Steven Fletcher, 2007

President
Capstan Solutions
Richmond

What is new and exciting with you now or since your LEAD VIRGINIA class year?

Since completing the LEAD VIRGINIA experience, I have left the corporate world. I now serve in an independent consulting capacity, assisting organizations tackle the financial and operational issues they confront. In my corporate roles, I typically enjoyed my work and the individuals with whom I interacted, but it was difficult for me to see any resulting societal benefits. Now I have the flexibility to directly help organizations succeed. Sometimes the organizations I help are non-profits, sometimes they are companies with a compelling idea or mission, and sometimes they are small to medium sized companies trying to maximize their potential. My contribution may be in the form of professional services or it may be in the form of a paint can or a stack of sandwiches. But now I am able to better integrate my career aspirations with my personal values.

How did your LEAD VIRGINIA experience help to shape you as a leader?

The LEAD VIRGINIA assemblage of such varied backgrounds, interests, callings, and talents - without a particular issue or agenda to be resolved - provided me with an opportunity unlike anything I had experienced since entering college. At that stage of life, I was too preoccupied with studies and social life to gain as much as I could have by listening to and learning from the collection of different backgrounds that surrounded me. But LEAD VIRGINIA gave me a second opportunity, and because of that opportunity, I have a much clearer sense of what is important to me and how I can contribute towards making Virginia an even better place to live and work. For me, LEAD VIRGINIA crystallized societal needs and inspired me to redirect my efforts toward more meaningful causes.

Since LEAD VIRGINIA, how have you put social capital to work?

My ability to continue to help organizations is directly related to the strength of the relationships I have with others. Most organizations that I meet come through introductions from individuals I have assisted in some way in the past. Most of those organizations need assistance of some kind…many times those needs are beyond the scope of the services I can provide. But those services are not typically beyond the scope of the collective services that my social network can provide. Many of the individuals who I met through LEAD VIRGINIA continue to be active participants in my networking and provide the means for me to help clients with needs beyond what I can accomplish on my own.

What is something that LEAD VIRGINIA inspired you to do that you were not doing before your class year?

The individuals I met in LEAD VIRGINIA and the important work they do in our communities sharpened my sense of social responsibility. As a result, I now evaluate every work engagement that I pursue not solely from a dollars and cents perspective, but on a broader scale which incorporates and integrates societal aspects which are meaningful to me.