Aimee’s Story

Guest Post by Aimee O'Grady

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since the Class of 2017 had its September retreat! I think mine is an unconventional Leadership story. I wasn’t attached to any business when I applied. I was just me. A mom … a mom who was expecting her fourth baby! There were no scholarships or tuition waivers for citizens who wanted to apply, so after I was accepted, I made monthly out-of-pocket payments to cover tuition throughout the program.

Myrah was born in early October 2016, and that was my one permitted missed class. I was back with the group in November, pump in hand. I have pumped all over this county!

I’ve always enjoyed meeting people and, even more, hearing their stories about where they’re from. Our group included well-known community members like Joe Martin with the Chamber, Liz Rose with the Boys & Girls Club, and Chris Coutts with Laurel Ridge, just to name a few. I have to admit, I was wildly intimidated. I had only a little writing gig and freelance work that might come along … or might not.

Throughout the program, Leadership exposed me to countless story ideas, many of which I pitched to whichever media outlet was interested.

Over the past decade, I’ve first and foremost continued to be a parent, working especially hard to be present for my kids and give them the attention they needed, when they needed it. Beyond that, I spent many years working in communications with our elderly veterans, where I was truly honored to listen to and help tell the stories of their lives.

Last spring, I joined Fauquier County Parks and Recreation as a program coordinator. It felt as though the many worlds that had come together over the past decade had finally collided in one role. I have the opportunity to create programs that meet the needs and interests of residents, but more than that, I get to work with people who do really cool things and want to share them. And, as if that weren’t enough … I’m on a BEE Committee! I get to help make sure our buzzy little pollinators are taken care of. I literally spent an hour last week at the Clifton Institute with binoculars, looking at pollinators!

And if I’m being 100% honest, I’m grateful for every single person I’ve met over the past decade. Whether someone came into my life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, I find myself reconnecting with people in one way or another all the time.

If I had to sum up the past decade, it would be this: While it’s wonderful to keep learning and to be a lifelong student, it’s the people we meet along the way who shape who we are and make life meaningful.

Thank you, Aimee, for sharing your story with us! If you are interested in sharing your updates since your time in Leadership Fauquier, send an email to director@leadershipfauquier.org

What is the True Impact of Leadership Fauquier?

Leadership in Action: The Ripple Effect

After more than a decade of community leadership development, Leadership Fauquier’s ripple effect on the community is clear. Our ten cohorts have strengthened the people and organizations that contribute to a thriving community.

Leadership Fauquier alumni follow different paths but have a shared purpose: making our community a better place.

They serve on nonprofit boards, volunteer, mentor, and bring new perspectives to the work they do every day.

Many return to support Leadership Fauquier as board members or guest speakers, while others find meaningful volunteer work in the community based on what they learn during their year with Leadership Fauquier.

Our alumni report volunteering more after they participate in the program. That means that dozens of people volunteer more in the community directly because of their experiences with our organization.

During our program year, we hear from nonprofit partners doing work across the county. Some support the broader nonprofit ecosystem, like the Center for Nonprofit Excellence or the PATH Foundation. Others, like the Canteen Unit, support our first responders. Their work spans education, healthcare, human services, the environment, and more.

In just one year, more than a dozen nonprofit organizations sent speakers to present on our program days. It gives our cohort members a crash course in Fauquier County’s nonprofit opportunities. When they graduate, they know how to show up to support our community in the area which resonates most.

When you drop a single pebble into a body of water, the ripples expand outward and touch the entire surface. When you drop another pebble in, the ripples overlap.

Our alumni community doesn’t act in a vacuum. They reach out and support each other, whether they graduated in 2016 or 2026.

Together, they are the people who support the organizations creating a stronger community. Their relationships make it a more connected community.

Take a look at your favorite community nonprofit. Chances are good you will find our alumni volunteering, serving on the board, or on staff.

