If we choose to coach anyone who can afford to pay us, the likely result is that those with the most disposable income will receive the most coaching. Is this truly the impact we would like to have on the world? On the other hand, when we decide to coach a population whose increased success creates a shift we would like to see in society, we become positive agents of change.

Over the past decade as the coaching profession has matured, coaches have begun to realize our potential impact on the planet. Instead of simply focusing on our own survival, many of us are now seeing a much larger role for coaching, and coaches, to play.

Cindy Reinhardt and Donna Zajonc saw a new way for coaches to make a difference when they founded an ICF Special Interest Group for political leadership coaching in 2004. Cindy and Donna envisioned “a world where political leaders regularly call upon the expertise of master coaches as they grapple with the challenges of public leadership.”

Patrick Williams launched the initiative “Coaching the Global Village” in 2005, with the goal “to create positive social change for the underserved, undervalued, underfed, undereducated, and underappreciated in many of the villages and towns of the world… using the coach approach.”

In 2005, Virginia Kellogg became a project partner for the “Coaching and Philanthropy” venture initiated by several major U.S. foundations. The project aims to advance the application of coaching in the nonprofit sector “as a strategy for cultivating strong leadership and building effective nonprofit organizations.”

The backdrop behind each of these prominent examples is that of individual coaches making the decision to target a new population as clients — one that they recognized would create the change they wanted to see in the world. This is a decision any of us can make.

For coaches to make the greatest positive impact possible, we need to choose our clients with that intention. This is one area where the coach most definitely gets to have an agenda.

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the Sept 2008 issue of Choice Magazine, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

But isn’t the purpose of business to make a profit? Aren’t businesses supposed to be focused on the bottom line? It appears that the very definition of these terms is changing. Increasingly, businesses are choosing to pursue what many are calling the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profits. They are judging their own success or failure not just on financial performance, but on how well they address social and environmental issues.

In pursuit of this triple bottom line, many businesses have adopted social responsibility practices. They work to reduce their carbon footprint, source their products from manufacturers that treat workers fairly, and commit to provide a higher quality of life for their employees. Others go beyond making their own operations socially responsible and contribute to the world around them. They donate a portion of profits to charities, engage in cause marketing partnerships, or sponsor volunteering programs for their employees.

But there is a new breed of enterprise making its appearance. An increasing number of businesses are not merely socially responsible; they have adopted a social mission at their core. For these enterprises, their reason for existence is not to turn a profit, it’s to make the world a better place. They have joined the ranks of social entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurship is an innovative blend of social action and entrepreneurial strategies. These new enterprises take a variety of forms, and come in all sizes. Some are organized as for-profit businesses dedicated to social change. Others are nonprofit organizations paying their own way with income-earning enterprises.

A third approach is used by professionals in private practice who offer their services pro bono to people and communities in need. And some social entrepreneurs are individuals working as full-time activists, educators, or organizers for their cause.

The uniqueness of the social entrepreneurship approach becomes more apparent when seeing it in action. Here are three typical models for social entrepreneurship ventures and examples of some of the people and organizations engaged in them.

Social Business - A for-profit business with a social agenda that holds a higher priority than maximizing profits. Its core product or service line is designed to directly address a social need. Also called “not just for profit (NJFP)” businesses, these enterprises use earned income to finance their good works.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this model in practice is the Grameen Bank. Founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1983, Grameen Bank was established in order to provide microloans to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. As of December 2007, Grameen has over 7 million borrowers, and a 95% percent repayment rate. In 2006, Grameen earned a profit of $20 million U.S. It is the first and only business to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earned Income Nonprofit - A nonprofit organization addressing social problems that derives a substantial portion of its income from products and services it sells to those who can pay, rather than relying solely on grants and donations. Organizations like these and their initiatives are often referred to as “social enterprises.”

A thriving organization using this model is the Delancey Street Foundation. Founded by Mimi Silbert and John Maher in 1971 to help substance abusers, ex-convicts, and the homeless get back on their feet, Delancey Street accepts no government funding. Up to 65% of their funds come from businesses run by the clients themselves: a moving company, restaurants, a print shop, and more. The businesses serve as vocational schools, teaching marketable job skills to the clients. Over 14,000 people have turned their lives around through Delancey Street’s programs.

Pro Bono Practice - A professional services group of one or more lawyers, health practitioners, consultants, or other professionals designed primarily to serve people unable to pay. The group earns its income by charging full fees to other clients, selling additional products and services to those who can pay, or finding sponsors for their work. It’s a simple model that allows even the smallest business to have an impact.

