By Linda Strohmeyer -

I have served as Founding Board Chair of Prosperity Catalyst for over 2 and half years now. After my career at Goldman Sachs, I decided to dedicate time to supporting organizations that were having an outsized impact on the world. Back in 2010, I was inspired by the work of our sister organization, Prosperity Candle here in the United States where I served on the Advisory Board for 2 years and wanted to expand my focus on marginalized women across the globe. I was struck by Prosperity Catalyst’s mission to empower women led businesses and entrepreneurs in some of the most distressed parts of the world – including Haiti and Iraq.

I have learned an incredible amount in the past four years, but most acutely in the past year. Our organization just completed its fourth month without an Executive Director and we are now getting ready to onboard a new leader. Our transition has been filled with many trials and triumphs, all of which have led to new learnings and affirmations, helping to make our organization stronger and better positioned for greater impact. It has been an exciting, enlightening and sometimes exhausting time, with some wonderful and unexpected rewards for me and the organization.

Here are my top five lessons learned in this transition:

1. Focus on what matters most: Our mission and passion to Empower Women Entrepreneurs.
The first thing we wanted to do when we began our transition was to put out the fires and get the organization’s short term needs met as soon as possible. What I learned pretty quickly though, was the importance of leading by keeping our mission and purpose in mind and in heart. During a transition like ours, this was often challenging. It took patience, coaching from trusted mentors, and the courage to focus on our long term vision while investing in the short-term support we needed. Staying focused and connected to our mission created a calmer, proactive environment that allowed us to develop a plan and mindset for a successful transition. We still have plenty of work to do before the transition is complete, but the importance of strategic planning was reaffirmed. It was not just a theoretical exercise in contingency and succession planning, but was essential to creating the right path forward at a time of great change and adversity.

2. Don’t be afraid to take a good, hard look.
We decided to transform this transition into an opportunity by pausing and assessing every aspect of our operations at a time in our growth when we would not have otherwise. We, the board and staff, took a hard and honest look at every aspect of our organization. This difficult assessment became an important and very useful moment for our young start-up organization. With our lessons learned in our back pockets, we are able to develop and deploy new strategies that we believe will have greater impact on the lives of the women entrepreneurs we partner with every day. Making these changes has not only helped us survive the transition, but is positioning us with greater efficiencies to emerge stronger – providing a solid foundation to onboard a dynamic new leader!

3. Never underestimate the power of connected relationships.
We are blessed at Prosperity Catalyst to have an incredible network of supporters, advisors, partners, donors and volunteers that are as passionate about our mission as we are. Many of those in our networks have “showed up” to support us during this transition and we are truly grateful. We deeply understand the power of connected relationships and networks, and recognize them as one of the most important investments we can make to empower the success of our organization and the women we support. We are passionate about deepening and expanding these relationships and know they will continue to broaden our sphere of influence and impact.

4. Keep the faith.
Sounds simple, it is but probably the hardest, yet most important role a leader has when challenges seem to be mounting. “Keeping the faith” is a choice I make every day to TRUST in myself, in the team and our mission. It has been a decision to bring forward a positive outlook and positive energy that I believe has helped our organization through some challenging moments. Our team truly recognizes that every person’s voice and attitude can help motivate another to take action and this joint commitment has helped keep our momentum and support of each other going strong.

5. Strong Culture is key.
I like to define culture as a bond that keeps people belonging to a particular community together. This transition has brought our organization together in unexpected ways. I am both honored and humbled by the display of authenticity, passion and commitment from everyone on the Prosperity Catalyst team, including board members, staff and dedicated volunteers. Each member of the team has made sacrifices, and come together in ways that were not only necessary, but that energized engagement and focus on accomplishing our mission. As we begin the next phase of our growth, we know that our strong foundation can weather any storm while catalyzing great impact fueled by a strong cultural bond. Maintaining this strong culture will continue to be a priority for Prosperity Catalyst now and in the years ahead.

At Prosperity Catalyst, we are a global community that launches and incubates women-led businesses in distressed countries, creating opportunities for women to become empowered entrepreneurs, ending the cycle of poverty. Join our community now.