How do we measure Leadership Fauquier impact when we touch so many spaces? It’s an ever-expanding metric of time, talent, treasure, ties, and testimony across dozens of organizations.

We are the ripple.

Community Leadership: The Fauquier Free Clinic

When Executive Director Rob Marino joined the Fauquier Free Clinic in January 2000, it was open just one evening a week for two hours. At that time, they served uninsured and low-income individuals who had few options for medical or dental care. Today, the clinic operates five days a week, offering a range of medical, dental, and mental health services from a permanent facility that reflects how much the community has invested in this work.

That growth did not happen by accident. It happened because the community recognized a need and chose to respond.

The Fauquier Free Clinic serves individuals without health insurance and those on Medicaid, primarily residents of Fauquier and Rappahannock counties whose household income is at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The federal poverty level is updated annually and reflects the basic cost of living. For perspective, a family of two earning under $22,000 a year is often forced to choose between food, housing, and healthcare. For many, healthcare simply becomes inaccessible. That gap is why free clinics exist.

Across Virginia, there are roughly 50 to 55 free clinics, each organized independently to meet the needs of its local community. At the Fauquier Free Clinic, that work translates into care for approximately 2,000 patients each year. Those patients often have complex medical, mental health, and dental needs, resulting in roughly 12,000 clinician visits annually, all provided at no charge.

The clinic’s work extends well beyond appointments. In addition to direct care, the clinic helps patients access medications and maintains partnerships with local healthcare providers, including hospitals. Care is delivered by a mix of paid staff and a large network of volunteers, including licensed clinicians, nurses, and medical and nursing students. This collaborative model not only meets immediate healthcare needs but also helps prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals to serve with skill and compassion.

The Fauquier Free Clinic operates as an independent nonprofit organization, separate from government oversight. Its governance is volunteer-led, and its funding is rooted in community support. While some Medicaid reimbursements offset costs, the majority of the clinic’s roughly $3 million annual operating budget is raised through grants, individual donations, and fundraising events like golf tournaments and bike rides. Sustaining this work requires constant engagement and shared responsibility.

Volunteering is another vital part of the clinic’s story. Individuals of all ages contribute their time and talent, with younger volunteers supporting non-patient-facing roles. High school and college students often volunteer during school breaks, gaining meaningful experience while contributing to the wellbeing of their community. Licensed clinicians donate their expertise, reinforcing the clinic’s commitment to high-quality care.

The clinic works alongside, but distinctly from, the local health department. While both share a commitment to public wellbeing, the health department focuses on population-level services such as immunizations and TB testing. The clinic, by contrast, provides ongoing individual care and welcomes referrals, including young parents seeking specialized support. This division of roles allows each organization to serve its purpose effectively while strengthening the overall health system.

At its core, the Fauquier Free Clinic reflects what community leadership looks like in practice. It is built on collaboration, volunteerism, professional expertise, and a shared belief that access to healthcare matters. The clinic continues to thrive because individuals and organizations step forward to contribute time, resources, and care.

For those interested in learning more, visiting the clinic offers a powerful window into how leadership, service, and community commitment come together to meet real needs. The impact is best understood by seeing it firsthand.

Leadership in Practice: Servant Leadership in Our Community

Servant Leadership in Our Community

In our latest workshop with Sean McElhinney, we opened with the idea that leadership is not a title. Instead, it’s a practice, shaped by behavior and values. Sean posed the question: What is leadership? We explored leadership broadly, as well as the philosophy of servant leadership.

During our class discussion, we explored leadership as the ability to influence, a set of observable behaviors, a source of inspiration, and the capacity for decisiveness. After a lively discussion of historically influential leadership, we narrowed our focus to the ability to influence a group in moving towards goals that serve the common good. This style of leadership relies on skill, influence, and character.

What is Servant Leadership?