For example, San Francisco chiropractor Dr. Juan Campos began in 1988 to make an annual trip to El Salvador to offer pro bono chiropractic services. He soon asked other chiropractors to join him, all of whom paid their own expenses for the trip from their private practice income. Dr. Campos’ Chiropractic Mission to El Salvador has continued for 19 years. In 2005, 17 chiropractors and 34 students provided chiropractic care to 24,000 Salvadorians. Every volunteer paid his or her own way to participate.

What these models have in common is that they apply business principles and entrepreneurial skills to address social issues. They use the spirit, creativity, and drive of motivated individuals to make a positive difference in the world.

Because social entrepreneurs cross traditional boundaries between the worlds of government, nonprofit, and business, there is no way — yet — to accurately count how many social entrepreneurship ventures there actually are. Charles Leadbeater, author of The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, estimates that the social entrepreneurship sector employs around 40 million people globally, with 200 million more as volunteers.

Another reason it’s difficult to count social entrepreneurs is that a standard definition for the term has yet to emerge. In this article, the focus is on enterprises that earn income or are driven by business entrepreneurs. But many believe the scope of social entrepreneurship is even wider, encompassing any innovative venture with the aim of creating social change, regardless of its funding sources or business model.

Regardless of what truly defines social entrepreneurship, one telling indicator of its tremendous growth is the number of organizations and programs that have been established to serve social entrepreneurs.

Ashoka and Echoing Green sponsor fellowships for social entrepreneurs. The Skoll Foundation and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship offer grants. Social entrepreneurs gather in associations such as Social Enterprise Alliance, Social Venture Network, and the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs. There are conferences like the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Summit.

At least thirty universities around the world have social entrepreneurship programs, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. Fast Company magazine recognizes leading social entrepreneurs annually with its Social Capitalist Awards.

Social entrepreneurship is not just an appealing idea, it’s a growing, worldwide movement. In the words of Ashoka founder Bill Drayton, “Right now we have one of the rare instances where we can really impact the long-term architecture of half of society — for generations going forward. Every leading social entrepreneur is a role model. The result is that in community after community, each entrepreneur is encouraging someone, or several people, to become local changemakers. And that leads to everyone being a changemaker.”

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the Feb 2008 issue of the Get Slightly Famous Webzine, and has not been printed elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

Supporting entrepreneurship in the developing world has long been considered one of the best approaches to “teach people to fish” and build sustainable local economies. In recent years, studies by the United Nations, World Bank, and others have shown that women entrepreneurs are more likely to contribute to community development than men, and are therefore better candidates for support programs. In the words of rock star/activist Bono: “Give a man a fish; he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit; she, her husband, her children, and her extended family will eat for a lifetime.”

Many programs have focused on providing access to capital, building needed infrastructure, and revising legal and regulatory requirements to make business ownership a more viable option. While these factors are critically important for entrepreneurs to thrive, there is one more issue that successful programs need to address: building an entrepreneurial culture.

Without a culture that supports entrepreneurship, women don’t perceive it as an option. Learning to fish requires something even more basic than bait, nets, or an adequate supply of fish. It requires that there be water. An entrepreneurial culture is the body of water that must exist in order for fishing to begin.

There are three dimensions to building a culture that supports women’s entrepreneurship in the developing world:

• Education and training
• Access to support and information networks
• Family and community support

When all three of these dimensions are addressed, entrepreneurs can flourish. But when any one of the elements is missing, the others alone may not be sufficient for women entrepreneurs to succeed.

Education and Training

Providing business education and entrepreneurial training is often the central component of economic development programs, and is essential to successful efforts. Many training programs focus on teaching women the technical skills needed to operate a specific business, such as manufacturing handcrafts, producing food or beauty products, or raising dairy or wool animals.

But in many areas of the developing world, women have received little or no formal education, and what schooling they have often focuses solely on literacy. Needed areas of added learning are typically basic business skills such as bookkeeping, budgeting, supervision, marketing, and sales, as well as understanding the legalities of starting a business, and obtaining localized information about access to markets and sourcing materials, inventory, or qualified workers.

The needed learning doesn’t end there. The European Commission 2004 report, How to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture, explains that education is not only necessary in business skills, but also in “the development of personal qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship, such as creativity, spirit of initiative, risk-taking, and responsibility.”

Business skills can often be taught in a classroom or workshop setting, and through internships or apprenticeships, but skill-building in areas such as initiative, risk-taking, effective communication, and leadership qualities may require mentoring, experiential learning, and peer support, as described further below.

