Articles

October Leadership Article

THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING/MENTORING CORNER

In the August 2025 Newsletter, we started a series called “The Leadership/Mentoring Corner” in which we posed a thought-provoking situation for you to think about and put yourself into, asking yourself, “What are your next steps?”  Below is the situation that was in the August 2026 Newsletter.

OCTOBER LEADERSHIP SITUATION 

Mary Jane is daughter of the owner of a popular neighborhood restaurant that has been in business for 25 years. Mary Jane recently graduated from The Chef Apprentice Studio of the Arts Culinary School in San Francisco, California and has started working at the family restaurant. Being in business for 25 years the restaurant has a great neighborhood following and loyal customer base. Sales have increased every year except the Covid year of 2020 but quickly rebounded to pre-Covid levels. The restaurant’s profitability has been at or above industry averages. Mary Jane learned all the latest and greatest industry techniques, how to prepare and cook wonderful and delicious dishes and professional management operating processes. 

Mary Jane is eager to take what she has learned to make some pretty serious changes to the restaurant’s menu, staffing, hours the business is open and general overall day-to-day operational processes. Mary Jane’s father thinks Mary Jane has some good ideas but wants her to slow down and not make sweeping changes over night. Mary Jane thinks her father is old school and tells her father and family that if she can’t proceed with her transformational suggestions, she will have to leave the family business and open her own restaurant down the street. 

How should Mary Jane’s father proceed?

What suggestions would you offer Mary Jane?

What suggestions would you offer Mary Jane’s father?

Please provide us a brief write-up of What this family’s next steps should be?

Send your write-up to Lynn Rosado at [email protected]

In our November 2026 Newsletter, a team of Silver Fox Advisors will provide responses to what they would have recommended to Mary Jane and her father that they do based on the situation detailed above. 

If you need assistance in becoming a better leader, I recommend you start by contacting the Silver Fox Advisors. Silver Fox Advisors are former or present business owners themselves, and they have leadership experience in running a business, and in some cases several businesses, and have dealt with unforeseen and unplanned situations throughout their careers. We encourage you to visit our website at www.silverfox.org to select a Silver Fox Advisor and also to learn more about the Silver Fox Advisors, as well as our great programs and community outreach endeavors.

October History Corner

Silver Fox Advisor's History Corner

The Silver Fox Advisors organization is celebrating its 40^th Anniversary this year, and over the course of the 2026 calendar year, we will be sharing with you some of our history and memories in our Monthly Newsletter. Each month we will feature a brief write—up on some of the more historical high points of the past 40 years in this “Silver Fox Advisors History Corner”. We hope you find this information of interest, as you will probably know or have heard of some of the individual Silver Fox Advisors who made the organization what it is today.

This month we are highlighting the Silver Fox Advisors Website www.silverfox.org The Silver Fox Advisors website has had numerous rebuilds over the years as our leadership has attempted to keep up with the changes in innovation, design, accessibility, seamless real-time availability, inclusivity, and mobile-friendly technology, while providing meaningful rich data, responsivity, security, scalability, and most recently AI-driven data exchange.

When the Silver Fox Advisors organization was created in 1986 there were no websites. In 1991the first ever website was launched, and by 1995 there were 23,500 websites World -Wide; today there are more than 1.495 billion, and the number grows daily. In the days leading up to January 1, 2000 the World was trying to figure out what would happen when the clock advanced to the year 2000, and we all were dealing with the Y2K crisis. Almost, like magic at 12:01 a.m. January 1, 2000 the World kept turning, the internet kept working and everyone’s computer hardware didn’t explode.

Determining the content to put on the Silver Fox Advisors website has led to many very interesting discussions and meetings over the years. Leadership has done a good job of attempting to design a website that is informative about what the organization is all about, who its members are and their individual backgrounds and experiences, and services the organization provides to the community, while providing content that is meaningful and hopefully useful to the and business communities.

If you have never visited www.silverfox.org I would encourage you to do so and tour the various links and pages. Then, I would ask that you please let us know your comments. We would love to hear from our readers and will take your comments, feedback and suggestions to heart. You can send comments to our Executive Director at [email protected]

Silver Fox Advisors are proven business leaders and entrepreneurs who for 40 years have been giving back to businesses and communities by advising, coaching, consulting, and mentoring in Outreach Programs across the Greater Houston Area.

Silver Fox Advisors are celebrating 40 years in operation in 2026. Our members are proven business leaders who advise, consult with, and mentor other business leaders, CEO Roundtables, and entrepreneurship programs. We would love to be of assistance to you and your business. For more information visit: www.silverfox.org  or call 713.467.5900