Sean defined servant leadership for us as the ability to shape environments with creativity, innovation, and collaboration. Servant leaders act with humility, putting others first and empowering them to take action. The three roles of servant leaders are:

Living the vision
Living with integrity
Living to serve

These leaders exert their influence not through explicit power, but through the influence they gain through modeling service for their followers. These leaders rely on a set of values:

Love
Kindness
Humility
Forgiveness
Honesty
Discipline
Commitment

Our discussion reinforced that none of these values function without trust. Trust creates credibility, consistency, and psychological safety.

Servant Leadership in Practice: A Healthcare Example

We were fortunate enough to hear from Rebecca Segal, CEO of Fauquier Health. She had no idea that we had started our day with a discussion on servant leadership, but gave us a fantastic presentation on servant leadership with action and the power it holds. She shared Fauquier Health’s vision of creating a workplace where people work together as a team.

“We all have different roles, but none of us has a more important role.”

When Rebecca said these words, you could almost feel the crackle of electricity in the room as it resonated with us. She went on to emphasize that their teams are built on mutual respect for different areas of expertise and shared responsibility for quality.

All of this sounds positive and heart-warming. But is it effective?

Absolutely. Not only does leadership research support servant leadership’s efficacy, Fauquier Health provides a fantastic case study.

When Rebecca took on the role of CEO, Fauquier Hospital had a D-rating for patient safety and low employee satisfaction scores. She said her first steps were to acknowledge where they were, establish psychological safety, and get everyone aligned with the mission to make communities healthier.

Her spirit of servant leadership focused on creating environments where patients choose to receive care, physicians want to practice, and employees want to work. It is about the entire culture of leadership behavior, going beyond slogans. They focus on living their core values which are to:

Champion patient care
Do the right thing
Embrace individuality
Act with kindness
Make a difference together.

Within two years, the hospital’s safety rating increased from a D to an A, where it has remained steady. The employee satisfaction rating increased from 61.8 to 96.6. And for two years in a row, Fauquier Hospital has been rated a top General Hospital, the only community hospital in Virginia to earn that distinction.

The transformation at Fauquier Health demonstrates that servant leadership is essential to strong organizations and communities. It creates trust, positive organizational culture, and long-term positive impacts both internally and externally. Leadership is a practice, a type of service we can practice daily.

Leadership in Practice: Where Leadership Begins

Leadership Begins with Self-Awareness and Trust

What is leadership? There are as many definitions as there are books written on the subject, but at Leadership Fauquier we take a practical view. Leadership is an action, and not just about authority or results. It’s about understanding oneself, earning trust, and serving others.

While our leadership development curriculum builds skills that can be applied anywhere, we intentionally focus on the unique needs and opportunities of Fauquier County. Our goal is to develop the right leaders for this specific time and place. This blog series, Leadership in Practice: Lessons from Fauquier County, reflects on lessons learned through our program days as we explore leadership both broadly and within the context of our community.

Leadership as a Practice

Leadership begins with behavior, regardless of job title. Leaders practice leadership through how they listen, how they respond under pressure, and how they engage with others when perspectives differ. Viewing leadership as a practice creates space for growth, reflection, and accountability. It acknowledges that leadership is learned over time and strengthened through experience, feedback, and self-awareness.

For community leaders, this mindset is vitally important. The challenges facing our county are complex and interconnected, going beyond any one organization or sector. Effective leadership requires curiosity, humility, and a willingness to learn alongside others.

Turning Inwards: Self-Awareness and Trust

At our opening retreat, participants turned inward first. Before we launched into systems, sectors, or policies, we focused on foundational leadership skills: self-awareness, trust, and the creation of safe spaces for honest dialogue.

Self-awareness allows leaders to recognize how their assumptions, habits, and reactions influence their decisions and interactions. Leaders who cultivate this awareness are better equipped to remain calm, respond thoughtfully, and adjust their approach when something is not working. In community leadership, leaders may find themselves operating outside their primary expertise. In this scenario, self-awareness becomes an essential trait.

