The Mental health of Leaders today is strengthened through community

I believe that one of the underutilized keys to accelerating the growth of Leaders in our decentralized world today is community.

‍In 2022, how each of us live, work, and connect has been forever changed by the effects of Covid-19 across the world.

However, there are new opportunities that emerge for community building in the new world we all find ourselves in as we all embrace working in decentralized teams. One of the opportunities that has emerged for me personally is being an active member of the LinkedIn Creators program.

True leadership is shown when it is tested. This is where we all are as Leaders today. I have found being in community lets you grow in the midst of test. As a Leader, we must all face the changes ahead head-on and grow in the presence of fear.

We are all doing things afriad. Being in a community of Leaders enables you to move effectively through the fear because we are all facing this together.

Being a part of this LinkedIn Creator program experience has brought with it new opportunities for deep learning and reflection for myself that I hope to share with some of my fellow Leaders hailing from companies like Amazon, Twitter, and many others with in this post. The LinkedIn creators program is an inherently decentralized experience. It is comprised of Creators who work across industries from Technology to Fashion. On Wednesday May 4 2022, I got a chance to build community in real life with both my fellow creators and part of the LinkedIn Creator Team at a private dinner in ATL.

As I reflect on how it is important for all humans to optimize our mental health, I am grateful to Danielle (one of our WORKOPTI Beta Customers) for introducing me to Jeremy my Creator Manager. Jeremy has connected me into a communiy of Leaders in the LinkedIn Creator Program for which I forever grateful. This is because I know from experience that the mental health of Leaders is strengthened through community.

Leaders teach leaders in the LinkedIn Creator program - Elkanah Reed

Getting to meet some my fellow LinkedIn Creators here in Atlanta at a dinner organized by some of our exceptional Linkedin Creator Program Mangers that we all share as members of the LinkedIn Creator Community in May 2022 was a real treat. Shout out to Yrbenka Arthus, Jane Kim, Erin Ceaser, Jenny Park, and Jeremy Clayton (my creator manager) .

My hope is to remain a LinkedIn Creator who gives more value than I receive and leave our world in a better position that when I first entered into it. - Elkanah Reed

Learning Opportunity 1.

The opportunity in embracing the decentralized nature of work today is fully embracing the opportunities we have when we all are able to come together to learn from each other in person.

At our Dinner in ATL, I learned that LinkedIn Creators are Leaders guiding the future of work at places like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Twitter as well as they are building amazing businesses as entrepreneurs across categories. I love that the LinkedIn Creator Managers strategically bring together a strong cohort of creators who both are different and simultaneously fuel our drive to make an impact in service of the greatest good.

Learning Opportunity 2.

LinkedIn has an opportunity to become the Creator Platform for Leaders. This is because LinkedIn has deep roots in strengthening professional networks at scale. At this dinner, I saw first hand the stories that can come out of the Creator Program. Small Dinners reinforce the essential connections decentralized teams need to remain healthy, strong, and creative. I am happy the LinkedIn Creator team is investing in building strong connections among each creator cohort.

Learning Opportunity 3.

The LinkedIn Creator program is in Seed form. This is not bad but the biggest opportunity of the three I have shared. This is because it does not yet clearly appear what the LinkedIn Creator program will be. Whereas other Mature Creator Programs at other social media platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and Facebook are well defined due to the roots of how each of the aforementioned platforms have previously achieved scale, LinkedIn can continue to build out itself to become the place where Leaders come to learn together.

I believe that one of the keys to acclerating growth of Leaders in our decentralized world is community - Elkanah Reed

Now this is not just in the hands of the LinkedIn Creators and the LinkedIn Creator Team. We are just the tip of the arrow of platform transformation.

The entire platform must decide what it wants to be in the world.

Now as for me, I choose to focus on optimizing my ability to lead through serving others.

As we all enter into the second half of 2022, together we mark the half-way point of a globally interconnected society that has been rocked by Covid-19 over the last two years and counting. Every leader is facing similar problems across industries as we all grapple with the challenges that have been created due to the active rise of decentralized work within Matrix organizations.

True leadership is shown when it is tested. This is where we all are as Leaders today. I have found being in community lets you grow in the midst of test. As a Leader, we must all face the changes ahead head-on and grow in the presence of fear. - Elkanah Reed

I am excited as an active LinkedIn Creator who is also Founder + CEO/Head of Product of an Enterprise SaaS company working for Leaders at over 153 organizations in our beta program already including: Comcast, Amazon, Adidas, Coinbase and Twitter.

Without community at our core, WORKOPTI would not be growing at the rate we are today as a bootstrapped Enterprise SaaS company with a Black Founder.

‍About WORKOPTI

WORKOPTI is a strategic planning platform that provides 1 click business insights to increase productivity by 70% and reduce meetings by 25%.

HOW WORKOPTI CREATES BUSINESSES EFFICIENCY TODAY  

• Working across decentralized teams in matrix organizations is challenging in the post-covid world.

• With WORKOPTI, businesses can design solutions to sync information and track performance KPIs across the enterprise.

• Workopti centralizes all the technologies teams use within our task manager to cut collaboration costs across the enterprise and drive greater business efficiency.