What would you do if you had access to over 4,200 leaders in your community?

Mike Pritchard, vice president of finance and CFO for the University of Colorado Foundation has found his connection to his Leadership Denver (LD) 2012 class and other Leadership Foundation alumni on The Network, powered by Southwest, an online community just for alumni. Get to know Pritchard and login in to to discover how you can engage with alumni.

Elizabeth Prutch: Why are you active on The Network powered by Southwest? 

Pritchard: As an alumnus of LD Class of 2012, I have found The Network to be a great place to not only keep up with “The Best Class Ever,” but also to connect with alumni from so many other classes and programs of the Leadership Foundation. We all have busy lives, so I have found The Network to be the perfect way to stay engaged and connected with old and new friends around important community issues.

Prutch: What have you gained from being active on The Network powered by Southwest?

Pritchard: I have learned a lot about what is going on in our community by reading what others post. I’ve recently encouraged someone to run for office based on some clear passion I saw in their post. I also have enjoyed dialoguing with alumni on my posts. One person was so thoughtful in response to one of my posts on The Four Disciplines of Execution that we set up a lunch to discuss the book in person.

Prutch: Why should other alumni join The Network powered by Southwest?

Pritchard: If you are not on The Network, you are missing out. The Network is an engaged segment of our community. The posts and engagement are so much more thoughtful than what you’ll find on big, public social networks. The Network allows you to go deep into issues facing our community and have thoughtful dialogue around these issues. If you see a post that resonates with you, respond to it – get a dialogue going. And reach out to someone new that wrote something that resonated with you and schedule breakfast or lunch to discuss that topic in more detail.

Prutch: What is your leadership style?

Pritchard: My leadership style revolves around the concept of work-life happiness. This is the theme of my blog and it’s the theme of the posts I share on The Network. I want to encourage others and myself to be happy at both work and in life. Life is too short to be unhappy in either domain. One fun example was my post on The Network about getting your inbox to zero. I had so many great responses to that post both online and in-person at events. I guess it might be fair to say my leadership style this year revolves around writing posts on The Network about work-life happiness.

Prutch: What advice do you have for others regarding leadership?

Pritchard: Read a lot of books. Readers lead and leaders read. It’s really that simple. Set a goal of reading at least one book a month. Audiobooks is a terrific way to listen when you’re commuting or exercising. My goal is to read a book a week. I don’t always achieve that goal, but oftentimes I do. I generally read 30 to 40 books a year. Digesting those books has definitely made me a better leader. (Check out Pritchard’s list of the 30 books he read in 2017.)

Prutch: What does civic engagement mean to you?

Pritchard: Civic engagement to me really aligns with the Leadership Foundation’s Colorado’s Civic DNA ™.  The values of inclusivity, collaboration, shared vision, leadership and responsibility are perfect. Each of us on The Network have the opportunity to live out these values as we engage in our work and volunteer around metro Denver. We live in such an amazing community and we each need to stay engaged to continue to build it for the future – that is civic engagement to me.

Elizabeth Prutch is the manager of alumni engagement for the Leadership Foundation