Our Growing Team: Meet our Newest Team Members
In 2015, Leadership Vision has been focused on our five areas of bold steps meant to be evaluative targets throughout the year on both a company and individual level. These steps of focus were identified during our annual Summit, and yet our team could not imagine all 2015 would have in store.
Halfway through 2015, our team had a meeting to evaluate those targets – How are we doing so far? What is going better than expected? What is going worse than expected? A portion of the way through that meeting, I asked the question, “How many of you feel underwater?” Everyone raised their hand. From that moment, I knew changes had to be made. Then began the evaluation of what additional layers of support needed to be added.
As with everything we do at Leadership Vision, we take a relational and intentional approach to bringing on new team members. We build relationships and understand if there is a cultural fit, and find someone who can align with the values Leadership Vision holds of personal development, team member, servant leader, and family first.
After close appraisal, Leadership Vision determined that adding new people to both drive new business and support new business needs were the critical areas of focus for us.
We are thrilled to announce Steph Wahlund as the new Client Services Coordinator and Bethany von Steinbergs as an addition to the Business Development team focusing on Volunteer Based Organizations. Here is a little bit more about each of them and you’ll hear more from each of them in the weeks to come.
Meet Steph Wahlund
In September, we hired Steph Wahlund as our new Client Services Coordinator to help offset the needs of our clients and company. One of our key company objectives in 2015 was to bring someone on board who was just beginning their career. Steph comes to us from Bethel University, having worked in the Admissions Office where she learned about organizational structures, integrating technology systems and experiencing first hand an adaptive style of leadership necessary to serve within a university setting.
Steph also serves as a camp program coordinator where she has the chance to practice her adaptive style of leadership. Within the camp she contributes to the design of program structures, the integration of organizational systems, all while adapting to the relational needs of those attending the camp. With these two different professional experiences, it was clear that Steph brought to us what Leadership Vision desperately needed.
Most importantly, Steph “is one of us.” She is fun-loving with a great sense of humor. She has focus and a competitive nature which leads her to always do her best. And, she has a driven intensity to get work done… all while being relationally connected with everyone. We are so proud to have Steph Wahlund as a part of our team.
Meet Bethany von Steinbergs
Over the past two years, Leadership Vision has received an increasing number of requests to work with volunteer based organization. We knew we needed to pay closer attention to this trend. We were also aware that volunteer based organizations have unique needs that must be considered to ensure success: programmatic flexibility, shorter time lines, limited resources, delivery challenges and financial constraints. As the inquires continued to come in, we decided to change our organizational structure and create a specific and specialized focus on volunteer based organizations. We hired Bethany von Steinbergs as a Consultant to Volunteer Based Organizations.
When bringing someone onto our team for this level of responsibility, we need to find a person with a very broad-based experience in leadership and ability to relationally connect with people from a diverse background. Leadership Vision also needed to choose someone with an educational and professional knowledge of how people respond to personal development and organizational responsibilities. Lastly, we wanted someone who had a history of working with strong team members and knew how to navigate the challenging landscape of an executive leadership team.
Through her professional experience, leadership capacities and graduate education in Leadership, Bethany has developed a unique wisdom and courage. She comes to Leadership Vision with 13 years of professional experience as a key leader within a variety of contexts. The expertise she brings with volunteer based organizations is specific yet broad, and she has proven to be an individual who is not afraid to face challenges while remaining engaged both strategically and relationally. Bethany has led small teams within a university, has taught in a public school and served overseas. She has recruited, trained, managed and led a volunteer leadership team of 250 people within an organization of 4000. She also directed and led a collaborative volunteer force of over 1500 in a city-wide effort uniting a variety of diverse populations, community groups and businesses around a central cause.
Bethany is an amazing individual and friend to all. Her learning posture and brave leadership style helps others become more aware of who they are and how they can influence a cause greater than themselves. We have each felt the unique gifting of Bethany, and are so proud to have her a part of our team.
Welcome Steph and Bethany!
We are proud to be expanding the team of people within Leadership Vision to continue the conversation around Strengths and what is right about people. Please help me welcome Steph and Bethany to our team.
