Pat previously served as a Consultant for thirteen years with Lifeway Publishing, where he served as a leadership specialist in Texas and Louisiana, coaching leaders and consulting ministry teams and organizations. He also served as the Team Leader for Lifeway Consultants across a 13-state region and was part of a departmental leadership team driving a $79M national sales strategy. In those roles, he conducted over 15,000 conversations with leaders giving him an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by a diversity of leaders and organizations.

Before that, Pat served in executive leadership roles for twenty years in megachurches with responsibilities for programming, personnel, budgeting, and facilities. He supervised professional staff and coordinated hundreds of volunteers focusing on vision casting, organizational change, professional leadership development, and volunteer training. His work expanded to involve training leaders at the local, state, and national levels.

Pat has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Christian Education and Leadership at Grand Canyon and Wayland Universities and as a Field Supervisor/Project Director for master and doctoral students at Southwestern, Southeastern, Gateway, and New Orleans Theological Seminaries as well as Rockbridge Seminary. He has also authored numerous publications and is a frequent conference leader.

Pat attended Paris Junior College and then Baylor University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. He then studied at Southwestern Seminary, completing a Master of Religious Education degree followed by additional Master of Divinity studies. He did Doctor of Philosophy studies in Higher Education at the University of North Texas and earned a Doctor of Education degree from Southwestern Seminary in Church and Education Administration. He is also a Certified Professional Leadership Coach from Professional Christian Coaching Institute and Certified Strengths Champion Coach from Strengths Champion Solutions.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

Pat and his wife, Jeanie, are both native Texans. He enjoys hunting, fishing, baseball, tennis, tropical fish, photography, and vintage Volkswagens.

Get in contact with Pat at pat.ford@convenenow.com or 832-725-4253.

Convene Intrapreneurial Leader Teams

Are you preparing for a more influential role as a leader and dreaming of making a real difference?

Most leaders face significant challenges alone, isolated from Christian peers that understand the pressures of business leadership or ownership. The Convene leadership development process brings leaders together to face those challenges in community. Convene Intrapreneurial Leader Teams provide time-tested peer group experiences and executive coaching to accelerate your personal and professional growth so that you can have a redemptive impact on your business, direct reports, clients, and community. Your role as a leader in your organization comes with significant challenges such as:

• How do you lead up to or alongside your executive team, investors or partners?

• How do you gain familiarity with areas of expertise outside of your own?

• How do you drive profitability for your organization or business?

What is an Intrapreneur?

Whether leading a team within a large organization or leading a company as a small business owner, thinking like an entrepreneur is an incredible asset. Regardless of what role you have in an organization, the goal of our Intrapreneurial Leader Teams is to help you develop an entrepreneurial mindset that looks at the world through a Kingdom lens and from a biblical foundation. Intrapreneurial leaders learn to act decisively, problem-solve, innovate, and drive value from within larger organizations and companies instead of as a small business owner.

What is an Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

Our Intrapreneurial Leader Teams are designed to give Christian business leaders an opportunity for both spiritual and strategic community regardless of their role within an organization or how far along they are in the business life cycle.

Why join an Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

Members of Intrapreneurial Leader Teams connect with Christian peers on a high-impact team, tackle complex business problems together and push each other to the next level of leadership and business potential. In doing so they:

• Build capacity for stronger leadership and expanded roles

• Leverage best practices for organizational excellence, greater profitability and faster growth for businesses, clients, and direct reports

• Connect to a high-capacity peer group to work through “tough issues” in a risk-free, nonjudgmental and confidential environment

• Receive executive coaching and leadership development, also reducing isolation and improving life balance

• Become equipped and inspired towards greater integration of faith and purpose within business

• Process personal growth through leadership assessments

What are the benefits of joining an Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

• Collective Wisdom - Meet on a regular basis with other Christian leaders. Benefit from their collective experience and wisdom, both in business and in their faith.

• Executive Coaching - Personal executive coaching sessions where Convene members meet individually or with a group, once a month with Convene Chairs to dig deeper and find answers for the challenges they face.

• Breakthrough Content - Convene produces business and leadership development content for continuous transformational learning. Convene teams spend time processing and learning together through these materials.

• Valuable Assessments - Convene has partnered with leading organizations to provide valuable assessments and Convene Chairs work with members to implement them into their business.

My Current Intrapreneurial Leader Team

Who would be an ideal member for this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

• Leaders within a large organization that are not on an ownership track

• Rising talent and team leaders with direct reports or training to take over managing others

• Desires to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and innovate from within an organization to improve profitability, service delivery, and impact

• Member is coachable, humble, vulnerable, and hungry and understands that to lead well we must learn to follow well too

• Potential titles or functions could include General Manager, Supervisor, Director of Marketing, VP of Sales, Controller, Data Team Lead, HR Director, etc.

What is the focus of this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

Leaders who join this group hold significant influence in their organizations and want to build their capacity for stronger leadership. In the future, it is very likely that these leaders will end up in expanded roles within their department, possibly even in C-suite positions, which is why this group focuses heavily on self-awareness and learning to think like a C-suite executive. This group focuses on leading redemptively and sacrificially stewarding their roles to advance the Kingdom. In adopting a mission-driven worldview and sound business strategies, the leaders in this group will support each other as they drive Kingdom impact in their organizations. This group has a heavy focus on leader development, people development, team development, and other organizational development topics. Members in this group will develop an entrepreneurial mindset that helps them lead their teams more effectively, drive higher profitability for their organizations, and provide change management during seasons of growth.

What are some of the common challenges faced by members in this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

• Leading up to the executive team

• Innovating from within an organization

• Managing multiple stakeholders

• Finding time/life balance

• Managing direct reports and building teams

• Talent development and hiring practices

• KPIs to drive personal and team success

Why sponsor your leaders in this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

• Retain top talent by demonstrating that they are valued and worth developing

• Give leaders a space to say, “I don’t know” and solve complex problems

• Help leaders develop a holistic business perspective

• Build a pipeline for rising stars to grow into C-suite or ownership positions

• Allow leaders to develop skill sets in both leadership and followership

• Provide insights through leadership assessments that ultimately transform culture 

How do you select members for this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

To facilitate connection and relationships in a virtual setting, my Convene team is limited to 15 members. Because of this, the process to become a member is highly selective. Most leaders will already be in leadership roles within their company, but we are open to having conversations with anyone who demonstrates a humility that attracts influence. 

What is the meeting format for this Intrapreneurial Leader Team?

My team meets via Zoom for two hours once per month and each member receives an hour of group coaching. All members also have access to a rich library of articles, videos, and tools for maximizing their Kingdom output in the workplace, including access to leadership assessments and additional coaching for themselves or their team.