"Far-sighted thinking in journalism can be a game-changer"
Julie Van Ness is a farsighted leader with over 30 years of experience taking strategic action to help challenge the world’s shortsighted thinking, and its resulting problems, into transformative social impact. As an innovative leader and global collaborator, Julie has spent the past decade as President of Real Leaders, amplifying stories about leaders from all ages and stages of life, who have elevated their businesses and communities for positive impact. Simultaneously, Julie and her team have worked on countless mission-aligned events and programs to bring impact leaders out of their silos and into curated leadership groups to connect, activate and inspire more purpose-driven leadership, collaborating for change. Prior to Real Leaders, Julie’s experience and skillsets were in media relations, crisis management and public relations, both in the business and nonprofit sectors.
Tell us more about the "Real Leaders" magazine. What was the inspiration behind this publication?
Real Leaders was founded in 2010 as the world’s first sustainable business magazine. The aim was to “inspire better leaders for a better world” by creating compelling stories and examples of global leaders, in the impact leadership space, making positive change for our world. The original intention was to show CEOs how business can be a “force for good”, while making money, and to get inspired to create sustainable results to benefit society. In 2017, Real Leaders expanded into newsstands and strategic global distribution channels, to reach a larger audience of emerging leaders and to collaborate with more purpose-driven leaders to amplify the social impact movement.
What are the themes on which "Real Leaders" aim to raise awareness?
Over the past 5 years, we have seen a significant increase in CEOs becoming more conscious and actively engaged in creating social impact businesses. Whether this elevated awareness has been realized through their own volition or through a variety of pressing factors such as customer demands towards sustainability, competition, investor pressures, hiring criteria, etc., this awareness is growing exponentially through peer learning and storytelling. Real Leaders supports a special Impact Collaborative for CEOs to tap into each other’s wisdom, talents, and connections to find solutions to issues that matter.
The “human element with collaboration” is a theme that got lost over the past few decades, but with the advanced technology with virtual events and zoom meetings, leaders around the globe can learn and grow faster together as they share innovative ideas across borders!
You have spent much of your career facilitating positive social impact. For someone to succeed in this field, what have been the most important skills?
In the growing area of social impact, with so much at stake for the health and well-being of our world, I find that the combination of these 5 key skills make the best “symphony for change” to create successful outcomes:
Humility and kindness: As an example, Covid and politics have brought out many strong emotions and adverse results, but it has also taught us that we can’t succeed (if at all) if we’re divided. Finding common ground comes naturally with demonstrating honesty, kindness, and an open approach to finding solutions— together. My third grader teacher and parents taught me this valuable lesson and I will be forever grateful.
Awareness: Diversity, inclusion, age, and gender parity are reflected in our world and within many of our families, so it teaches us that if we think holistically, we can obtain better outcomes with a diversity of input. If we lose sight of this awareness, we not only lose valuable input and balanced perspectives, but we can also lose a competitive edge.
Collaboration with values-aligned leaders: No one is literally “self-made”. We all succeed by collaborating, individually and as a species. Some people have not developed this muscle and life is harder for them and their success is very limited. The greater one’s ability to collaborate, the greater their success in life.
Real Action: I’ve been known for this saying: “It’s all about the A-word…Action! Otherwise, it’s just air coming out of your mouth” I truly believe it’s important to build a timetable with actionable steps when creating any plans, so you can see the progress, not just think about it. Perfection doesn’t need to be the NorthStar, but measurable results matter.
Mentoring: What good is all the wisdom and experience that we garner if we don’t think about passing those lessons down to the next generation? Helping those who will be dealing with continued and mounting problems in our world, means to me that we must take time to help, mentor, or share the lessons learned. Inspiring the next generation of leaders is one of my biggest passions and there is a plan, currently brewing within our company, to give youth a seat in the boardroom.
What role can social impact play in media and journalism?
Social impact businesses ultimately create “wins” for society which have purposeful meaning and can move people towards being a part of the solution, not the problem. The journalism community, in my humble opinion, could do a better job of “catching people who are doing good” versus those making mistakes. I tend to watch those shows or read publications that, at least, include something positive during their broadcast or in their written materials. The more media gets inspired to inspire others towards positive action, the more momentum it creates and can lift everyone up. Just imagine how the media could inspire society to improve if we focused as much time on how people are solving problems, as we do on the few bad apples that are creating problems. Far-sighted thinking in journalism can be a game changer!
