few of my college professors had a profound impact on my beliefs about the impact of business on community. One lesson came from my undergraduate professor of economics, an old Jesuit with a keen eye for numbers and a stoic teaching style. He had us study the Banana Wars, a series of trade and political disputes involving US intervention in Central America in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Our final exam was to write a review of the economic impact of those wars and the influence they still had on our present day—but from three different perspectives: a US corporation’s perspective, a global consumer’s perspective, and the perspective of a farming family in Honduras. That class changed my view about the impact of business forever.

Another lesson came from a graduate marketing course. The instructor argued that the fastest way to change our world was through business. He then shared research about how quickly businesses could produce goods, shift global economics, and positively influence and improve the lives of people—employees, stakeholders, community members, and future generations.

When I reflect on these two lessons and our current shared reality here in Alaska, I see many needs. As a lifelong Alaskan, I look around Anchorage and I’m heartbroken. We are hurting. Our needs are great. Yet I still hold hope as I recall Helen Keller’s words: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

Right now, businesses have a huge opportunity to have lasting impact within our communities. Businesses have broad reach—fiscal, educational, community stability, and more. Yet where do we begin?

First, consider the impact that a good, strong business has on community. Especially businesses with loyal and well-taken-care-of team members—teams with good pay and a low-stress work environment. Then we can start to look at multi-layered approaches to challenges. As we look for solutions, it’s crucial to pause and reflect on the ripple effects our actions will have at multiple levels.

I like to start with solutions within companies at three levels: the individual, team, and organizational levels. Below are three ways to start that process.

Strengthen and invest in you. True lasting change always arises from within us. If there is something we need to share, model, or teach—it must be embodied first.

Now, more than ever, we need strong, present leaders. This requires effort, and it demands we hone our personal leadership skills through continued practice and self-reflection. Individual resilience opens the door for team resilience, which opens the door for organizational resilience.

I help teams and organizations gain better outcomes by reducing stress, improving communication, and minimizing unhealthy conflict. Over the years, I’ve learned that even the most well-intentioned leaders can ask for these things, but unless they are modeling the behaviors they seek, it simply won’t work. Money will be spent, consultants paid, yet everyone will still be responding the same as before.

Why? Solutions must be fully embraced at the top. It’s hard to drive change from a position without power and support. While it is possible to lead upwards, it is infinitely more difficult. We start by embodying the change we want to see first.

Questions to consider: What support structures do you currently have in place for yourself? Do you have strong relationships both professionally and personally? What personal growth investments have you made in yourself over the past year? Do you feel strong, aligned with your values, and connected with others?

Be generous with your time and resources. We need to rethink how we invest in people. What do they truly need? Where are the pain points for them, where are the opportunities, the possibilities? Are we actively listening with deep attention, or do our assumptions and agendas rule our interactions with others?

We need to focus on what Gartner refers to as human-centric work models with caring, engaged leaders. This isn’t soft or naïve; it drives better outcomes. We live in a time of lost loyalty, high turnover, and huge drops in engagement and productivity—isn’t it time for some new approaches?

One way to support individuals is by investing in learning and development. People need tools, and then they need support in implementing those tools.

The learning and development space is currently undergoing a major overhaul. From massive changes in our educational institutions to AI in corporate spaces, education and adult learning is rapidly changing. And that’s a good thing, because it’s been broken for a while. Looking at the recent research around training and what’s known as Ebbinghaus’ “Forgetting Curve,” consider that upwards of 75 percent of information received is lost within six days without reinforcement. The reality is that adult learning often requires hands-on experience, especially for skills such as communication, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. These can be tricky to teach through traditional methods.

Training needs to be iterative and applied to real-time work problems. Teams need to share collaboratively in the solution development. This means more communication, facilitation, and engagement through the learning process. This doesn’t have to be done externally—teams can easily do this in-house—but it needs to be consistent. Companies that invest in their teams through targeted training programs and then integrate continued check-ins and real-time facilitation or coaching (internal or external) will thrive.

How are your teams taught? Are you integrating their training with reflections on real-time challenges and scenarios? Have you integrated this iterative and interactive type of training with your teams and into programs? Are you supporting your teams and leaders with executive coaching? How are you integrating real-time and iterative learning into your programs and projects?

Growth mindset, a term coined by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, teaches us that our intelligence and abilities increase with effort and persistence: learning is an ongoing process. As we consider how to best support growth in both ourselves and in our teams, we need to ensure we are actively tending to the ongoing support of our growth so we don’t stifle it. Three steps we follow are care, challenge, and celebrate.

Care: How do you truly show your employees you care? Looking at research by Harvard business professor Teresa Amabile and her book The Progress Principle, we see that employees are not just motivated by a paycheck but by the feeling of consistent and meaningful progress. More specifically, people thrive when their progress and inner work-lives are recognized, supported, and appreciated by leaders and supervisors. This means witnessing and sharing in people’s professional growth.

This type of connection requires a deep level of presence and engagement from leaders. How do we do this when our collective attention spans are dropping (see the book Stolen Focus by Johann Hari)? How can leaders maintain true presence and connect with others when their energy is low and their hours are long? Harvard Business Review’s Special Spring 2024 title says it all: “How to Lead When Everyone’s Exhausted.” So how do we care when we don’t have any energy left? If this resonates with you, go back to step #1: focus on you first.

When you are done with that step, then consider these questions: What work structures do you have in place to support your leaders so they aren’t working consistently at capacity? On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s your team’s typical workload level? Does that provide the time needed for effective mentorship, connection, and communication within your team? What would happen if you had that? How might that change your inner-office relationships, collaboration, and coordination on projects?

Challenge: High-performance teams have certain qualities. Common qualities include strong communication, a sense of pride, and meaningful work, as well as fun and humor shared by team members.

One other quality I look for in a team is their ability to constructively challenge each other. This is the signal of a team rooted in high trust and safety. Teams like this have a healthy respect and appreciation for the strengths each member brings and an awareness that diversity of thought brings better outcomes, always.

How is your team challenging each other? Are challenges commonly brought to the table, or is it simply tacit and lukewarm agreement? More importantly, are team members challenging through a continued display of ego (signaling a lack of safety and trust), perhaps quietly condemning behind closed doors? Or are they able to challenge each other gently sometimes, and greatly spirited at other times—always ending in joyful humor or with smiles and kindness afterwards? If so, that is truly sharing in the benefits of divergent ways of thinking, and it’s the real mark of a high-value and effective team.

Celebrate: Clients who know how to celebrate well are clients who have engaged and happy team members. It’s the celebrations that matter. It’s the recognition, appreciation, and connection that keep people there at your office. Not the stale pizza parties or the obligatory evening social hour. The real celebrations. In the moment. The boss who says, “Wow, you’ve been working hard this week. I see you.” It’s the simple thank you notes written by supervisors. The email with a CC: to a C-suite exec.

It’s the little appreciations that matter, backed with bonuses and all the benefits we can offer within budget. Push the budget for them when you can, especially if you hold power. Use the power you have. Celebrate big. Don’t miss the good stuff. Take time for it. Your team and our community will thank you for it.

As we step into this moment and reflect on our community, I invite us to consider the impact we are already currently having and the potential steps to serve even more deeply. As we solve our challenges of today and prepare for our tomorrows, we are going to need strong, centered, and connected people. Invest in that for yourself and your teams today. Who knows who you’ll inspire and the impact you might have.