Live. Learn. Thrive. Podcast

Ep 15. – Sustaining Mission Impact: How Do Great Organizations Stay Great? | The Do More Blog In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. Podcast episode, Karen Schuler, Managing Director – Search, Transition & Planning, speaks about sustaining mission impact with President and CEO of Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind, Tony Cancelosi. To delve into the topic, they reference key aspects such as origin, leadership, culture, and board.  

Ep 14. – Preparing for Executive Transition: The Board’s Role and Perspective

The Do More Blog | Helping Great Organizations Thrive In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Michelle Hailey speaks with Dr. Elizabeth Scott and Dr. Linda Klonsky from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. They offer listeners a look at the components that help organizations thrive with constructive cultures, a better understanding as to why it’s important to consider addressing culture issues, and the benefits of being proactive in dealing with culture changes.  

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode two executives, Keith Peterson who retired as CEO of PennMar Human Services in 2013 and Louvenia Williams, who is retiring this year as founder executive of Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative, share their perspective on their transitions with Tom Adams, Director at Raffa.  

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa's Tom Adams spoke with Julie Jones, Partner and Jean Gilbert, Director in Raffa's Managed Accounting Services as they offer listeners a framework for considering  how their accounting and financial systems are supporting mission results and questions to consider in developing an action plan for change.

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa's Tom Adams spoke with Dennis Gogarty, President of Raffa Wealth Management as he shares lessons from the 2016 SONI report, observations on trends since the report began and practical steps board leaders and executives can take to ensure good stewardship of investments.

Ep 8. – What Makes Great Organizations Great

Cyber Risk. Cyber Fraud. Phishing. Virus. Malware. Denial of Service. Ransomware. It is mission critical that executives are aware of what these terms mean and what their responsibility is when it comes to protecting their organization, members, employees and clients from cyber attacks. In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa’s Nate Solloway talks with Martin Nash from EagleBank about what executives should be concerned about when it comes to IT security, why they should be concerned and what steps they should be taking to prevent cyber attacks.

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa’s Tom Adams talks with leaders from the YWCA National Capital Area (YWCA NCA): Tamara Smith, CEO; Artencia Hawkins-Bell, Board President; and Shana Heilbron, Chief Development Officer along with Melody Thomas, senior consultant at Raffa. Listen to their discussion about how the YWCA NCA decided to develop their Succession Essentials - consisting of a transition protocol (Succession Policy) and emergency protocol (Emergency Backup Plan), the process they went through with their staff and their board, the benefits they've seen and how the organization uses and updates these plans and documents.

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa’s Tom Adams talks with Raffa Partners Simone Putnam and Patricia Williams about the role human resources professionals play in helping great organizations thrive. Executives often say their people are their greatest asset, but too often they fail to put effective human resources practices in place to support and retain their staff.

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa’s Tom Adams and Dr. Rob Sheehan discuss how nonprofit organizations use strategic planning to achieve their missions. Leadership and strategy complement each other. Effective leaders know where they are going and more importantly have built that sense of direction with their team and community of stakeholders. 

In this Lead. Learn. Thrive. podcast episode, Raffa’s Tom Adams spoke with C. Marie Taylor, president and CEO of Leadership Montgomery about her career and tips for nonprofit executives. In addition to Leadership Montgomery, Taylor has also led Interfaith Works and The Community Foundation, so she shares her thoughts on preparing for leadership and on what it takes to transition into a new executive role.

Raffa’s Tom Adams spoke with Jenny Lucca, executive director for The Children’s Inn at NIH about her transition both as a new nonprofit leader and as someone who took the position as an internal candidate. They discuss lessons for aspiring leaders, retiring leaders and boards.

How do leaders best use the available talent, time and resources to advance impact and become more high performing? There is no magic. Rather it is the ongoing intentional decisions on how to best advance the dynamic interaction between organizational leadership, strategy and systems.  That is the focus of Raffa’s first Lead. Learn. Thrive podcast. Hosted by Tom Adams, the discussion with Raffa’s Tom Raffa, Julie Jones and Rachael Gibson offers key insights into how leaders do (and don’t) combine leadership, strategy and systems to turn their passion into impact.