Trust is equally foundational. Trust enables collaboration, supports open communication, and makes difficult conversations possible. Without trust, leadership erodes.

Characteristics of Effective Leadership

Through discussion and reflection, the cohort identified characteristics that consistently support effective leadership. These traits all describe behaviors leaders can practice and strengthen over time.

Confidence
Calm presence
Sound decision-making
Openness to feedback
Ability to give constructive feedback
Willingness to admit mistakes
Commitment to a positive culture
Care for people and teams
Reliability
Authenticity
Competence
Supportiveness
Curiosity
Sense of fun

This list reinforces the concept that leadership doesn’t require perfection. Instead, leaders demonstrate presence, consistency, and care.

Trust and High-Impact Leadership

Our guest speaker, Shari Goodwin, deepened this conversation by focusing on how great leaders make people feel. Inspired. Motivated. Creative. Her work on high-impact leadership explores the intersection of energy, vision, and action, grounded in the belief that leaders are most effective when they understand where they can add the greatest value.

At the foundation of high-impact leadership is trust. Trust requires predictability and reliability, demonstrated competence, and benevolence. Leaders build trust by showing up consistently, doing what they say they will do, and acting with genuine concern for others.

Developing trust also requires leaders to examine limiting beliefs, including assumptions and rigid thinking. When leaders challenge these patterns, they create space for learning, growth, and effective collaboration.

A Foundation for Community Leadership

Ultimately, effective leadership relies on relationships. Leaders must work across boundaries, navigate competing priorities, and collaborate with people who bring different experiences and perspectives. We witness this first hand on our program days, so our cohort needs to develop the self-awareness and trust that form the foundation of this work. As this series continues, future posts will explore how leaders apply these principles when learning about systems, sectors, and place. But before any of that work can be effective, we begin with leadership and the foundations of awareness, trust, and a willingness to learn.

To learn more about high-impact leadership, we recommend Reinventing Greatness: Leading Yourself & Others Through Change with Confidence and Trust by Shari J. Goodwin. (This affiliate link benefits Leadership Fauquier and the Open Book at no additional cost to you).

what shapes emotional intelligence title graphic

What Shapes Emotional Intelligence? A Core Skill of Effective Leadership

Literature on leadership often frames the concept as vision, strategy, and decision-making. But decades of research across psychology, neuroscience, and organizational behavior suggest something deeper. Leaders who consistently perform well, inspire trust, and build strong teams all have one trait in common: emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence, or EI, is not about being “soft.” Instead, it is about understanding emotions as data that can be used to guide thinking, behavior, and relationships. Emotional intelligence is a powerful predictor of leadership effectiveness and job performance. Emotionally intelligent leaders are better equipped to manage stress, build trust, and navigate interpersonal relationships. Several emotional intelligence traits are closely linked to job performance, including emotional stability, conscientiousness, cognitive ability, self-efficacy, and emotional understanding and management. Let’s take a closer look at these traits:

Emotional stability is the strongest predictor of effective leadership. When leaders can regulate their emotions and tolerate stress, they are more likely to remain calm under pressure and avoid toxic conflict.

Conscientious leaders demonstrate impulse control, follow social and emotional norms, and consistently strive for excellence. This discipline extends into emotional charged situations, where thoughtful responses matter most.

While emotional intelligence is distinct from cognitive ability, there is a meaningful overlap. Cognitive ability supports problem-solving and adaptability. In turn, these skills strengthen emotional intelligence and overall performance. Research suggestion emotional intelligence is most effective when viewed as a combination of skills, behaviors, confidence, and self-awareness rather than a single ability.

Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to meet challenges. Strong self-efficacy further amplifies emotional intelligence. Leaders with high self-efficacy are more likely to engage in problem-solving, remain committed to goals, and approach obstacles as opportunities for growth.

