Southern Style Leadership

Volunteer Spotlight: Alice Gordon

Key Volunteer Role: Conference Chair, 2012 Business Connections 

Background: Mobile, Alabama native, Alice Gordon, is an award-winning communications expert with extensive experience in corporate and crises communications with news outlets and at Alabama Power Company. For more than two years, Alice has served as a key leader on the company’s supply chain management team.

Don’t take her role lightly. Southern Company is an $17 billion company and spent more than 15% of its procurement dollars with minority and women-owned businesses in 2011. So far, a significant chunk of those dollars are spent between Alabama, Florida Pan Handle,  Georgia and Mississippi – Alice Gordon is squarely in the middle of it.

As a volunteer leader, Alice is involved with multiple civic and nonprofit organizations, including the SRMSDC (South Region Minority Supplier Development Council.)  She has agreed to share her perspective on service and leadership with us for The Relax Report. We encourage you to get to know Alice and her work at Alabama Power Company.

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Projects Unlimited, Inc (PUI): How has volunteer service made you a better leader?
Alice Gordon (AG):  Serving as a volunteer leader in other organizations has allowed me to exercise my skills that I have learned in our corporate structure here within Alabama Power. It is great.  I feel blessed to have the opportunity.  I must admit that we have access to some of the best leadership training available at Alabama Power.  Most of all of the nonprofit organizations I serve on are run efficiently but have small staff and require more creativity with limited resources. I use my skills to help them work through complex issues, address funding gaps and manage resources where needed.  I find this role exciting as it is challenging.

PUI: How is your engagement with other volunteer leaders and the staff of the organizations you serve?
AG: As I mentioned, this type of service can be challenging. Each day I strive to do my best to stay focused on organizational outcomes, improving processes and governance structures. These are fancy words, but what I am really saying is that we must run associations and nonprofits with more business savvy and accountability. My hope is that my  interactions with other volunteers and our staff would lead to more productivity, fulfillment with a splash of fun mixed in.  Fun aside, we also need to stay focused on making a measurable impact that can be counted in dollars,  people served and missions accomplished.  People that I serve with understand that I will be involved, engaged and vocal if needed to improve our overall impact and achieve goals.

PUI: Many of us hear the term “supplier diversity” and think of quota programs for minorities. How would you define supplier diversity and its importance to Alabama Power Company and the broader community?
AG:  Supplier diversity can be defined as the intentional inclusion and development of small and diverse businesses in the procurement process thereby finding the best product and services that are competitively priced with the best overall value. We feel that Supplier Diversity improves economic development opportunities for women, minorities and small businesses. I wake up each day with a relentless pursuit and question of how are we going to make a difference today for our company and improve the economic vitality of our suppliers and potential suppliers.  I use our Southern Company’s Southern Style approach of Total Commitment, Unquestionable Trust and Superior Performance as foundations in that pursuit.

At the same time, our company’s suppliers should represent the diversity of our customer base as much as possible. That means that my goal is not only to find the best products and services at the most competitive prices and best overall value, but I also want Alabama-based businesses, many of whom are minority, woman and/or veteran-owned, to do business with Alabama Power Company. After all, Alabama Power Company cannot deliver low cost reliable electricity and comfort without an exceptional base of suppliers – I’m proud to be a part of the team that helps deliver that value to the company and enhance business opportunities for the broader community since 1989.

PUI: What keys to success would you offer to new volunteer leaders seeking to make an impact in their communities?
AG:

My keys to success in volunteer leadership are:

1. Stay Relentlessly Focused: Keep your eyes on the goal – no matter what that goal is.
2. Stay Connected:  Early in your service role, identify people and organization that you want to get to know and set up casual “get to know you” meetings. Most people are very responsive to this sort of approach, especially if you can be clear about why you might find value in connecting with them.
3. Have Faith and Volunteer: Volunteer service can be taxing because you likely have a full-time and are juggling family commitments. Know that you have been delivered to the place you are for a reason and be bold in your resolve to succeed despite the odds. It really pays off down the road.

