Carolina Leadership Seminars

Serving South Carolina's dedicated new nonprofit executive directors.

Over the past four years, Carolina Leadership Seminars has established itself as a trusted, multi-faceted, leadership development program, designed exclusively for nonprofit executive directors.

Over 120 SC executive directors have participated since the program's inception in 2017.

Sisters of Charity Foundation of SC provided grant funding, inspiration and support for the first three years and continues to host our convenings, often joining to share their insights.

Each cohort is limited to twenty-five participants who engage in candid and confidential discussions with peers regarding their organization’s current performance and their personal leadership challenges.

Under Charles Weather's tutalege, and with input from Together SC staff, each session offers practical tools and actionable insights to improve your leadership, effectively steward your organization, spur your resolve to advance race equity, and increase your impact. Session topics are provided in detail below.

Focusing on what you need to know, the challenges of starting a new job currently with all that's happening, managing virtually, crisis mitigation, and race equity issues are now part of this comprehensive learning opportunity.

Fall 2021 Cohort Update

Registration has closed. This fall's cohort includes 24 amazing leaders.

This class of 21 men and 3 men live and work across 15 of SC’s 46 counties, with 42% located in smaller communities. The largest number, six, work out of the Charleston region. They lead staffs ranging in size from 1 to 40 FTEs. Budgets range from $50k to over $2m. There are founders and 20-year veteran leaders. Three run statewide organizations.

13 (54%) identify as African-American / Black and 11 identify as Caucasian. Many have worked for their organizations and recently been promoted to executive director. A number are seasoned executives who are new SC and to their organizations.

They lead United Ways, First Step programs, a food bank, a Habitat, a Father to Father program and many more wonderful programs. Five are on scholarships thanks to committed funding partners.

Your Together SC team is honored to provide the space and place for their growth and to walk along side them during this phase of their journey.

We'll announce the Fall 2022 schedule in the spring.

Our Facilitator

Charles C. Weathers, MBA, Founder & President of The Weathers Group, designs and leads all seminar sessions. Charles is a nationally known speaker, writer and consultant who is a recognized expert on nonprofit leadership, organizational effectiveness and performance improvement.

He and his team provide creative, interactive learning opportunities for participants to address current organizational and leadership challenges in a confidential, open-dialogue learning environment and brave space.

Eligibility

Participation is limited to Executive Directors/Chief Executive Officers, who have generally served in their current position for five years or less.
Organizations must be Together SC members in good standing, unless a Philanthropic Partner chooses to scholarship a participant.
To build an effective learning cohort, a selection process will be used to ensure class representation of diverse organizational types, backgrounds, and regions served.
Please carefully review the schedule posted below, BEFORE registering for the course. Participants must attend ALL sessions to receive a Certificate of Completion. Attendance will be kept.
To encourage support, applicants will be asked to provide an endorsement or nomination from a foundation involved in their organization. Foundations may also provide scholarship support for participants to encourage participation and defray costs.

Fall 2021 Schedule

We will convene from 10 till 2pm, with lunch provided. Participants are invited to arrive at 9:30 to network over coffee.
Sessions will be held monthly on the second Wednesday, in-person in Columbia. We will switch to virtual facilitation, if conditions require. Please be sure you can attend the following sessions before registering:
- August 11
- September 8
- October 13
- November 10
- December 8 should be held in case a make-up date is needed, or the cohort desires additional time together.

Cost

$325 covers lunch, materials, and facilitation costs for four, possibly five, sesssions of four hours each.
Member dollars, coupled with support from our generous philanthropic partners, help to make this program possible. The full cost would be over $700 a participant. If cost is a concern, please reach out.

Session Dates &Topics

Aug. 11 - The Board/CEO Relationship: Teamwork From the Top

The relationship between the Board and the CEO can make or break an organization. High-trust, understanding, clarity, and accountability are just a few of the traits that can strengthen this vital relationship. During this session participants learn to identify approaches that ban nurture meaningful relationship with their Board, as well as recommendations on how to repair a damaged Board/CEO relationship.

Sept. 8 - Leading Through Effective Communication

People frequently complain about a lack of communication on the job or in relationships and the inability of others to communicate. We have found that there is rarely a LACK of communication, but instead a lack of understanding about the many factors influencing communication. So how do we transform our dysfunctional communication styles into effective and productive interaction with others?

Through this session participants will be equipped to communicate effectively and pointedly with a variety of individuals and groups and better prepared to maintain composure in challenging situations.

Oct. 13 - Cultivating a High Trust Culture

Trust, according to Stephen M. R. Covey in his critically acclaimed book, The Speed of Trust, is more than a nice social virtue. It is a quantifiable, hard-edged economic factor that impacts our decisions and results on a daily basis. This session highlights the value of developing high trust relationships as well as the cost of low trust relationships.

Leaders who cultivate and maintain high trust relationships are much more likely to experience success in life, both professionally and personally.

Nov. 10 - Navigating Organizational Change

Organizations that navigate change have a greater chance of remaining relevant, viable, and competitive. Your ability to navigate change will contribute to your success as well as the success of your organization.

This session allows participants to explore approaches they can employ to better recognize and navigate organizational, economic, social, and political changes.

December 8 - TBD / Make-up

Prior Participant Testimonial...

"As a member of the 2017 class of Carolina Leadership Seminars for new execs, I want to share how much I learned from Charles Weathers and my fellow participants. I also formed really great new connections. In fact, Zakiya Esper, Sowing Seeds into the Midlands’s executive director, who was in my class, and I collaborated on a Photovoice project called Seen and Heard: Women and Girls in the Midlands.We also honored Zakiya at our International Women’s Day luncheon this year. The opportunity to meet and interact with execs from across the state in an ongoing learning environment was much appreciated and will continue to bear fruit in the community."

Ann Warner, CEO, WREN-Women’s Rights & Empowerment Network