What Leaders Need Now

Are you leading with courage? Compassion?

Do you know what’s possible …
For you? Your team? Your organization?

Are you finding joy in your work?

“When faced with adversity, leaders have three choices: avoid it, endure it, or transform it. We facilitate transformation.”

– Andrea Chilcote

We Listen. We Guide.
We Enable Transformation.

What leaders need now is not a statement, but a key dialogue at a critical time. What began as questions leaders asked as the world entered one of the most significant crises of modern times became Morningstar Ventures’ founder Andrea Chilcote’s core work. She and her colleagues answered the call.

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What Leaders Need NowSM

Inner Qualities and Essential Practices

Drawing upon thirty years of experience as a leadership development expert and executive coach, as well as three years of immersion into the effects of a global pandemic on organizational culture and employee well-being, author Andrea Chilcote envisions What Leaders Need Now: compassion, courage, and humility. She presents these three qualities as internal capabilities that can be grown, honed, and nurtured through the essential practices of development, reflection, and acknowledgment. It is then, she says, that you can “begin to embody the leader at the heart of your being.” 

Leaders with a strong sense of purpose, or those seeking one, will find this work simultaneously provocative and reassuring as we seek to unearth the potential in all for compassion, courage, and humility. The essential practices of development, reflection, and acknowledgment allow us to begin to examine beliefs, behaviors, and values and commit to being leaders who are most needed now in the workplace and in our communities.

We’re Here to Help You

"Andrea is courageous, empathetic, and completely focused. She has challenged me to do the deeper work and explore beliefs that sometimes hold me back. It has been a transforming journey for me and has shaped my perspective and the way I work with my clients.”

Executive Coaching

If leaders are to take on the daunting task of transformation – of a team or an entire organization – (indeed, the work of leaders), this requires an inward look toward their own transformation. An executive coach acts as a guide, a mirror to gain awareness, a thinking partner, and a safe place for testing ideas.

Team Transformation

Cohesive, high-functioning teams make better, faster decisions and tap into the skills and opinions of all members. They don’t waste time on the wrong issues, revisiting the same topics repeatedly because of conflict avoidance or a lack of shared commitment. Cohesive teams are a competitive advantage – and a lot more fun!

“While Andrea is a role model for someone skilled at reflection, and she goes deep into her and others' theories on “why” something is or feels the way it does, she is skilled at bringing those theories back into the reality of the complex and uncertain world in which we live and work. That ability to take deep reflection and make the outcome feel actionable is a rare skill not possessed by many. Perhaps the most important quality I/the team needed from her was the ability to portray absolute, unquestionable trustworthiness – trust that content uncovered in the work was completely confidential, trust that she was there for YOU, not for herself or someone else, and trust that she was with you no matter how tough it got. This attribute is a table stakes item that provides the underlying foundation for the hard work we tackled together.”
Janet Barnard
Former Chief People Officer, Cox Automotive & Founder/Owner Era Novum Consulting

Thought Leadership

Articles

What We Carry – The Journey of Self Compassion

By Andrea Chilcote

Perfectionism. It’s a label thrown around often, sometimes carelessly. It can be used in a pejorative way yet can be worn as a badge of honor. Perfectionism is not a mental health disorder—it’s a personality trait. And like any personality trait, taken to an extreme, it can be debilitating.
In this series, I seek to help readers lighten the load of the burdens we all carry, often unconsciously, that cause us to be less than compassionate, kind, and loving toward ourselves.

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Podcasts

What Leaders Need Now: Authenticity | Episode 8

What Leaders Need Now co-founder, Andrea Chilcote, has a very personal and courageous discussion with former executive and now leadership coach, Dianne Earley, on authenticity. Dianne brings forth some of her experiences and learnings to the benefit of others and provides insight into why authentic leaders and cultures are a requirement to stay competitive in today’s business world. Dianne’s very real stories will make you ask yourself “why not?” and cause you to rethink compassion in the workplace.

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Articles

What We Carry – The Journey of Self Compassion

By Andrea Chilcote

Do you genuinely care about the people in the team or organization that you lead? One of the messages readers have found most affirming in my new book, What Leaders Need Now, is the idea that compassion is a legitimate and essential leadership quality in a world in which the majority of employees are “quiet quitting” (not engaged), according to Gallup’s 2023 Global Workplace report. One client put it simply: “Times have changed, and people need people who actually care.”

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“The Times They Are A-Changin’ ”

– Bob Dylan

Leaders need support now more than ever before. So much is at stake. Andrea and our contributors can help you and your team on a journey of transformation through executive coaching and team development.