Week 6 : The Social Innovation Forum

It is crazy to think that I have been working at SIF for six weeks now! I have truly enjoyed this experience and am glad that I still have four weeks left. The end will be sad, but I am looking forward to staying in contact and reading applications from Richmond in the fall. In my time, I have witnessed a great amount of transformation leadership. I have seen it each day in small conversations with the executive director who sits besides me, at team meetings, one on one meetings, and more. The co-working and collaborative environment I believe adds to this, but I think that on a greater level, the nonprofit sector fosters transformation leadership. We are constantly inspired by the work we are doing, and the personal stories we hear. During program meetings when discussing the organizations that are applying to the Accelerator, our program director encourages us not only to check off the applicant guideline boxes, but to truly understand the organization’s mission. When we surpassed our intent to apply goals, we were met with praise but also a positive push to keep going. The weekly team meetings are also filled with praise and recognition for what the team has completed. The transformation leadership I have seen does not only come from our executive director, but from everyone on the team and in the office. Transformational leadership was especially evident when I created my independent project (Summer Blog Series) with the program director. She was extremely supportive and encouraging of what I wanted to learn and helped me form a multitude of smaller project that would both be new and put me out of my comfort zone, yet highlight my interests and strengths. Transformational leadership has played a large role in my time at SIF, and I look forward to what’s to come.