PUI: What will you do differently in your next volunteer leadership role?
AG:  In 2012, I have resolved to be even more intentional about where I put my time and energy. Specifically, my next role will be one that will allow me to deepen relationships with people that I can learn from and hopefully encourage along the way.  I want to be fully immersed in the three dimensions of relationship building with people in front of me, with me and behind me.

Are you a minority, woman or veteran with a business with the capacity to do work for Alabama Power Company? Click here to visit their supplier diversity program page. 

Magic City Live After Five

“Strategy & Communication: More Than Words” with Danny Markstein

Part 4: A Trusted Advisor
Volunteer Spotlight with Danny Markstein

Projects Unlimited, Inc (PUI): In a few sentences, please touch on the importance of your industry to the broader economy.

Danny Markstein (DM): Markstein Consulting is a corporate strategy and communication firm. We serve as advisors to our clients. We help them find the focus required to accomplish the key tasks that require their – and their organization’s – attention. Too often leaders can find themselves spending their days putting out fires rather than engaging in activities that will help their team or grow their organization. On the communications side, we assist clients who are having trouble articulating their value. We help them craft meaningful messaging, chart that clear path, address issues, and execute communications activities with their key audiences.

Clients usually come to us when they need objective perspectives and solutions to specific issues, and they lack the expertise or time (not necessarily in that order) to do it themselves. Our industry is important because good providers offer that objective perspective help clients address looming questions that can become extremely difficult to answer when you are so intertwined in the issues. We help put the next steps on paper and enable leaders and their teams to hold themselves accountable to specific activities and goals.

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This concludes our series of posts with advice from Danny – we hope that you enjoyed learning about Danny, and what he finds valuable about volunteer leadership.

Let’s recap our series featuring Danny Markstein:
Part 1: A Trusted Advisor
Consider Before Committing
Knowing When to Reach Out

Leading up to Projects Unlimited’s 5th Anniversary on April 30th, we have been releasing a series of posts from a recent interview with Danny Markstein, a committed professional and Birmingham advocate. This is our final post from Danny, but watch for more to drop from other volunteer leaders in the near future. Make sure to subscribe to the blog today!

“Knowing When To Reach Out” with Danny Markstein

Part 3: A Trusted Advisor
Volunteer Spotlight with Danny Markstein

Projects Unlimited, Inc (PUI): How do volunteer leaders and key executives know when they need outside help to develop a new strategic direction? What advice do you have to prepare them to take the next steps?

Danny Markstein (DM): One of the first signs that will tip off a volunteer leader or executive that they need to seek outside help to develop their strategic direction is when they feel or know that their organization has become diluted. Typically, they are engaged in a variety of activities, but the masters of none. Other common signs we see are when an organization’s message is unclear, and the community does not know what it does, or even that it exists. We are at a tipping point in our community at which we must reduce and eventually eradicate the duplication of services. All of these issues result in a leadership group questioning its organization’s relevance and strategic direction.

It can be hard to find focus when you come to the realization that your organization may be lost and possibly is not fulfilling its original mission. The advice I give is for the leader to step back and find a true understanding of what the organization was created to do; reevaluate your mission and vision and recommit. Say no – something that can be incredibly challenging for nonprofits – to things that do not help you serve your mission and constituents. It is very important at this time to clearly chart your next steps, focus on those steps, and hold yourself and your organization accountable.

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Want to learn more about Danny’s background? Go back to Part 1 of the interview to learn more about how volunteer leadership has helped him develop and why continuing to volunteer is so important to him; in Part 2 of our interview, Danny covers the advice he would give to someone thinking about joining their first board of directors.

Leading up to Projects Unlimited’s 5th Anniversary on April 30th, we have been releasing a series of posts from a recent interview with Danny Markstein, a committed professional and Birmingham advocate.

We have one final post with advice from Danny – subscribe to the blog and watch for it to drop next week. His final comments will touch on the importance of his industry – strategic planning and communications – to the broader economy.

“Hard as Hell” written by Ed Fields

Volunteer leadership isn’t always pretty. Sometimes it is downright heartbreaking, thankless and hard as hell.

