It’s all a balancing act: strategy, leadership, life

Another busy week as an Acumen Fund Fellow addressed issues of balance. The question of life balance is a particularly resonant one for me, given that I am juggling the needs of my family (a wife and 9-month-old son) with my responsibilities as a Fellow. It’s clear that such questions are common to every leader and would-be leader. But balance goes beyond just overcoming the divide between personal and professional lives.

We had the opportunity to meet with, among others, Peter Reiling of The Aspen Institute, Alan Hassenfeld, the chairman of Hasbro, Danny Grossman, CEO of Wild Planet Toys, and Jed Emerson, creator of the Blended Value Proposition.

Peter Reiling used the writings of Arthur Clough, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass and others to explore questions of leadership, such as: What is our moral compass? How do we know if we are doing enough? Is what we preach aligned with what we do? Are our lives balanced; do they need to be? These fundamental questions came up again and again throughout the week with other speakers.

Alan Hassenfeld and Danny Grossman have successfully combined activism with their work in the toy industry – first by adhering to a very strict code of conduct in their work and, second, by getting involved in their communities and supporting children’s causes as part of a public-private partnership between their companies and the social sector. Both admitted to a lack of balance in their personal and professional lives, and they questioned whether a leader could really be balanced and still achieve ambitious goals. However, both strive for an ideal mix in their public and private lives, especially when it comes to family.

The last speaker on this subject was Jed Emerson. A highly respected voice in the field of social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, he has also had an incredible personal journey. He earned his stripes working successfully with street kids at Larkin Street Youth Center and giving grants to address homelessness while at REDF. He was particularly candid about the difficulties he has had in balancing work and personal life in this field. He shared with us the importance of finding complementary partners to work with, understanding the motivations of your staff, and communicating with passion.

Our other sessions of the past week addressed the balance of skills that we as Fellows will need to bring to our work in the field. Allen Grossman, HBS professor of management practice, focused on strategy as it applies to social enterprises.  We used the business case of ApproTec Kenya (now re-branded KickStart), a company that creates technologies specifically designed for the BOP, to explore the concept of scale and revenue generation as well as the specific challenges that social enterprises face in understanding their mission, strategy and social impact.  Susan Meiselas, from the famous Magnum Photos, taught us the power of story telling though photographs and showed us how to translate an idea into a photograph and what makes a photo powerful. Niko Canner, partner at Katzenbach Partners, and Ankur Shah, former Acumen fellow, shared insights into the consulting role and the challenges we may face – which have become increasingly real as our departure to the field is only a few weeks away. Their practical guidance has helped ground all of us in what we may expect and how we can be most effective during our time in the field.