Lauren Sweeney co-founded Riviera Group Consulting with her husband George this year. The firm helps nonprofits and companies with board governance, leadership academies and one-on-one coaching. Before that, she ran the largest Walgreens store in North San Diego, spent more than 15 years as a Mary Kay sales director leading a team of over 200 women, and served as vice president of a training and development company.
In this episode of The PR Bunker Podcast, Lauren talks about why boards and staff need clear lanes, how to separate the facts from the story before a hard conversation, and the ideas behind her new book, High Courage Conversations.
A few takeaways from the conversation:
Nonprofits usually call Lauren in for one thing: a disagreement to mediate, bylaws and policies to review, or board meetings that have turned into rubber stamping. The deeper issue is often role confusion. When board members start running the day-to-day, or staff drift out of their lane, it creates havoc. Her job is to help leaders come out of the weeds so the board can focus on strategy.
When the work takes hold, Lauren sees more trust and more engagement, with shorter and more focused board meetings. Executive directors gain a sounding board, and boards learn that their one employee needs a contract.
Most frustration lives in a story: he did this, then she did that. Lauren coaches leaders to write down their intention and the three things, not the 29, they want to say. As her mentor puts it, be soft on people and hard on issues.
High courage is a muscle. Practicing presence, bravery and strategy when things are calm prepares leaders for the stressful moments, from a reduction in force to a budget gap.
Lauren shares how a Walgreens colleague's decision to quit became her own high courage moment, and how a mentor helped her see that who we are is not what is on our LinkedIn.
Find Riviera Group Consulting and Lauren's book at rivieragroupconsulting.com.
Listen to The PR Bunker Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
What does Riviera Group Consulting do?
Riviera Group Consulting, co-founded by Lauren Sweeney, works with nonprofits and companies on board governance, leadership development and one-on-one coaching, helping people, systems and governance work in alignment.
What is High Courage Conversations about?
Lauren's book covers how to lead with intention, separate the facts from the story, learn from mistakes and get to the other side of difficult conversations so teams can do good work. It is available on Amazon in paperback and on Audible.
Who is the best fit for Riviera Group Consulting?
Organizations going through change that know they have an alignment problem with their people, systems or governance, including nonprofits and for-profit executive teams.
Have a project, campaign, or comms challenge in mind?
Want to be a guest on the PR Bunker podcast?
Reach out and let’s talk.
