxes, because they had a strong business case for why they needed them. They all

worked together to show how dedicated toolboxes that lock allow for workers to plan for their job the next day and know they can hit the ground running and get to work right way.

Because team members had a clear business case for their need and because they worked with their leader to state that case clearly, a problem was solved through involvement, the team grew more engaged and people were more productive.

Leaders need to shift their perspective on ownership of engagement so that it becomes a natural and positive discussion among their teams.

One common barrier to this is weak leadership who feel they need to have all the answers or they will appear unsteady.

A strong leader knows that the best answers often come from their teams. They honor the new insights their people bring and they encourage sharing those insights and applying them to the work.

They share the responsibility for how to successfully reach desired outcomes. This shared responsibility results in people knowing that they really matter to the success of the work being done.

A strong leader also understands the importance of the manager in engagement and supports managers and empowers them to drive engagement. Gallup finds that 70% of the variance in a team’s engagement is influenced by the manager. Managers create the conditions that empower employees to feel a sense of shared ownership of engagement.

How are you creating opportunities for team members to share responsibility?

As a leader, how do you help team members see that things aren’t happening “to” them but “because” of them?

Take the time to look back on your past week. Play the highlight reel in your head, and find the plays where you didn’t involve your team but instead felt like you had all the answers.

What could you have changed? Where could you have changed a statement into a question to get your people involved in the situation? Where did you coddle versus involve?

Then, think back on the moments when you did invite your team to share responsibility.

Where were you successful? Where did you get the team to take initiative and help build a plan for solving a real issue?

Consider these questions each week as you consider how well you led your team. Then work on shifting a few conversations each week to be about shared ownership of and involvement in engagement.

BOOK REVIEW

by Karen Abel Jepsen

Atomic Habits: A regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power.

What I like the most about James Clear’s book is that it’s actionable. He offers numerous tips for getting started with new habits and maintaining momentum when the resolve of fresh intentions then grows cold. For this, he recommends a formula for small investments of effort that compound into large returns over time. “All big things come from small beginnings.”

If we can all do 1% better each day, our baby steps will amount to a giant leap forward in one year’s time. To work, we must shift our perspective and “optimize for the starting line” instead of the finish. We can’t become a runner if we don’t put on our shoes, get to the track and step one foot in front of the other! Over and over again. To help us on our way, Clear outlines 4 strategies to make “good” habits stick: 1. Make it Obvious, 2. Make it Attractive, 3. Make it Easy and 4. Make it Satisfying.

I won’t give away all of his tricks, but share my favorite, which is habit stacking. Habit stacking entails taking a habit that is well grooved into your daily life and attaching a new behavior to it. If you feed the dog every morning without fail, put your multi-vitamins next to the dog food and nourish yourself at the same time. By stacking a new habit on top of one that is well

established, you pair the two behaviors, using the pet food to trigger remembering your one-a-day.

Atomic Habits an easy read. Not only is it well organized, with summaries at the end of every chapter and charts for quick reference. I also discovered a minefield of memorable quotes embedded throughout the book. They explode like “Aha” moments of cognition.

Try these on: “The first mistake is never the one that ruins you.”

“Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us.” And my new personal mantra: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

Some might argue that Clear doesn’t give enough weight to the psychological challenges of behavior change, and they might be right. Nevertheless, I believe this book is a treasure chest of simple suggestions that anyone can apply with success. If you’d like to discuss the automaticity of habit formation or ideas for sharing Atomic Habits in a group setting, contact me for coffee! I’d love to hear how you’ve employed tiny changes for remarkable results in your life!

Email: abel@neo.rr.com

Source: IABBB Research, 2022

by James Clear

Middle Managers Are Exhausted. Top Teams Need to Listen

The biggest threat to businesses is not a recession — it’s overburdened managers.

For years, I’ve worked with businesses to build diverse and inclusive workplaces and to address issues such as negative team dynamics and conflict. These days, I’ve learned that it’s crucial to start with a message to managers. I tell them, “I see you. I know how hard you’re working. I know how diffi cult this time is for you. And I’m here to honor that.” Frequently, this brings up many emotions, as many of these middle managers are feeling the effects of prolonged stress and burnout.

While the past few years have been tumultuous and overwhelming for just about everyone, middle managers have faced extraordinary challenges. As businesses have gone from crisis to crisis, the number of complex responsibilities that have suddenly been thrust onto managers is astounding. With each new challenge, organizations have told managers that the solutions involve them engaging in new forms of leadership.

Social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter have called on corporations to transform and reckon with forms of injustice. The pandemic brought on a global crisis across all industries along with a widespread shift to remote and hybrid work, which are now a norm in the business world. Throughout the Great Resignation, managers have had to deal with unfilled positions, recruit employees in a tight labor market, and work to retain employees by keeping them feeling engaged, trusted, and respected.

The problem is not just that all of this takes time. It’s also the fact that these challenges have required managers to stretch beyond the leadership skill sets that many possess or were trained for. For example, managers used to be trained to avoid asking their employees questions about their personal lives, for fear that employees might perceive some form of bias. Asking a woman whether she has children, for example, could be viewed as a way of assuming she’s less likely to successfully take on a big project. Now, suddenly, managers are being told that they must engage in deep conversations with their employees in order to adjust for their unique work-life challenges. These

changes in expectations can add additional stress for managers as they aim to strike a balance in developing deeper relationships while avoiding any perceptions of bias.

