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The Gift

When I was asked to join the Milestone Leadership team (Soderquist Leadership in those days), there were two conflicting thoughts that crossed my mind.

One thing I knew to be true is, as leaders, we have a bigger footprint in the world than most.  That fact alone does not make us better, or more valuable, or even more impactful.  In some ways it simply means we have more responsibility to ourselves and others.  We are not our own anymore.  The thought of spending my days working with leaders, helping them grow and become a student of leadership and a Leader Worth Following was exciting.  At the same time, there was this shadow thought that came creeping in.

What would I really have to offer?

While I had spent many years in leadership, I would not claim to have been the best leader in any of those organizations.  Simply being a practitioner in my mind wasn’t enough.  That thought in and of itself was a compelling reason for me to graciously decline.  Well…if any of you ever had the pleasure of working with our founder at Milestone, Don Soderquist, one thing you know to be true is Don was very convincing.  After a couple of breakfast conversations, I found myself standing in the doorway of Milestone Leadership’s offices, ready to start my first day.  I still had not fully reconciled my value dilemma, but Don had bolstered my confidence enough to accept and start this new chapter in my journey. So here I was, with all my leadership experience. Good, bad, warts and all, I was ready to do what I could to contribute.

What I quickly discovered caused me to feel a sense of extreme gratitude.

You see, over the many years of my career, people poured into me as a leader.  There was not a year that went by where the organizations and individuals I worked with did not invest in my growth as a leader.  Formal and informal training and development was a constant in my life.  As I began working with leaders to help them develop themselves, their teams, and their organizations, I quickly realized the development experience I enjoyed was quite unique.  Many leaders and teams I encountered had received little or no support in understanding and growing themselves.  Most development focused on skill and knowledge acquisition, but not the core of a leader.

At Milestone, one of our flagship programs is our Milestone Leadership Intensive.

This unique opportunity allows individuals to work in a small cohort setting over multiple days to really dig into the core of who they are as leader.   It is a unique opportunity and a gift to you as a leader that is very similar to those gifts I continuously received throughout my own journey.

If this sounds like an opportunity you would like to undertake, our next sessions are September 14-17, 2021 and November 9-12, 2021. Give yourself the gift of time and personal growth, and prepare to see the future rewards of your investment.


Written by: Alex Cornett, Partner – Milestone Leadership

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