Leadership Wisdom Initiative

Launched in 2006, the Leadership Wisdom Initiative (LWI) provides transformational leadership and conflict management development for political and civil society leaders worldwide. LWI combines deeply held values about our common humanity with SFCG's trademark ability for practical, on-the-ground application. LWI is a high leverage project built on sustainable principles with the goal of institutionalizing leadership wisdom development practices where it matters – with political leaders, with the leadership of high impact global agencies, and with emerging leaders, particularly women.

The world is in crisis, and there is a concomitant crisis of leadership. Our vision is of:

• authentic leadership that synthesizes the inner and outer arts of leadership;
• leadership for the whole, not just for “my” party, faction, tribe or group, that is rooted in a profound sense of our common humanity and the interconnectedness of all beings; and
• compassionate leadership that facilitates problem solving and heals societal divisions.

The core of our approach is leadership from the inside-out. We invite leaders to look within and understand how their inner world affects their experience of the outer world. We work with each individual at a profound level, asking them to reflect on what kind of leader they want to be in the world. Our programs create the opportunity for leaders to reflect on their experience and access their inner wisdom in the context of practical approaches to the challenges they are dealing with every day.

UN senior mission leaders with LWI founders Susan Collin Marks (center) and Sheila Daunt Escandon (far left) at Harvard University, July 2007. Click image to enlarge.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Susan Collin Marks at the Waldzell Institute, Austria. Click image to enlarge.

Sheila Daunt Escandon, Senior Leadership Advisor to SFCG's Leadership Wisdom Initiative; Susan Collin Marks, SFCG Senior Vice President; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia; Vivian Lowery Derryck, Vice President, Academy for Educational Development; and Aleta William, Senior Education Advisor, USAID meet in Monrovia where SFCG, AED, and Femmes Afrique Solidarité conducted a consultative research project on women's leadership development. Click image to enlarge.

LWI has global reach and engages multiple sectors such as politicians, diplomats and civil society leaders. Highlights of current projects include:

Palestinian-Israeli Emerging Political Leaders Program

The program calls upon the unique combination of SFCG’s 18 years  working with local partners in the region, LWI’s unique approach to leadership development, and Outward Bound’s 65+ years of expertise in adventure-based experiential learning.  Ultimately, this adventure-based leadership and conflict resolution program aims to jointly empower the participants with advanced leadership, conflict resolution, and communication skills that will enable them to provide leadership towards positive change for the benefit of their communities as well as the region as a whole.

Click here for more information about participant criteria and to download an application.

Development of a Global Leadership Curriculum and Transformative Workshop that positions mindfulness and leadership of the self as essential to the art of leadership and conflict resolution, allowing high level leaders and emerging leaders to deepen and expand their existing skills, knowledge and wisdom, and at the same time equipping them with new, practical tools that will support them as they confront and handle all levels of conflict day by day. Modules include personal leadership style, leadership presence, vision and purpose, holding difficult conversations, cross-cultural communications, mediation and negotiations, critical decision making, leadership as service, gender awareness, interpersonal skills, and sustained leadership in the midst of pressure, among others. Piloted in partnership with the Global Negotiations Project at Harvard Law School, delivered to UN Senior Mission Leaders July 2007 with funding from the Fetzer Institute, and adapted and delivered to women and girls in Angola in March 2008.

Coaching and leadership circles
We offer one-on-one coaching to high level political and civil society leadership around the world. This coaching is intimately designed to build and expand individual leaders' core capacities to deal with the enormous responsibilities and challenges they face on a daily basis. We are working with leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the USA. We also offer leadership circles that gather a supportive group around an individual leader. Presently, at the invitation of the Faith & Politics Institute, we are co-facilitating a reflection group for US Members of Congress.

Women of Africa Leadership Development Program
Our goal is to accompany women political and civil society leaders as they take the next step in their leadership journey, whether running for political office and being prepared to be effective once elected, or expanding their ability to influence change from within a current position. We offer support in acquiring the skills, resources and self-confidence to rise to and stay in leadership positions with greater decision-making powers, and in translating their life experiences into powerful new ways of leading.

We offer this development program through a series of partnerships with existing NGOs, professional trainers, academic organizations, and foundations in Africa and elsewhere. Methodologies include training workshops, training of trainers, coaching, reflection, and leadership circles tailored to meet the specific challenges of each woman or community of women with whom we are engaged.

In October 2007, in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative - Africa, we launched an in-depth research project about the barriers to and opportunities for women stepping into leadership in Africa. We held consultative workshops, conducted structured interviews, and offered coaching to a range of women and some men in Nairobi. In August 2008, we partnered with Femme Afrique Solidarite, based in Senegal, and the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Washington DC to conduct similar research in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire. We have combined the findings into one overall report, as well as offering the individual reports as below.

Download the reports:

Kenya

Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire

Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire (French version)

Combined Report (includes all of the above in one document)

Disseminating leadership wisdom
LWI presents its leadership perspective internationally. Venues include:

• In January 2008, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, presented and facilitated at Innovations in Leadership, convened by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
• In May 2007, at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea, Jordan, on a panel with Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan and Dina Powell, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State, entitled Leading in a Multicultural World.
• In January 2007, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on a panel with Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of Switzerland, entitled Is the Multicultural Society an Illusion?
• In June 2006, on a panel entitled Advocacy for Women Leaders, to Pan-African women leaders in Bamako, Mali at the Femme Afrique Solidarite General Assembly.

LWI funders include the Fetzer Institute, the International Development and Research Center (IDRC), and the Foundation for Global Community.

For further information, please contact Shawn Dunning at sdunning@sfcg.org.

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