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Everyone faces crucibles of adversity that make them who they are.
Leaders of influence use those moments to help forge themselves into better people and leaders, leaving it better than they found it and paying it forward to the next generations.
THE PROBLEM
We are facing a leadership crisis.
We find ourselves at a critical time when we need leaders to be called to a higher standard of honesty, decisiveness, integrity, and empathy. Yet, what we see is an inability for many in leadership positions to do just that: lead! This dilemma affects every stratum of our global society, each detail of the business, and the lives of individuals.
The negative impacts of poor leadership:
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​Loss of high-performing employees and increased turnover
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Low employee morale and poor work culture
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Decrease in team buy-in and engagement in the company vision
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Negative personal and organizational reputation
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Infection of unethical standards across the organization
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Poor sales and customer service performance, resulting in a lack of goal achievement
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Toxic personal home life and an absence of mental, emotional, and physical balance
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A decline in personal and workplace accountability, leading to poor outcomes
of American adults say most people can't be trusted.
via Pew Research Center
47%
of U.S. adults say that most people only look out for themselves.
via Pew Research Center
62%
of employees believe corruption is widespread in businesses.
via Gallup
74%
THE ACTION
The State of Leadership is not lost.
In fact, there are many exceptional leaders in our world, who have overcome great challenges and are making a difference in the lives of others, but often we never hear of them.
Our mission is to find them and bring them to you, to share personal stories of crucible moments and life challenges that have helped to shape the lives of these successful leaders and people.
Our foundation was created to highlight these narratives and create programs to encourage a higher standard of leadership and behaviors in current and future generations, resulting in a better world and improved organizations.
We created the Leadership Crucible Foundation to concentrate on the development of leaders, focusing on two core leadership traits that are essential to become a leader who is making a positive difference in the lives of others. The first is to leave the organization better than you found it, and the second is to pay it forward to the next generation of leaders.
No matter what level you find yourself in your organization, you always have an opportunity to make a positive impact on the people with whom you engage. That starts with the attitude you bring to your endeavor every day, and the commitment you make to helping other people. That is the essence of what successful leaders and people do. In my 40 years in the fire and emergency services, I have worked with many different leaders: some were exceptional, and others were inept. We can learn lessons from both.
Leaders are never born. They are forged from the experiences of their personal and professional lives.
THE CRUCIBLE, A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE
We define a "Crucible" as a challenging, transformative experience. Crucible experiences often move an individual to a new or altered sense of identity.
Personally, I have experienced success as well as adversity over my career. Each has brought with it a lesson of how to become a better leader, and hopefully, a better person. - Chief Randy Bruegman, Founder of The Leadership Crucible Foundation
OUR APPROACH:
Discover
Share
We discover impactful leaders who have yet to share their crucibles with others. These stories come to us by personal referrals.
With our podcast, newsletter, video conferences, and leadership programs, we share those stories with individuals all over the world.
Partner
Grow
We engage with organizations across the country to highlight various crucibles and uncover a better path to positive leadership.
We will continue to build new ways to share these crucibles, and the lessons learned with others, and to impact current and future leaders.
HOW WE'RE MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
Our goal is to attract people from all segments of society-CEOs to public servants, military and non-profit leaders, parents, community influencers, and young people to share their stories of the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned, forged from their own crucibles, that have helped shape them to become better leaders and better people. There are no requirements except humility, experience, a sincere desire to contribute, and a willingness to share with others.
Experience is a great teacher, but only when we share it with others.
Through social media, The Leadership Crucible Podcast, our newsletter, internal team video conferences, virtual trainings, and program materials, we share these stories with others to redefine leadership and pay these transformative lessons forward to future generations.
Our vision is to craft high-quality content so that individuals, and organizations, businesses and educational systems can use it to facilitate dialogue in their training and development programs and in support of organizational leaders who value people as their most important resource. These leaders invest in their teams, recognizing that practice as a foundation to building their culture within their own workgroups or business.
There is a saying that goes, “If I give you a dollar and you give me a dollar, we each just have a dollar.” But if I give you wisdom borne of demonstrated experience that you can use, the return to you, your organization, and your life will be of high value, not just in dollars, but in building a better organization and a better life. That is the impact the Foundation makes.
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
When we began the development of The Leadership Crucible Podcast, we initially did so as an LLC. But as we forged our vision for what The Leadership Crucible was to become, it became evident that we needed to do that as a 501(c) 3 non-profit foundation.
Our objective has never been, nor will be, to make money from this venture. It is to meet the two core tenants of our foundation: Pay it forward and leave it better than we found it. On December 8, 2022, the foundation received its determination letter from the IRS with an effective date of August 16th, 2022.
The foundation’s EIN number is 88-3767152.
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