Member Spotlight by David Kandel, vice president external affairs
Provide us with a brief summary of your business’ services.
Tomorrow’s People is in the business of helping organizations develop their workforce for the challenges of tomorrow. With more than 40-years of experience in leadership and board development, Tomorrow’s People, Inc. understands the need for strong, visionary leadership and the essential link it plays in driving an organization’s ability to achieve its goals and sustain its momentum.
One of our core services is helping organizations establish an in-house Leadership Academy—a customized, professional development program exclusively for their team members that teaches leadership skills, strategic visioning, and project management. The Leadership Academy is a robust learning experience that cultivates creativity, fosters team dynamics, and provides emerging leaders methods to manage people effectively in rapidly changing times. The Leadership Academy is tailored specifically to the mission and vision of a client’s organization. The curriculum typically involves an orientation session followed by full-day workshops each month for 8 months concluding with a formal presentation to senior leadership.
The Leadership Academy class is required to complete a tangible group project designed to benefit their organization. Tomorrow’s People works directly with senior leadership to determine the specific group project which should address a tangible need of the organization. Class members must analyze an issue or address a significant need of the organization, conduct research, develop solutions, test their recommendations, develop an implementation plan and a method for evaluating results. The class gives a formal presentation to senior management and develops a written document detailing their recommendations.
In addition to the Leadership Academy, our other primary services include:
Tell us about your company’s mission and vlaues.
Our organization is built on the premise that dynamic leadership can be taught, refined and improved. We believe that organizations must personify their mission and infuse their people with confidence and passion to make the mission come alive in all that they do.
We promote the value of diversity and inclusion. We help organizations understand the often overlooked and underutilized resources that a diverse workforce brings. Because most organizations have very limited strategic training programs, and with ever-increasing pressure to “do more with less,” Tomorrow’s People helps organizations develop talent internally.
We work with senior leadership, boards, individual departments, work groups, and volunteers. We work hard to analyze and fully understand our clients’ operations so we can tailor our programs and services to the specific needs of their organization. We are viewed by our clients as partners who help them address long-term strategic goals and near-term personnel development needs.
What are the services you use the most (or are looking forward to using) from the Columbus Chamber?
We view the Columbus Chamber as a convener that helps our company make connections with other members that could benefit from the services and expertise we offer.
How do you stay engaged with trends that you see in your industry?
There are fundamental leadership skills that are time-tested and remain effective in essentially any business environment. These skills can be learned and strengthened through understanding and implementing best practices in leadership theory.
We also value the necessity of staying current on new trends in our industry: we are always on the lookout for new voices in the field of leadership theory and new examples of best practices which we integrate into our organizational culture and our service offerings.
In addition, we recognize that there are unique challenges facing organizations that compel leaders to adapt quickly and develop innovative ways to manage people under very unusual and difficult conditions. The COVID-19 crisis is a perfect example. Leaders who had the foresight to develop an emergency preparedness plan are better able to keep their organizations functioning and their employees safe during times of significant upheaval.
Leaders who are able to pivot quickly and help their teams figure out ways to stay safe, motivated, and focused on providing the best levels of service they can during uncertain and difficult times are far more likely to emerge from our current crisis than those who become paralyzed by fear and indecision.
Dynamic, effective leadership is hard work. Becoming a successful leader involves having a love of learning, having a vision, loving the journey, and marshalling others to join you in the quest to achieve the vision. Becoming a wildly successful leader involves helping others develop a love of learning, a love of the journey and the love of being part of a team that achieves a hard-won goal.
Michelangelo was quoted as saying: “If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.”
What is your company culture like?
We are a small group of seasoned professionals who have decades of experience in our specialized disciplines. However, no matter how much experience a person has, we believe life offers our clients and ourselves daily opportunities to learn new things and to improve the small corner of the world where we each have influence.
Social Media
Instagram: https://tomorrowspeopleinc.com/