ABOUT

In 2011, when the US was still recovering from the great recession, Leadership Lunch Club founder and host Barbara Jordan noticed many small businesses in the Grand Traverse region who were struggling or had to shut down. 

Barbara had worked as a management and HR consultant and executive coach with large and small organizations on both a regional and national scale. Through her work, she had seen the positive impact those at the helm of small or large businesses can make if they are adequately equipped to help their organizations weather storms, manage change, and motivate their workforce.

Because most Traverse City businesses at the time did not have big consulting budgets or leaders who had lots of time to engage in professional development activities, Barbara saw a need in the community for a gathering of leaders to inspire and learn from each other, and the Leadership Lunch Club was born. Since 2012, the speaker series has grown steadily, averaging 150 or more attendees, and is now supported by several generous sponsors in the Traverse City community. 

When Covid hit in 2020, the in-person series was put on hold, but during that time, the Virtual Leadership Lunch Club was launched, featuring inspiring stories from leaders and business owners who were doing what they could to pivot and help support businesses and our community. 

The Leadership Lunch Club is re-launching in fall 2024, with high impact messages from three seasoned leaders.  We hope you’ll join us at future events!

The mission of The Leadership Lunch club is to inspire and equip business owners, leaders and professionals by providing them access to great leaders and great books they can learn from.

The Leadership Lunch Club ℠ (LLC) offers busy leaders in business and non-profit organizations an opportunity to learn cutting edge leadership and business practices with minimal time and investment. The principles are gleaned from local and regional business leaders who have applied some of the same principles contained in leading business and leadership books with a high degree of success.  Implementing even one of the ideas from these meetings into your organization could result in huge returns for you as a leader and for your organization.

The Lunch Club series offers:

• Frequent appearances by local, regional, and national leaders, speakers, authors, and business owners who will share practical examples and tips on how they are integrating featured principles in their organization.
• Brief presentation reviewing a new or classic leadership or business book authored by an acclaimed business leader and/or researcher.
• A brief Q & A at the end of the meeting.
• A great lunch in the convenient and elegant setting of the Traverse City Country Club.
• An opportunity to network with other leaders in the community.
• We feature a book or two at each event  to provide participants a speaker-recommended resource related to our event topic.  Our featured books are available locally at Horizon Books and at the Traverse Area District Library in their Leadership Lunch  Club collection.
  

The Leadership Lunch Club (LLC) was founded in 2012 by Barbara Jordan, out of her passion to help build high quality leaders and organizations that are transforming communities locally and around the world.  Barbara has more than 30 years experience serving numerous businesses and non-profits in a variety of industries and sectors regionally and nationally as a Business Owner, Leadership Coach/Consultant and Workshop Facilitator.  The Leadership Lunch Club is also supported by a team of business advisors, leaders and independent contractors who also contribute their skills and experience to help create a high-quality experience at each of our events.