WiLD Leaders – Looking Back and Forward

It’s hard to believe it’s nearly a decade since we started in the business of whole and intentional leader development and a full year since Dr. Daniel Hallak joined the WiLD Leaders team as our Chief Commercial Officer. As you may know by now, our mission has been to invest in the development and preparation of this generation of courageous and sacrificial leaders – and not just to talk about it as a good idea – but to provide an intentional pathway to their whole and intentional development through the WiLD Toolkit. It’s been a busy and unbelievably fulfilling year. So, here is a quick review of our year, lessons we’ve learned, and what’s just around the corner for WiLD Leaders.

Where We’ve Been:

1. We were in a dozen states this last year speaking and working with partner organizations that include places like Indiana, Florida, Illinois, California, Texas, Kentucky, Washington DC, and our continuing work in Hyderabad, India.

2. We spoke 26 times in the past year on topics like whole intentional leader development, strategic networking, leading under pressure, developing other leaders, and sacrificial leadership.

3. 2,000 new leaders started using the WiLD Toolkit this last year as part of their annual developmental rhythm.

4. We engaged with eight university campuses around the country and even across the pond in India – campuses committed to investing in the development of whole and intentional leaders!

5. We found an incredible rhythm together as we realized how well the two of us function in the WiLD Leaders band (we like the band metaphor because it fits us).

6. We served eight new corporations this last year – business using the WiLD Toolkit to take their leader and team development efforts to an entirely new level – creating cultures of healthy stretch, learning and growth.

7. We were invited to publish 7 articles this last year and were featured on 10 podcasts or radio shows.

8. We partnered with dozens of not-for-profits who are committed moving beyond piecemeal leader and employee development solutions to a more whole and intentional approach.

9. My research team at Seattle Pacific University presented three papers at the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology on learning agility, developing millennials, and the future of assessments in identifying emerging leaders. While separate from WiLD, research is key to my role at the university and a core part of my own mission and call as not only a practitioner, but as a scientist.  

What We’ve Learned – some we knew, but continue to be confirmed:

1. The need for whole and intentional leader and employee development is massive.

2. The corporate fallacy that development is a test is a powerful lie. When leaders get over the feeling that learning is a pass/fail proposition, all the possibilities open up.

3. Investing in leaders on university campuses is not the only place where more whole solutions are needed, but it’s a big and important space for us.

4. The WiLD Toolkit provides a common and impactful language for groups who use the tools together.

5. While we been at this for many years now, we are still learning, and hope that never stops.

6. People struggle to get ready well, but they are desperately seeking a pathway to prepare for what’s coming next.

7. Daniel and I work really well together and travel well together. This is something you don’t notice unless you don’t have it, so we thought we’d mention it.

What’s Coming Next:

1. We just hired Megan Lawrence as our Events and Communications Lead.

2. We are about to launch INTENTIONAL Groups – groups across the country who are committed to meeting together to invest in one another to develop as whole and intentional leaders. Megan is leading this charge so stay tuned or contact her if you want more info!

3. We will be continuing to partner with small and large corporations, university and not-for-profit partners this year.

4. We will be back in India again in January 2020 to work with leaders at Immanuel University in Hyderabad, India.

Mostly, we are grateful for the team at WiLD Leaders, for all the leaders across university, corporate and not-for-profit contexts who are now our partners and are using the WiLD Toolkit in their efforts to develop whole and intentional leaders, and for the opportunity to do this fulfilling work together.

Looking forward to what’s ahead!