I grew up in a blue collar family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My dad started working at Wisconsin Electric, where he is still employed, when he found out he was having a son at the tender young age of 19.

I had a delightful childhood – strong family, Midwestern values, plenty of love and fun. I was a naturally shy kid and began to connect with the world beyond my family as I entered my pre-teen years.

When I was in middle school my Dad told me that the “power company,” as we affectionately referred to his place of employment, was going to launch a Boy Scout Troop. Now, I am not sure what made me agree to participate in this program, but I can still remember him dropping me off at the interest meeting.

The person in charge, Cid Duncan, was a portly man that, at the time, seemed to be old to be doing this type of work. I suppose everyone looks old when you are 12 years old.

Cid worked at the power company with my Dad. Except, he wasn’t a lineman (pole climber) like Dad; he was an Electrical Engineer. One of those characters playing a role in my young teenage life in which there was no concept of what an electrical engineer was.

There was no workforce development program that could replace the access that I had to the way his mind worked, touching his professional drafting desk and seeing real blueprints – just like the ones I saw in the movies. “Oh, that’s what an Electrical Engineer does,” I thought.

Anyway, Cid served as the founding scoutmaster of Troop 250 based out of the North Division location of Wisconsin Electric – also known as “the hood.” Cid recruited his pal, Johnny Fields (no relation), to serve as assistant scoutmaster and placed his two sons in the troop as well.

Cid was a chain smoker. He was overweight, but moved quickly and was strong as an ox. He had to be. The boys in his troop were different from other Boy Scouts. Only a few of us were connected to Cid and Johnny through the power company because of our mothers and, rarely, our fathers. Most of the boys in the troop were neighborhood kids. All of them without fathers. Some of them with legal issues. Many of them were much older and bigger than me. Several of us younger kids were intimidated by these kids; which is precisely why my father encouraged me to be in the troop, among other reasons. He wanted to make sure his shy son could swim with sharks. And how!

Cid spent every other Saturday with us for the better part of 8 years. Without fail, he was there picking us up in his rusty 1980 model Surburban truck. He was always teaching us lessons. Making up his own mysteries called “Sherlock Nolmes,” his spoof of classic tales designed to encourage critical, real-world, impromptu problem solving. He liked to starve and scare us. This man would drop 15 hungry teenage boys off at McDonald’s and give us $10 to feed everyone. Or, another favorite: he would take us camping and lead the requisite “Midnight Hike” under the crisp, pitch black Wisconsin night with no flashlight; we couldn’t even see our hands in front of us. Those hikes were always preceded by campfire horror stories about John Wayne Gacy’s exploits of cannibalism and escape from a nearby prison, allegedly hiding in the very campground we were in.

I remember physical altercations that Cid had to get in the middle of to keep all of us in line. I saw him cry. I saw his joy. I saw in his eyes the passion and constant search for that one golden, teachable moment that a teacher looks for in a student.

Of course, all of this time, energy and effort wasn’t just about the kids. Like any volunteer leader – the best of them – there was something in it for him, too. Cid and his wife Debra didn’t have children, so they proactively invested their parental energies into children that needed help the most.

In addition to Cid’s work with the troop, he and Debra would take care of special needs babies. Really hard cases. From time to time he would let the boys visit his home in the suburbs and see the room with a baby in a plastic tent hooked up to monitors beeping and clicking. I can remember at least two of these infants dying. Why would they knowingly adopt children that were more likely to die than they were to live?

Why would Cid invest time, money and energy into us knowing that most of us would end up in jail or dead? And, don’t you know? That is exactly what happened. Two of us committed suicide. Four of us went to jail for a very, very long time. One of us became a male prostitute (not me!). Many of us ended up where society says young black boys should have, statistically speaking.

I still scratch my head about it sometimes. There is one thing I know for sure – at least one of us made it through those years with an optimistic future, a deeper sense of civic duty and a profound understanding of personal sacrifice thanks to Cid Duncan and his wife.

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I am incredibly thankful to my father, Cid Duncan, Wisconsin Electric, the Boy Scouts of America and my boys from Troop 250 here and gone. My life has been littered with good works and purposeful service efforts, in large part, because of you.