When social-emotional abilities are managed in isolation, they are a weaker predictor of success. The strongest outcomes emerge when emotional intelligence is understood as a mix of skills, behavior, confidence, and self-awareness.

There is a strong correlation between extraversion tendency and leadership effectiveness. In this context, extraversion refers to people who are motivated by their relationships with others rather than energy preferences or social presentation. When people crave connection with others, it helps them build stronger social networks.

Ultimately, leadership is about who you are, how you relate to others, and why you lead. Emotional intelligence sits at the center.

By developing emotional awareness and strengthening self-efficacy, leaders are better equipped to navigate complexity, inspire trust, and create a lasting impact.

“Emotional Intelligence Predicts Job Performance: The 7 Traits That Help Managers Relate” by Sebastian Bailey, Forbes.

Feeling All Feelings: The Secret to Emotional Intelligence in Leadership

Have you ever seen the movie Inside Out? This Pixar film personifies our core emotions and uses powerful storytelling to communicate the importance of feeling all feelings, not just the pleasant ones. Each of our core emotions serve a purpose. But what does that have to do with leadership?

In The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, the authors discuss the importance of leading from the head, the heart, and the gut. To be a great leader, they say, you must develop your emotional intelligence. Research supports this statement.

But how do we go about developing our emotional intelligence? The authors recommend starting by feeling all feelings. In other words, identifying emotions, moving through them, and appropriately releasing these feelings.

Let’s walk through that process, focusing on the five core emotions: anger, sadness, joy, fear, and creativity.*

First of all, what do our emotions tell us?

Working Through Emotions

Each of the core emotions tends to lodge itself in a different part of the body. If you’ve had butterflies in your stomach, you’ve felt the sensation of fear in your belly. When your throat tightens like you are about to cry or it feels like your heart is physically breaking, you are experiencing sadness in your throat, face, and chest. Joy might rise up the spine or ignite the core. And creativity can be experienced as a tingling sensation throughout the body, especially in the erogenous zones.

Take a few deep breaths in and out, gently, and all the way down into your belly.

The authors provide a question: “Can I allow these sensations to be here.” In other words, do not resist or repress the emotion. Appreciation can be more challenging but is focused on the idea that our emotions are trying to tell us something useful.

This is where you release the feeling. If you just talk about your feelings, you often recycle the feelings and risk turning them into a longer term mood rather than a 90-second emotion. Instead of talking, get rid of them physically. Move your body, breathe in a way that matches the emotion, or vocalize by making a sound. Think about how dogs growl or cats hiss. Let the emotion leave your body.

Ready to lead with more presence, clarity, and emotional intelligence?

Join our Leadership Fauquier community newsletter for more tools, insights, and opportunities to grow your leadership practice:

Every Contribution Matters: Giving Back to Non-Profits

The Four T’s of Charitable Giving

When we think about giving back to non-profits, we often focus on monetary donations. But there are so many ways we can help non-profits (like Leadership Fauquier!).

Non-profits need four kinds of support from their community:

1. 1. 1. 1. Time
      2. Talent
      3. Treasure
      4. Ties

What does that mean? Monetary support falls under the treasure umbrella. We need volunteers to give their time and talents. And connecting us with new supporters and resources help us grow. Let’s dive into this a little bit more.

Time

When you volunteer for an organization and provide both your energy and your physical presence, you are giving time. At Leadership Fauquier, for example, you might share your time by:

Volunteering at a program day
Joining a committee such as alumni engagement, sponsorship, or fundraising
Speaking at a session
Helping at a community outreach event
Attending alumni gatherings and sharing insights and feedback

Talent

Do you have a special skill like graphic design or grant-writing? Perhaps you have special knowledge in legal or financial areas. When you share those skills, you are gifting your talent to the organization. This might look like:

Leading a workshop or training in leadership, communication, or local issues
Offering marketing, design, or event planning expertise
Contributing writing or photography for newsletters, social media, or the website
Sharing subject-matter expertise as a guest speaker
Lending technical skills to help improve digital tools, manage databases, or edit videos

