One of the most pressing challenges facing leaders today is attracting and retaining top talent. Known as the “Great Resignation” or “Great Reshuffle,” the workforce’s shifting expectations since the pandemic require organizations to re-evaluate their culture to inspire employee engagement and loyalty — and ultimately deliver their mission more effectively.

During this interactive session, you will learn how to use culture as your differentiator to attract and retain top talent and why investing in your culture leads to high performance.

Cheryl Brown, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is passionate about helping organizations relentlessly pursue organizational excellence. With more than 25 years of experience working with nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies to improve cultures, Cheryl is an expert in culture transformation, strategic planning, operational effectiveness, innovation, talent acquisition, diversity, equity, and inclusion, organizational development, performance management, succession planning, and board governance. As an award-winning leader, her P.R.A.I.S.E. Culture™ and P.R.A.I.S.E. Strategy™ frameworks align culture with strategy to achieve measurable results. Cheryl currently serves as chief human resources officer at Credit Union West and has held similar C-suite roles at Publix Employees Federal Credit Union and USF Federal Credit Union. She is a Nonprofit Leadership Center board member.

In today’s ever-changing landscape, leaders are under increasing pressure to demonstrate innovation and impact. For nonprofits, the key may be in thinking and acting like an entrepreneur.

Like every entrepreneur, nonprofit leaders need three kinds of capital: financial, human, and social. While financial and human capital are essential for success, social capital — the connections and shared values that exist between people and enable cooperation — is the key ingredient for long-term growth and impact.

During this session, you will learn how to think more like an entrepreneur as you explore the principles of social capital and the four ways to build it.

Gary T. Hartfield, MBA, is the founder, president and CEO of six residential group homes throughout Florida and an adult day training center, delivering personalized and therapeutic health care services for the elderly and developmentally disabled. Gary is also the founder and CEO of Serenity Village Insurance & Consulting in Tampa, a full-service operation specializing in commercial risk to support individuals and business owners. Gary is the author of “Stand,” and he was recognized by Onyx Magazine’s “Black Men Honors ‘Florida’s Most Impactful and Influential Men.’”

As leaders look toward the future, they face critical choices about organizational culture and sustainability. With the growing need for workplaces to acknowledge and value differences and ensure inclusivity is the norm, not a strategic initiative, leaders must consciously question and seek to broaden their reality. And yet, most thinking happens in the subconscious mind, including how we approach people, problem-solve and make decisions. These involuntary patterns influence our perspectives and behaviors, with no thought to the why.

During this thought-provoking session, you’ll examine a process to take the necessary steps to become a more intentional leader and choose to be the change we wish to see.

Margarita Sarmiento is an award-winning international trainer and speaker, certified leadership coach and author. Three major career shifts due to reorganizations and layoffs gave rise to her more than 30 years of management and training experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Through her company ITK Consultants, Margarita designs and delivers customized programs in leadership, organizational and team development, communication, and DEI to influence positive change and improve results.

Nonprofit professionals face a high risk of burning out. To effectively care for others, we must first care for ourselves, but that’s often easier than it sounds.

Self-care is the practice of taking an active role in protecting your well-being, pursuing happiness and being equipped to respond to stress with a positive mindset, so difficult periods don’t become long-term imbalances. In this interactive session, you’ll design a personal roadmap for self-care that can be modeled at all levels of your organization, develop strategies to shift organizational culture to one that prioritizes learning over performance, and identify ways funders can support the mental health and well-being of your nonprofit team(s).

Kristen Lessig-Schenerlein, ACC, CPQC, CTAA, RYT200, is the owner of Koi Coaching & Consulting where she helps nonprofit and small business leaders do the inner work necessary to link their power with their passion. Kristen blends her more than 16 years of experience as a nonprofit founder and executive director with yoga training and Positive Intelligence to help leaders improve their mental fitness and live a life in alignment with their values. She is a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach and Certified Virtual Facilitator will begin her master’s in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania this fall.

Reflection is a powerful tool for learning and leadership, yet it’s often a leader’s least-protected resource. More and more, leaders feel pressured to deprioritize time for reflection to respond to increasing organizational demands. These urgent challenges often require innovative solutions — solutions that can surely be accessed through consistent, intentional, reflective thinking.

During this session, you will renew your understanding of reflection as a driving force of your leadership, learn a simple framework to leverage reflection as a tool for innovative thinking, and practice two reflective strategies to strengthen your personal and leadership adaptability.

Rebecca J. Watson, M.Ed., is a master facilitator and leadership development strategist with a passion for empowering emerging and established leaders. She currently serves as CEO of Limitless Leader Inc., a leadership development consulting firm. For more than 17 years, she has made significant contributions to leadership capacity-building initiatives in Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Tennessee. She also supports school improvement efforts as a national education consultant and previously served as a principal with Chicago Public Schools.