To make matters worse, middle managers face pressure from their employees and from higher-ups. Employees want to know why they aren’t being given more time to complete their work or flexibility, for example. And higher-ups are asking why a project is running late or why a team has faced another resignation. All too often, managers don’t have the power to fix these problems.“When you’re the leader of a group of people, you want to have all the answers,” one Canadian-based manager told The Globe and Mail. “But you don’t, and you just feel helpless and burnt out.” A recent study shows that managers’ mental health “is at risk due to their position of authority without strategic power.”

Surveys show that the strain on managers is taking its toll. From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of people managers who reported feeling burned out often or always increased from 28% to 35%, according to a Gallup poll.

In addition to higher levels of stress and burnout, surveyed managers reported “worse physical wellbeing and work-life balance than the people they manage” — and the gap is getting worse. A survey conducted by Visier, a people analytics company, found that managers are leaving their jobs at higher rates than non managers.

To be clear, businesses must continue the hard work of addressing systemic problems and finding solutions for big challenges. Fatigue has begun to set in, and some people are pushing back against

efforts to build a more diverse workforce, but not letting that happen is critical. Businesses can, however, develop strategies for moving change efforts forward without putting undue pressure or unreasonable expectations on managers.

Here are four solutions that I help organizations implement that can serve as a guide for companies looking to close the exhaustion gap for people managers.

Conduct an initiative audit. Organizations should document what they currently expect middle managers to engage in. Have a team, most likely in HR, develop a spreadsheet that lists all of the tasks and initiatives each level of management is responsible for.

Make sure managers themselves are a part of the information-gathering process.

(continued on next page)

Middle Managers...

Many are so used to their mega load of responsibilities that they take some for granted, so it’s important to encourage all managers to thoughtfully weigh in.

Managers I’ve worked with have said it’s only when they do this that they realize how much they’re expected to achieve in any given week.

Find the overlapping effort.

When executives see all of these responsibilities listed, they also realize that it is too much for anyone to handle. And, just as important, they are able to spot overlaps among different initiatives.

For example, the company may have managers overseeing a peer coaching program to help employees gain new skills, along with a separate program to help employees build one-on-one relationships with other colleagues, which are crucial for engagement. But peer coaching can do both, so a separate program may not be needed.

Edit strategically.

Because I work so hard to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations, executives are often

surprised when I say they should put off some of their DEI initiatives. But some of the programs and events on their dockets — such as full-day training sessions once a month — add even more work for managers and do more to fuel resentment than advancement.

It’s far more damaging for organizations to exhaust managers to the breaking point. I’ve found that many managers are genuinely committed to important goals such as DEI. The problem is not psychological resistance; it’s fatigue. And when managers who share these values leave the company, they take all their work and knowledge with them, setting back these efforts.

In order to reach complex goals, such as those involving DEI and culture, leaders must prioritize activities in away that engages managers without burning them out.

Consider expanding middle management. Often, we interpret large ranks of middle managers as a sign that a company is too bloated.

Yahoo reported in 2019 that companies were “cutting down layers of management in an attempt to streamline business and cut down on unnecessary costs.”

But since then, the work of middle managers has been revolutionized. With everything managers are now expected to do, giving them smaller teams to oversee can often be a key to the solution. Reducing this ratio requires adding more managers.

While all of these steps will help, it’s also crucial to listen to managers about what would work best for them. Ask them how they’re doing, what resources they need, and what changes would help. Perhaps hold an off site event for them, in which they are honored and given a chance to brainstorm about how to make their work lives better. Managers want to be part of the solution — they just need a chance to breathe.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Denise Hamilton (@officialdham) is an inclusion stategist, CEO, and founder of WatchHerWork, a multimedia platform closing the achievement gap for professional women.

When you’re the leader of a group of people, you want to have all the answers. But you don’t, and you just feel helpless and burnt out.

EXPANSION OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP PROGRAMMING

This summer we launched our first ever Leadership Stark County Youth Leadership Summer Camp! Over the past five years we have offered programming during the school year for Stark County high school students going into their sophomore, junior, and senior years of school. After numerous requests from the local school districts, parents, and community, we are thrilled to expand our youth leadership programming to include a 4-day summer camp!

Out of the incredible group of students who participated, 11 Stark County high schools were represented. We couldn’t have loved this group of students more, with their unique strengths, experiences, and perspectives. As we were planning for the four-day summer program, we knew we wanted Stark County high school students to have opportunities to unpack the themes of Investment and Community, Innovation and Strategic Thinking, Elected Leadership and Connection, and Economic Development within our community, and to connect them with the leaders and changemakers in our area who are about good work.

We look forward to expanding our year-round programming even further this year to include additional opportunities for experiential learning, behind-the-scenes tours, discussion panels, service opportunities, and more.

Stephanie Werren, Director • Kristina Belliveau, Assistant Director • Kelly Klein, Director of Youth Programs