CEO Netweavers is a peer-to-peer support network of CEOs and their trusted professional service advisors, freely sharing knowledge, skills, and relationships to build careers and businesses without expecting anything in return.
Netweaving, coined by Bob Littell, is building bridges of trust by listening and helping others first. It’s facilitating the sharing of ideas, opinions, and experiences among participants. Netweaving eventually helps members become experts at building lifelong personal and business relationships.
Servant Leadership, as defined by the founder of The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf, is a huge part of organizations everywhere, but especially in CEO Netweavers. In organizations, low-ego leaders always seek the interests of the organization and its constituents first, taking responsibility for failure and passing on praise to others. In CEO Netweavers, members always give for the good of fellow members, their employees, and their communities.
In 2001, John Casey formed a networking group to help general managers in transition find jobs. Seen as only a networking group, the rule was that once a member got a job, he or she was to become an alumnus. Well, that didn’t last long; members didn’t want to leave the organization. The work of finding new positions brought them together, but something entirely different kept them together. It’s called Servant Leadership and it’s the common link among CEO Netweavers.
Today, CEO Netweavers consists of almost 200 employed and in- transition CEOs and COOs along with over 100 Netweaver Partner professional service advisors. All share the Netweaver philosophy of Servant Leadership. Chapters are currently in Dallas/Ft.Worth, New York City, Houston, and Atlanta.
“To transform business and enrich lives through Servant Leadership.”
We’ve all heard the old saying “to give is better than to receive.” That’s what CEO Netweavers is all about. We focus on what we can do as individuals and as an organization to help our peers and our community rather than focusing on how the organization can benefit us.
We call the principle of giving “Servant Leadership.” We’re always looking to build relationships and help others in their careers and lives by sharing our trusted contacts, experience, and knowledge. We look to make referrals where we have an opportunity and a trusted relationship that fits. Every time we do something good for someone, we are helping our community. That’s what CEO Netweavers is all about – helping others first.
Servant Leadership is a pay-it-forward concept. It means sharing skills, experiences, and relationships without expecting anything in return. It’s based on the belief that giving has its own rewards. We believe that helping others is an on-going, life-long learning process. It’s why and how we live our personal and professional lives. In short, Servant Leaders are givers first in everything they do.
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. For such it will be a later choice to serve – after leadership is established. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”
- The Servant As Leader by Robert Greenleaf
A calling to serve.
You want to make a difference for other people. You pursue opportunities for altruistic reasons.
You listen.
You’re receptive and genuinely interested in the views and input of others, so people instinctively want to share their ideas with you.
You’re empathetic.
Understanding and empathy come easy for you.
You help others heal.
People seek you out in times of need. You help people heal and create an environment that encourages emotional mending.
You’re aware.
You know what’s going on around you and are rarely fooled by appearances.
You’re a conceptual person.
You encourage others to dream. You value the creative process and foster an environment that encourages big thinking.
You’ve got foresight.
You’re by no means psychic or always right, but you do have an uncanny ability to read events and anticipate future outcomes.
A natural sense of stewardship.
You have a strong sense of stewardship and want your organization to contribute to the greater good of society.
You want everyone to grow.
You work hard to help people grow in a number of ways – spiritually, professionally, and personally.
You thrive on building your community.
You have a strong sense of community spirit and work hard to foster a sense of community in your organization.
As Servant Leaders, we don’t network. We “Netweave.” Traditional networking is about making contacts and connections for professional or personal benefit. Netweaving builds relationships for the entire community without expectation of personal gain. As Netweavers, we believe the more we give to others the stronger our relationships and our organizations become. We offer to share our skills, experiences, and relationships freely without expectation of anything in return.
The Netweaver’s Creed
• I will constantly be on the lookout for opportunities to put people together in win/win relationships without concern for what I get out of it.
• I will shift from thinking about WIIFM (What’s In It for Me) to WIIFY (What’s In It for You).
• I will learn to be a resource for others, both regarding the types of information I can provide as well as to surround myself with resource contacts who can be of service to those with whom I come in contact.
• I will apply the principles of Netweaving on a daily basis and will make a habit of doing things that will allow me to implement Netweaving strategies.
• I will become an outspoken Netweaving advocate, realizing not only will this help others learn the joys and benefits of Netweaving, but it will reflect positively back on me as well.
- Power Netweaving by Bob Littell
Changing business for the better.
As CEO Netweavers and Servant Leaders, we transform others by example. We give to community businesses and organizations by creating programs that help people help themselves, and we provide our services at no cost. This provides a powerful example to those being served, as well as an incentive for others to continue to pay-it-forward. As a testament to our success, many recipients of our services have since joined CEO Netweavers and are now acting as Servant Leaders.
Bringing communities Closer.
In our eyes, business and the community are really two parts of the same whole. Business impacts the community and the community impacts business. As CEO Netweavers, we seek ways to ensure this relationship will be mutually beneficial. Members are encouraged to participate in non-profit organizations. A few of the ones we sponsor are:
• University of North Texas – providing speakers, panels and mentors to classes and students in the entrepreneurship center.
• Prison Entrepreneurship Program – providing CEOs to assist inmate entrepreneurs and providing judges for business plan competitions.
• Navigating for Business Success – providing CEOs and professional advisors to counsel executives of companies.
• Southern Methodist University – offers career building skills and advice through a student mentorship program.
Think your non-profit would be a good fit with our organization? Contact us.
Building bridges of trust.
Relationships are based on trust between people. As we Netweave, connect with each other, and share our contacts, we create new bridges of trust. This increases the value and strength of our organizations and our ability to help others.
Sharing skills.
Our effectiveness and influence as CEO Netweaver members depends on having up-to-date skills in business and management. The organization provides access to excellent skills training.
Netweavers and Netweaver Partners are all Servant Leaders. CEO Netweavers are current and former Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officers. Netweaver Partners are leading professional service advisors and Servant Leaders who are engaged in supporting CEO Netweavers.
Netweaver Partners represent all facets of business including accounting, commercial banking, venture capital, law, public relations, consulting, private equity and investment banking, executive search firms, advertising, and design. They help identify opportunities where CEO Netweavers members may add value, and often serve as advisors and partners to CEO Netweavers. They also build strong Netweaving relationships among themselves.