Treasure

This is the most commonly thought of gift and it is incredibly important for a thriving non-profit that can carry out their mission and vision. There are so many ways to give treasure beyond sponsorships and cash donations, although those are important too! You might:

Sponsor a meal or program day
Make a one-time or recurring donation to sustain operations
Provide in-kind gifts like printing services, venue space, supplies, or meals
Contribute items for silent auctions or raffles
Underwrite a special initiative like the class project or alumni events

Ties

At Leadership Fauquier, we celebrate the power of connection and thrive on community partnerships. Whether it’s connecting us to potential donors in your network or introducing us to future cohort applicants, you are giving your ties. We love when people:

Connect us to local businesses or nonprofits for collaborations
Recommend potential participants for the next cohort
Introduce us to new sponsors or donors who share our values
Share our social media posts to help expand our reach
Invite their colleagues or friends to attend alumni or public events

Bonus Gift: Testimony

I think the gift of testimony often falls under the gift of time. When you take the time (and maybe talent) to tell us your stories about the impact of Leadership Fauquier, you are helping us demonstrate the importance of our mission to future partners.

Final Thoughts

Whether you give time, talent, treasure, ties, or testimony, you are providing a valuable gift to a non-profit. Every contribution matters to these mission-driven organizations. You can take a moment, right now, to give back to Leadership Fauquier and help us create a thriving community through informed and connected leaders.

Top 5 Takeaways from Reinventing Greatness

I read Reinventing Greatness by Shari Goodwin – before I realized that the book was part of the Leadership Fauquier curriculum. I’ve never been so glad to read a book!

I’ve known Shari from the sidelines for many years, but when I came to Meridian, I was lucky enough to get to work with her directly as we planned a leadership retreat for our team. This, and my own journey through change, led me to pick up a copy of her book.

There are very few pages in this book that didn’t get a highlight or asterisk or underline – too many to name here. To say that this book impacted me is a complete understatement. I read this book at a time when change was happening in my life, whether I wanted to or not. For me, it serves as a “how-to” guide of sorts, resetting my intentions, energy and focus. When I read it, I felt like Shari and I were long-lost friends and she was giving me the advice I need to move forward with grace and hope for the future.

These five concepts were the most profound for me:

1. “To reinvent, you must say yes to yourself and pursue what you want.”

This is on the first page – playing it safe is cool. If you want to stay in the same place. It seems simple enough, but in order to truly pursue your goals, you must push aside your fear and embrace your courage.

2. Change is a process.

Shari explains that the there are various States of Transformation – outlined in detail in her book – but the jist is that as you
embark on your journey, understand that your energy and confidence will shift between trust and fear, often in the same day. It’s absolutely OK to not feel confident all the time.

3. Your self-identity is evolving.

Who we are, or have always known ourselves to be, and who we are becoming, may not always line up in the moment. This is a
fun twist on the term “identity crisis” – and it’s a normal part of the transformation process. Tricks she shares in getting through including remembering what your strengths are, the things you have already accomplished, and connecting with your why.

4. Breakdown to Break through.

At some point in your reinvention, you will feel like quitting, maybe (if you’re like me, even crying). When doubt consumes you,
consider Shari’s advice to shift your perspective to see what you may not have seen before; reevaluate what’s important to you, including your values and where you want to go in order to create your new vision of yourself.

5. Rest and re-charge.

High achievers often drive hard toward their goals, often pushing themselves toward burnout. Shari closes out her book with the
opportunity to plan what she calls “resilience activities” – and introduces the concept of MEPS – mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual – areas in our lives required for well-being. In a shift from the traditional way of thinking, which is to put these things last on our list after being productive, this well-being focused approach allows for putting ourselves first in order to be more productive!

Creating a Thriving Community Through Informed and Connected Leaders

Category Archives: Blog