At this year’s Exemplary Leadership Celebration on April 18, guests received a special preview of the forthcoming book by American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, tentatively titled A Guide to Human Citizenship: The ALF Way. We’ve now made this selection of excerpts available in digital format here—click the image below to view.
Background
In 2020, against the backdrop of a pandemic and extraordinary civil, racial and environmental unrest, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley CEO Suzanne St. John-Crane began imagining a book that would outline the core principles of “the ALF Way,” featuring stories from ALF graduates —Senior Fellows—who had lived them. The idea was to reflect back to the network all that the organization had learned, taught, and nurtured since its founding in 1988, as a gift and a guide to leaders who were, and in many cases still are, navigating a steady stream of unprecedented challenges.
An advisory committee of Senior Fellows was assembled to provide input on these core practices, and 800 ALF graduates (Senior Fellows) were invited to submit their stories for consideration.
We now humbly offer an excerpt from our forthcoming book that highlights three of the eight tenets, and the stories of leaders who as it turns out, are also pretty great humans.
While ALF helps nurture and connect the grass tops of organizations across sectors and industries, you certainly don’t need to be running a company to practice ALF Way principles. Our hope is that the tenets, stories and reflection questions teach and inspire you, as together we navigate lightning speed disruption and societal change.
Special thanks to Board Member and Lead Advisor Tom Giles (Class XXXVII), Writer and Editorial Assistant Allyson Paul, and Marketing and Communications Director Richard Vega for bringing this publication to life. Thank you to curriculum contributors Akemi Flynn (Class XXVII) and Jenny Niklaus (Class XXIV), and our dear colleague Greg Ranstrom for the light he shined on these principles.
A special thank you to the three story contributors for this 2024 Exemplary Leadership publication: Diane Fisher (Class XXXVII), Aftab Jamil (Class XXXVII), Keith Krach (Class XV) and Marico Sayoc (Class XLI). Tenets written by Suzanne St. John-Crane (Class XXV / Urbanism XXXIV).
Please note: The political and world views expressed in the following Senior Fellow stories do not necessarily reflect those of the American Leadership Forum staff, board, or organization as a whole. Our mission is to join and strengthen diverse leaders to serve the common good, and therefore, we strive to give voice to a variety of leaders who are working towards that goal.
