Ensure Your Team Can Meet Challenges Head On

How do you ensure your team is prepared to meet challenges head on or even before they happen?

Here are four lessons leaders can take to guide their teams when disaster strikes.

How to Create Value Consciously For All Your Different Stakeholders

Whole Foods founder John Mackey said Whole Foods should have died in its first year due to a once in a hundred-year flood at his first store, and he didn’t have the words for it back then, but now he does: the stakeholders saved him. His customers, his team members, his suppliers, his investors, the bank, the community that he was a part of didn’t let him die.

He goes on to say, "I realized that we were an interdependent network of relationships. And they cared about us. They didn’t want us to die. It changed Whole Foods forever, because from that point onward, we began to take seriously each one of these different relationships and to try to do right by them, to create value consciously for all these different stakeholders."

Read the full interview here.

Super Success: 21st Annual WPO Chicago Summit 2024!

21st Annual WPO Chicago Summit 2024

WPO Chicago chapter members had a wonderful time networking and learning about what it takes to scale a a business, "Hyper Growth:  The 5 Phases to Scale Your Revenue, Profits and Team," from keynote speaker and CEO Allison Maslan (pictured in front row/center).

Allison Maslan, CEO of Pinnacle Global Network (https://pinnacleglobalnetwork.com), was recently named “One of the 10 Women Entrepreneurs to watch in 2023”, by Forbes Magazine. She is the Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author of, Scale or Fail, which is endorsed by Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank. Allison’s built 10 successful companies over the last 40 years.

Here's what we learned from Allison:

Scaling doesn't come from working harder. It comes from thinking and acting strategically. 

If you, the CEO, are still rescuing projects, deadlines and micro-managing team members while chasing after clients, you are not going to be able to scale. Instead, you are choking the growth of your company.

It is critical that you become 'un-required' in your business and build a team-managed company that can flourish without you there. It is also important that you expand to a more scalable model that can multiply your impact, profits, and the number of people you serve.

In addition, she showed us:

• What Scaling Phase your Company is in right now and what needs to happen to elevate to the next level
• How to Hire for Growth so that each team member more than pays for themself
• How to Build a Team-Managed Company that can flourish without you in the day-to-day
• 15 Scalable Models that the most successful companies utilize to multiply their growth

I'd like to thank Foley & Lardner for hosting us – especially the extra assistance from Partners Lauren Loew (and Ellen Wheeler) along with their assistants Lorri Kilavos (and Cynthia Bailey).

Our Steering Committee members get a big shout out for their help:

1. Kim Robinson, President, FrontlineCo (Chicago I)
2. Angel Li, Founder & CEO, RISE Education (Chicago I)
3. Margo Jacquot, Chief Care Officer & Owner, the Juniper Center (Chicago II)
4. Nasutsa Mabwa, President, ServiceMaster by Simons (Chicago II)
5. Lauren Loew, Partner, Foley & Lardner (Chicago II chapter member)
6. Laurel Delaney, President, Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global (Chapter Chair)

Huge thank you to Allison for sharing her experience with us.

Gratitude to all for achieving a super success at our 21st Annual WPO Chicago Summit 2024!  A few photos can be found here.

Becoming Acquainted With Angel Li, Founder of RISE Education and WPO Chicago I Chapter Member

Discover how Angel Li (pictured), founder of RISE Education and WPO Chicago I chapter member came up with the idea for her business, how she manages her team, what resources have helped her prosper, and more.

Read the entire interview at Canvas Rebel.

21st Annual WPO Chicago Summit 9/12/24