June 2024 Board Member Newsletter Article

Grit, Grace and Guidance

Shannon Full
President & CEO
Moorhead Fargo West Fargo Chamber of Commerce

25 years…25 years, are you kidding me? This year marks the start of my 25th year of leading a chamber, and I wanted to use this opportunity to reflect back on what this industry has taught me. I would like to summarize it through three major attributes: Grit, Grace and Guidance.

GRIT – When I think of Grit, I think of being able to face numerous challenges and obstacles yet still demonstrate undeniable passion and perseverance. This is what it takes to do our jobs each and every day. The chamber industry is one that is unbelievably rewarding and still frustrating at the same time. There are so many examples of demonstrating grit throughout my career, but I would love to share one that I will never forget. After the floods in Cedar Rapids, we were challenged with setting up a fund to help the small businesses rebuild. I vividly remember the day that Sam from Sammy’s pizza came into my office with a pizza box of dirty, water-logged receipts indicating this was all he had left of his business, but he was determined to build back better than before. We worked together for months, and he taught me so much about resilience and grit. It was then that I really saw our opportunity as chamber leaders to make a long-lasting impact on a community, issue or business and that is what continues to motivate me still. The value and strength of leveraging partnerships, relationships and resources beyond what we can do on our own is one of the unique opportunities of a chamber, and one that I try to embrace on a daily basis. However, at the end of the day, we are all so lucky that we have colleagues, leaders and friends to be our sounding board that pushes us, supports us and helps us to renew our own grit that we all need.

GRACE – Now this attribute has taken me longer to learn and embrace, and it is one that will never be “mastered” but rather continually “chased”. One of my greatest challenges in my career was with a prominent business leader who had no interest in being a chamber member until she started to see the significant progress we were making. She then worked her way into a leadership role on my board and eventually into the Executive Committee. Unfortunately, she had one motivation and it was to shine a negative light on me. There were so many times that I wanted to challenge her and her motives. Rather, I leaned into giving her grace, trying to work alongside her and find out what I could do to be a better leader in her eyes. Ultimately it did not work out in the end, but I learned so much from that experience, and it is a point of my career that I can look back and be very proud that I embraced my values and stuck to them. We all have volunteers, community and business leaders, elected officials that challenge us and by first giving grace, it may significantly change not only the immediate outcome, but the long-term relationship as well.

GUIDANCE – One of the most rewarding aspects of this industry is that there are so many genuinely authentic people that have come into my life to give me guidance. Sometimes this guidance was given when I asked for it, but more often it was given when I didn’t even know that I needed it. One example of this was a strong community leader that taught me through the adversity of the severe floods and rebuilding in Cedar Rapids, it was imperative to work together with others that had different mindsets to get us to the ultimate goal of rebuilding a community and that compromise was a necessity not a nicety. I have had the great fortune of so many strong mentors that have shaped my journey and made me a better person. I hope each of you reading this today takes the time to mentor someone who needs it. Every person has the ability to share their wisdom and guidance with others.

The chamber industry is truly a special one filled with so many people that have Grit, Grace and Guidance to give, and it is such a privilege to work alongside each of you. Together we will continue to do great things in our communities.