Dear friends,

Happy New Year! Can you believe that it is already 2004? By the time you get this I will be putting the finishing touches on my daughter’s university selection tour. Yes, Chelsea is almost 17 and finishing her junior year in high school. Some of you will remember stories I have told about her since she was a toddler and now she’s almost off to college! I hope those of you with younger children are enjoying every free minute that you can with them because the time flies by quickly.

Well, 2003 was a fantastic year for IWL. We continued on our journey of double digit, profitable growth in a down economy and completed major projects in the US, Australia and Canada. I fully expect 2004 to continue this trend and I’m hoping that you’ll continue to be an active part of our community.

IWL continues to grow and change. We recently said good-bye to Jenell Sausser who did a fabulous job of putting in infrastructure for IWL and has moved on to being a benefits manager for companies between 2-20 people.

We welcome aboard Gwen Rubin who is handling some of Jenell’s previous responsibility and has an even bigger task of supporting me as an executive assistant.

We have also added Loretta Booker and Victoria Castle to our coaching faculty and very importantly we have hired Jeannette Nelson to manage our entire Women Leading Change (WLC) and Partners Leading Change (PLC) programs portfolio.

We are growing by leaps and bounds while continuing to sustain a culture of communication, collaboration and co-creation, which can be very challenging during a high growth period. My newly found freedom of operating with grace and ease has been tested more than once, but all in all it is still winning out over ‘nose to the grindstone.’ ☺

We also have forged some partnerships with colleagues from Linkage Inc., Catalyst, the International Museum of Women, Women of Silicon Valley, Apartment Professionals Magazine, University of California San Francisco Center for Gender Equity and Women in Technology International (WITI) all of whom are deeply committed to women’s leadership development. We continue to believe that it is through collaboration that our greatest dreams for the equal partnership of women and men will be realized. I do not have all of the details of how these partnerships will unfold yet, and you can be sure that I am seeking direct benefits for you as IWL Alumni.

January 12th launches the official start of our new executive development program called, Executives Leading Sustainable Change. As you may remember we piloted this very successfully last year and now have added some new curriculum that will be featured in the business section of the San Jose Mercury News in mid-January. Just to give you a sense of some aspects of this new curriculum we have partnered with IWL alumni Staci Haines and Ariana Strozzi Heckler to include work with both ‘equine guided education’ and ‘somatic sensibility and presence.’

I am committed to bringing the most innovative work being done in leadership development and blend it with our own Contextual Leadership™ distinctions so that clients get the full range of possibility in developing knowing, doing and being capabilities.

Last but not least I am putting the finishing touches on a book chapter to be included in the 2004 Linkage Women’s leadership book. As soon as the book is available I will let you know how to purchase it.

Please keep on the lookout for our new website makeover, thanks to PLC alumni Eddie Olson. I’ll send out a formal announcement as soon as we go live!

In the meantime, please do keep in touch and let us know how we can be of service to you, whether it is in celebrating your accomplishments, looking for a new job, or bringing us into your company to spread Contextual Leadership™ throughout your team or entire organization. We’d love to work with you to transform the way work gets done and the ever expanding opportunities for you to make your fullest contribution at work!

Stay in touch and love,

Rayona

Rayona Sharpnack
President, IWL