Consider Before Committing

Part 2: A Trusted Advisor
Volunteer Spotlight with Danny Markstein

Projects Unlimited, Inc (PUI): What advice would you give to someone that will be serving on their first board of directors in the next few months?

Danny Markstein (DM): These words came out of my mouth just this morning: do not commit to volunteer service unless you are passionate and willing to dig in to do whatever it takes to get the job done. The reality is that there are so many needs in this community, it sometimes can be difficult to prioritize the various volunteer opportunities in front of you.

Today’s nonprofits have reached a critical phase of existence; faced with fewer resources with which to work with and smaller staffs, nonprofits are stretched and need volunteer leaders who fully are supportive. Do not commit unless you are dedicated. Our service-oriented community groups are strong, but they need soldiers. The perfect opportunity for you to give back is out there – you just have to find it and get involved.

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Want to learn more about Danny’s background? Go back to Part 1 of the interview to learn more about how volunteer leadership has helped him develop and why continuing to volunteer is so important to him.

Leading up to Projects Unlimited’s 5th Anniversary on April 30th, we will be releasing a series of posts from a recent interview with Danny Markstein, a committed professional and Birmingham advocate. We are really looking forward to this showcase and hope that you will enjoy learning more about Danny Markstein.

There’s still more to come with Danny. In our next piece, Danny opens up to tell us the common signs that tip volunteer leaders and key executives off that they may need to consider outside help – and, he’ll also offer some free advice for what to do after you have this realization. Thankfully, it’s not “panic.”

Part 1: A Trusted Advisor

Leading up to Projects Unlimited’s 5th Anniversary on April 30th, we will be releasing a series of posts from a recent interview with Danny Markstein, a committed professional and Birmingham advocate. We are really looking forward to this showcase and hope that you will enjoy learning more about Danny Markstein.

Volunteer Spotlight: Danny Markstein

Daniel H. Markstein, IV

Key Volunteer Role: Chairman, Magic Moments

Background: Danny and his wife, Eileen, founded Markstein Consulting, LLC, a corporate strategy and communications consulting firm in 2003. Danny specializes in strategic business planning, corporate strategy development, internal and external corporate communications, organizational dynamics and business process optimization.

Danny is best known for his integrated approach to strategic planning and a commitment to linking strategy to action. He is a trusted advisor to clients faced with organizational challenges and helps to mobilize strategic initiatives.

As a volunteer leader, Danny is involved with multiple civic and nonprofit organizations around Birmingham, including Magic Moments. We think know that Danny is wise beyond his years and appreciate the time he took to be a part of this volunteer spotlight.

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Projects Unlimited, Inc (PUI): We see that you are involved with multiple community oriented groups around Birmingham – so, what has been the most fulfilling part of your volunteer service?
Danny Markstein (DM): The best thing about being involved as a volunteer in civic and nonprofit organizations is the opportunity to witness firsthand the impact that we can have locally. Birmingham is a unique community. I have lived in cities in which outlets for getting involved with the local community simply did not exist. I am so grateful that it’s almost expected that members of this community become involved as a volunteers in the capacity in which they can.

Birmingham has no shortage of challenges – it is important to find ways to push our community forward. Volunteer service is a meaningful and impactful way to affect change quickly, and is something that I have found extremely rewarding by participating as a volunteer.

PUI: How essential has volunteer leadership been for your own professional development?
DM: Incredibly essential. Volunteer leadership provides opportunities to learn and grow in many capacities, depending on the type of volunteer work in which you are engaged. Volunteering has served me by broadening my horizons and exposing me to situations, people, and needs that I would not necessarily be exposed to in my career.

At the end of the day, even the most engaged person is living within a bubble. There is no way to touch everything, but civic and community engagement bring me back to the needs of my entire community. I believe that volunteer service has made me a better person and professional because it has left me with a broad and well-rounded understanding of my community, a byproduct that makes me a better consultant and advisor in my career.

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In the next piece of this volunteer spotlight, you’ll hear Danny’s advice for all of the future volunteer leaders out there. Stay tuned.