
by Sarah Sipek
December 8, 2015
Gold
VitalSmarts
The Knowledge is Power Program is a national network of 162 schools in 20 states that focus on preparing students from educationally underserved communities for college. But it had a problem — its founding school leaders kept dropping out.
Of those who opened schools in 2006, about half remained after four years. KIPP co-founder Dave Levin and VitalSmarts researched why and found through interviews that these leaders were burned out from long days and heavy workloads.
To reverse the trend, VitalSmarts created a program that taught KIPP school leaders how to build leadership teams to help make decisions, prioritize and execute short- and long-term goals, identify “lifelines” they could go to for help and how to make time for activities to re-energize them.
As a result, the number of school founders who make it to their fourth year increased from 50 percent for those who opened schools in 2006 to 82 percent for those who started in 2011.
No longer was it considered a badge of honor to respond to 10 p.m. emails — instead principals were encouraged, no, expected to find work-life balance. This allowed them to re-energize outside of work and bring their best selves to the job so they could continue to support those entering college and eventually the workforce.
Silver
Korn Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting
Any effort that supports veterans is worth recognition, but Korn Ferry and Harris Corp.’s Leveraging Military Leadership Program earns special applause by going beyond the basics of résumé writing and job board scouring to teach returning servicemen and women how to apply their leadership capabilities in civilian organizations.
Of more than 20 million veterans in the U.S., 6 million transition or retire into civilian life. With help from the Points of Light Foundation, LMLP targets the tens of thousands of veterans who are likely to become organizational leadership. It offers four months of assignments, e-learning, coaching and three-day residence programs to help veterans strengthen their communication skills and develop a focused career strategy.
Korn Ferry contributed 550 hours of coaching, 340 instructional design hours and $850,000 to the program — a demonstration to its investor-owners of its commitment to community service.
Bronze
Scitent Inc.
What happens when marijuana is legal in almost half the country, but medical education doesn’t cover how cannabis interacts with the human body? Instead of waiting to find out, Scitent Inc. created The Medical Cannabis Institute’s courses. Since its launch in August 2014, more than 350 people have registered for TMCI’s courses, each tailored to fit physicians, patients and caregivers’ specific needs.