Ashoka - Executive Office Catalyst
Ashoka
Arlington, VA, USA
Posted on Jan 16, 2025
Description
Position at Ashoka
Your Impact: Your leadership will help us identify new opportunities to accelerate our growth as you bring together cross-cutting teams to help us creatively achieve our goals. You will work closely with Ashoka’s leadership on high-priority projects and bring clarity and direction for our staff and network. You will truly be at the heart of Ashoka’s vision, strategy, and people, allowing you to provide key perspectives for major decision-making.
The Opportunity: We imagine these priorities as core parts of this role – and we invite whoever takes on this opportunity to help evolve this role by leveraging their unique skills and bringing their new ideas to life.
- Build and strengthen core critical relationships – ensure our CEO and other Leadership Team Members (comprising a four-person leadership team) engages with our most strategic partners and opportunities. You will partner with Leadership to also engage directly with anyone from top journalists to major donors and will be able to represent Ashoka at various engagements.
- Provide general leadership – when new opportunities emerge or programs need interim support, you will take leadership to rapidly organize resources to address any gaps. This leadership will help us always move forward even in times of transition.
- Provide leadership to Ashoka’s Executive Office – set strategic direction, provide team management, and oversee the search and selection of key roles.
- Manage weekly Executive Team meetings – develop engaging agendas that address top priorities and spark collective conversation and problem-solving. Help everyone learn and deepen their understanding of our ever-evolving strategy.
- Oversee Board meetings – partner with our Global Leadership and Ashoka’s Board to execute generative biannual gatherings that bring “aha moments” to Ashoka, helping us all better see the whole and bringing new focus to necessary areas.
The Candidate:
We imagine a strong candidate for this role as having the following characteristics and experience:
- Experience in entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial and operational leadership in complex, global environments
- Experience in planning and leading strategic initiatives with organization-wide impact
- Proven ability to lead through empathic discernment, management, and exceptional communication skills
- Demonstrated skills in managing operations, deliverables and performance in a fluid, open, and agile environment
- A canny ability to get teams aligned, speaking the same language, and helping each other to succeed
- Social sector experience
Candidates must also meet Ashoka's core hiring criteria that is core to all of our roles:
- Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship: Demonstrates a track record of taking initiative and ownership (e.g., founding an organization or company, starting a movement, re-shaping the work of an existing organization)
- Understanding and Belief in the Vision of an Everyone a Changemaker Future: Understands and believes the Everyone a Changemaker vision at a gut level. Has a broad and inquisitive intellect and thinking pattern that connects the dots between historical trends and current social context.
- Emotional and Social Intelligence: Ability to work efficiently and respectfully in teams. Understands how individual, groups, and societies work and engage effectively in savvy, subtle, honest ways.
- Ethical Fiber: Has exceptionally strong ethical behavior; is self-reflective and has strong empathy skills.
- Self-Definition: Assumes that changing the world in big ways and at least on a continental scale is what they will do in life. Naturally operates at this level and has developed appropriate skills and ways of thinking
Ashoka is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis protected by federal, state, and local laws. Ashoka’s commitment to nondiscrimination extends to all terms and conditions of employment, including employee recruitment, selection, compensation, benefits, training, performance evaluation, promotion, demotion, discipline and termination.