Can you think of a time when you asked for something – with toes curled and jaw clenched – braced for a “no”?
Here I am: asking; bracing; hoping that the research rings true and our community wins over the algorithm.
Written by Amy Walter, Leaders Plus
We talk a lot about the power of referrals, networks, and sponsors on the Leaders Plus Fellowship.
During our programmes, Fellows are encouraged to push through the discomfort of asking for the support they need to progress their careers; to ask even when it feels unbearably daunting.
I recently re-listened to our founder and CEO Verena’s conversation with Professor Vanessa Bohns on the Big Careers, Small Children podcast, and it reminded me to ask more from our wonderful community so we can continue to support you in the most effective way possible.
According to Vanessa, research shows that if you’re direct and sincere, you’re actually more likely to hear a yes than a no.
So…
Can you help us reduce our reliance on social media?
We’re an award-winning social enterprise with a small team who all work part-time.
We’ve been able to help over 350 Fellows on our programmes, and thousands of working parents through our resources, without compromising on our individual work-life boundaries, and we’re really proud of that.
Enter: the algorithm.
Social media, in the early days of Leaders Plus, was fundamental to reaching working parents who could benefit from our support to progress their careers.
It offered a sense of community, of social networking.
Now, though, times are changing, and the focus of many platforms is on gaming the algorithm to ensure we stay visible to even a small percentage of our thousands of followers.
Here’s the truth:
- As an organisation, we want to focus on creating resources that help working parents, not endless variations of graphics and reels and threads.
- As a team, we don’t want to, and aren’t physically able to within reasonable working hours, churn out the volume of content that would be needed to stay ahead of the constant algorithm changes.
- As a marketer, mum, and human being, I don’t feel comfortable spending long hours on certain platforms that are becoming unsafe spaces for the people we are trying to support.
Of course, we’re not in a position to remove ourselves from social media entirely, nor do we want to. We love engaging with our community and building new networks.
This request is simply about future-proofing our growing organisation and ensuring continuity of support for working parents regardless of the unpredictability of Big Tech.
Three ways you can help
- If you haven’t already, we would love you to sign up to our newsletter list using the form immediately below.
- Think: forward first, follow second. If you find one of our resources, newsletters, or our Fellowship programmes useful, please forward to a friend directly and encourage them to sign up too, rather than just following on social media.
- Remember that email can be social too! Part of the reason that we’re not completely removing ourselves from social media is because we still want to engage with our community of 1,000s of working parents. We want to hear what challenges you’re struggling with, and the solutions you’ve found that other working parents might benefit from hearing. Please do feel free to reach out to the team via email with any feedback, suggestions, or requests for specific resources that might help.
At Leaders Plus, we’re building a world where nobody has to choose between an ambitious career and raising a young family, but it’s going to take significantly longer if our team has to choose between making reels to keep appeasing the algorithm versus answering the questions that our community really needs answers to.
So, that’s my ask: please help us reduce our reliance on social media so we can do more of the work that directly benefits ambitious parents who want to progress their careers.
I’ll be here, toes curled and jaw clenched, bracing for the potential impact we could make.
Amy