Grateful I Said “Yes”
What if I hadn’t said yes? What if I hadn’t been asked? How would my leadership story be different?
I’m honored to claim a long, deep history with the Fieldstone Leadership Network spanning the past 35 years. Janine Mason and I met in 1987 when she was a program officer for the Fieldstone Foundation, and I was a new CEO at Home Start. At that time Fieldstone was a corporate grant maker with an elegant philosophy and genuine cash support. It was my first experience with a funder that respected nonprofit leaders as much as corporate ones. Even today, this regard is rare.
Fast forward to 1993, when Fieldstone offered me a year of free coaching services from Levasis Ministries. I didn’t know what coaching would offer but I said yes, and quickly realized the pivotal value of coaching when Home Start lost an essential contract that year. With coaching support, we took a deep dive into Home Start’s mission. Driven by new energy and purpose, Home Start grew to serve even more families, recouping its financial losses within a year. Looking back, I believe having a coach was key to the success and speed of Home Start’s recovery. Thank goodness I’d said yes!
Laura, front row right, with one of the 35 learning groups she facilitated for Fieldstone. (2020)
I said yes again when Fieldstone invited me to join its first executive learning group. I decided first to finish my coaching year and then joined the 2nd group in 1995. That’s when the ground shifted under my career-climbing feet. Maybe I wasn’t an imposter after all and maybe all that instinctual, visceral stuff I’d been saying and doing at work, had a genuine basis in the field? I found my passion in leadership work and was so impressed with the peer-learning model that I asked if I could become a facilitator. Thankfully her answer was yes and for the next 22 years, I facilitated more than 35 executive and emerging nonprofit learning groups in Newport Beach, Salt Lake City and San Diego. I felt then, now, and always that this work was the deepest privilege of my career. For the small part I played in developing nonprofit leaders, I received fundamentally more…the benefit of their wisdom, experiences and humanity, and the opportunity to fully live and give my passion.
Laura, third from right in the front row, with her fellow Fieldstone Coaches. This was the first group of peer coaches Fieldstone trained for its new program in 1996.
If you’ve experienced a learning group, you know their special nature, and if you’ve read the evaluations, you know their efficacy. But what stands out about the learning groups is what drew me to the work to begin with. Over the decades I’ve come to know the learning groups as unique, exquisite and magical experiences for most who participate. Unique always because the constellation of every group is different, yielding different dynamics…exquisite because of the sacred space, and the lack of politics and outside pressures…and magical because the problem-solving process used by the groups worked 90% of the time even if the solutions didn’t. There was something about being a learning group participant…the universe would tag you for success.
Yes was the answer again in 2021 when Janine asked me to help update the learning group curriculums. It was the opportunity to infuse two decades of experience into the curriculum design along with today’s most relevant content. In a nutshell, it was legacy work…an unexpected gift and another great privilege in my career.
I can’t finish my Fieldstone reflection without a few words about its leadership, namely Janine, who has become a cherished colleague and friend over the years. I’ve watched her mature from a young program officer to the graceful visionary who leads this worthy organization. Under her stewardship, FLNSD has become a deeply relevant leadership organization garnering both local and national recognition.
As I said on Fieldstone’s 20th anniversary, “it was my lucky day when Janine Mason visited me at Home Start in the late 1980’s. We talked in my dilapidated storefront for hours and made a true connection that altered my life and career. That connection was the catalyst of my leadership story, and it has led to the discovery of my best self through leadership exploration and practice. Thank goodness I said yes!
With deep appreciation,
Laura Spiegel
Laura Spiegel began her career doing youth development work in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. After earning an MSW from Arizona State University in 1979, Laura moved to San Diego to start her career in earnest. For the next 30 years, Laura worked progressively upstream to prevent childhood adversity. For 6 years, Laura worked in delinquency prevention at SAY San Diego before taking a job with the City of Escondido in child abuse prevention. In 1987, Laura became the CEO of Home Start, Inc., serving 16 years before becoming the director of the First 5 Commission of San Diego, where she served for 6 years.
Affiliated with the Fieldstone since the late 1980’s, Laura participated in an Executive Learning Group in 1995 and the Advanced Learning Group in 2000, she served as a coach from 1996-1998 and, between 1999 and 2021 has facilitated more than 35 executive and emerging leadership learning groups for the Network. After a move to Flagstaff, Arizona, Laura became the manager of education initiatives for United Way of Northern Arizona, where she served for several years before becoming a full-time organizational consultant for the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, conducting organizational assessments and providing technical assistance to children’s organizations throughout northern Arizona. Laura continues to consult with nonprofit organizations in Arizona and southern California.
Each week during our 40th anniversary year, a member of our Network will share what Fieldstone means to them and how being a part of this learning and leadership community has impacted them and the work they do to serve the community.
If you have a story you would like to contribute to our collection, please contact Janine Mason.