Inspiring Tools for Social Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Changemakers

After many years of navigating my career path on my own, with only intermittent mentorship and guidance, I finally invested in a coach last August.  I now have the pleasure of working with Lisa Princic, entrepreneur coach and owner of Changemakers Toolbox.  How fitting that Lisa wrote this article recently on the importance of investing in ourselves as we develop our entrepreneurial ventures and businesses!

I was looking for research and market statistics on small and mid-sized businesses and stumbled across this.  I would consider myself a mid-career entrepreneur and this report resonated with me.  The study is based on interviews with 14 mid-career entrepreneurs, so the findings aren't conclusive, but it is an interesting profiling exercise.  Do you consider yourself a mid-career entrepreneur?  Download the PDF of the report from this site and let me know what you do think about these findings.

Dealing with and resolving conflict has been the theme of 2011 for me.  It started in February, when conflict arose amongst some members of a collaborative team within which I was working.  I was leading the team and members looked to me to mediate and help resolve the conflict.  I don't think of myself as a mediator, in fact I used to run and hide from conflict.  But here was an opportunity to listen, engage, and find a healthy way forward so that the team and its individual members could come out of it feeling reasonably good.

Conflict management continued to be on my mind when I moved to Vancouver for a new role in the impact investment world.  I knew that in this new space, we were not all going to agree even though we were there for common purpose.  We are re-writing the book on blending investment with social mission, there is going to be differing perspectives and opinions, there is going to be dissent.  I kept thinking that I needed to take a conflict resolution course to learn more.  Instead, the universe sent me conflict and threw me into a conflict situation.  There is no better way to learn than by doing.  I approached it with the leadership qualities I would have like to see in such a situation.  I brought my authentic self into a space outside of my comfort zone.  Being open, inviting people into the conversation, and listening really helped me through the conflict, but that's not to say that some of the things the other party did and said didn't hurt.  

I came across Bev Pomeroy's blog post about conflict and it really resonated with me.  Bev is an entrepreneur, based in Vancouver.  I met her recently and hope to have the opportunity to get to know her better.  It was reassuring to read about someone else's brush with conflict and that I wasn't the only person experiencing this.  Have a read and let me know your thoughts on dealing with conflict.