Leadership insights from FOCUS St. Louis' Yemi Akande-Bartsch
Yemi Akande-Bartsch starts each day with a simple note to self: Everything is solvable. Sometimes, she may not even know the specific issue that she’ll be tasked with solving that particular day. But that brief, level-setting reminder sets the tone for the kinds of days that she wishes to have. “It has not failed me yet,” says Akande-Bartsch, president and CEO of FOCUS St. Louis. In her role, Akande-Bartsch trains budding local leaders to become engaged civic stewards equipped with the skills needed to lift their communities. “It’s a beautiful thing to put them in the driver’s seat,” she says. “Not just in terms of advancing a particular cause in their community but in terms of their own career as well.”