Access to Support and Information Networks

A key element for the success of any entrepreneur is the availability of mentorship and peer support. Studies by the U.S. National Commission on Entrepreneurship revealed that the most successful entrepreneurs are “embedded in a supportive system that includes networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs” and “links to mentors and role models.”

Mentors and entrepreneurial peers can provide general business advice, suggest specific solutions, make connections to influential people, recommend resources, and share best practices. Role models can inspire by example, encouraging prospective entrepreneurs to follow what may be a non-traditional path.

Mentorship and support networks can be significant for men and women alike, but evidence suggests that for women, they are critical. According to Joan Steitz, a UNESCO laureate at Yale University, “We cannot expect to capture the interest and talents of girls and women… unless they can view their own participation as possible.” Women often need to see other women operating businesses before they will choose entrepreneurship for themselves.

A fundamental component of successful women’s entrepreneurship programs is that they provide access to mentors, peers, and role models through structured group activities, formal mentoring partnerships, or informal networks of students, graduates, and other women in the community.

The most effective programs offer regular gatherings where participants can share success stories, seek solutions to common problems, reinforce newly-learned skills, and experience a sense of partnership and camaraderie. These meetings continue well beyond the initial training period, to provide ongoing support as the women’s enterprises grow.

To help women improve the personal skills that bolster entrepreneurship — risk tolerance, self-confidence, and powerful communication, for example — support groups like these can be a more effective method of skill-building than classroom education. With the continuing encouragement and example of their peers, women become more confident about their enterprises, increase their self-esteem, learn to lead others, and are better able to withstand opposition and setbacks.

Family and Community Support

The final dimension to building an entrepreneurial culture can be the most difficult to achieve. If family members and community leaders oppose women launching business ventures, this can be a persistent barrier. Values, attitudes, and cultural attributes in many areas of the world can prevent policymakers from taking the necessary legal or financial action to support women entrepreneurs. Opposition from husbands, fathers, in-laws, and religious and political leaders can discourage women from choosing entrepreneurship or sabotage their efforts.

One approach to building support for women’s entrepreneurship is to provide evidence to community leaders of how other communities have benefitted. In areas where women have been able to launch successful entrepreneurial ventures, communities see a dramatic improvement in living standards. Not only are the women’s families better fed and housed, but their children receive more education, and the family’s health improves. When political and religious leaders learn of these tangible potential benefits, they can often be persuaded to change their views.

Another effective strategy is to educate family members. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, overcame initial opposition to offering microcredit to Bangladeshi women in this way: “We started meeting with the husbands and explaining the program in a way where they could see it would be beneficial to their family. And we made sure to meet with husbands and wives together so everyone understood what was expected.”

A third successful avenue is to encourage women to speak out for themselves. Bolstered by seeing other women’s success and participating in peer support groups, Yunus says, “Women started confronting the religious people. They said, ‘You think taking money from Grameen Bank is a bad idea? Okay, we won’t take any more — if you give the money yourself… And of course the religious advocates said, ‘No, no, we can’t give you money.’ So that was the end of that.”

Building an Entrepreneurial Culture

To teach women entrepreneurs how to fish, it’s clear that simply handing out fishing equipment isn’t enough, nor is it effective to teach basic fishing skills and then walk away. Entrepreneurs need the ongoing guidance of experienced fisherwomen, as well as the companionship of other novices. They also need to live near a body of water where fishing is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Creating this environment is the critical task of entrepreneurial development programs. But many programs have focused only on skills training, neglecting the social support elements that enable entrepreneurs to thrive. According to the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, the essential attributes of an entrepreneurial support organization are:

• They place primary focus on entrepreneurs rather than the enterprises they create.
• They build a support system that nurtures entrepreneurs during the idea phase, provides the resources and tools needed to create new enterprises, and guides the entrepreneur through the process of growing a business.
• They contribute to the creation of entrepreneurial environments where entrepreneurship is supported in both the public and private sectors.

The hallmark of a successful program is that it offers support to the entrepreneur instead of just to her business. Program elements such as peer support groups, mentoring partnerships, and community outreach provide a nurturing social environment for fledgling entrepreneurs.

Supporting all three dimensions of entrepreneurial culture — education and training, access to support and information networks, and family and community support — should be an essential goal of every entrepreneurial development program. With this three-faceted approach, advocates of women’s entrepreneurship will create an environment where women business owners can thrive.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was written for the Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs project of FLOW: Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good, and has not been published elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.