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Krahenbuhl looks for employees with a positive
attitude and strong work ethic |
Name: Sarah Krahenbuhl
Position: Phoenix Suns Charities Exec Dir
Age: 38
Where I’m from: Phoenix
Where I call home: Phoenix
Focusing on right now: Closing out the current grant cycle
Best advice: I had a boss once, former Coyotes Exec VP & Chief Communications Officer JEFF HOLBROOK, who had a sign up in his office that said, “Surround yourself with good people and let them excel at what they do best.” And I always took that to heart to really make sure that you lean in on people’s expertise and give them the wherewithal to do what they do best and not hold anyone back. That just makes everyone better.
A must for a new hire: I always look for someone with the unteachables, like work ethic, a positive attitude, excitement. You can always teach the job, but you can’t teach those unteachables. You can’t teach someone how to have passion, so that’s always very important to me. You always want to work with people you really like, and that’s something that you can’t teach. If you hire people that are excited to be in the workplace day in and day out, and are passionate about what they do, they’re going to excel at whatever the task is at hand.
Exec I admire most: My predecessor ROBIN MILNE, who just retired. She gave me the freedom to be innovative, trusted my insight and leveraged my expertise. She really allowed me to grow in my career. Also, Valley Leadership President & CEO CHRISTY MOORE. She has this passion for Arizona and building leadership throughout our state that is something to be admired by everyone in our community. I went to the program, Valley Leadership, several years ago and then the leadership program specifically within the Arizona community, and I sit on the board now. Her passion is contagious. Arizona has a lot of great things to offer our country, and she’s really the person that’s bringing up the leadership in our state.
Best book I’ve read this year: “HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK” by HARVEY KARP. That is how my life is now. My life has changed a lot. It was interesting because I feel like I’m an overachiever, and I’ve always excelled in my career and I’m very proud of that. And then, somebody gave me a baby to bring home from the hospital with no instructions or anyone to manage me and the situation. So I really had to reach out and go into my network and ask a lot of questions and then I had to read a lot of books. And “Happiest Baby On The Block” taught me how to put my child to bed and make sure he didn’t cry and really calm everybody in the household. Two weeks in, I was begging someone to let me go back to work, but things got better.
First thing in the morning: I always read my email first. That’s the first place that I go, but having a new baby, my mornings are really now concerned with getting us ready for the day and baby talk. I also hit the media scene and try to keep up with sports business and our local business with Phoenix Business Journal and getting the news locally that way.
Talking tech: Social media really plays a large role in communicating what Phoenix Suns charities does for the community. For the first time this grant cycle, we’re going to be giving a media packet to all of our more than 100 grant recipients this year, and it will have a thumb drive that has the press release and logos. We’ll give them items for branding in their organizations. We’re also going to give every non-profit a date for them to post on social media how the grant they received will impact their organization and kids in our community. Our hope by this is really to expand our reach into the social media community, to showcase the great work that these charities do and we serve them. All the great work they do in our community to help families and children.
Must have music: I rock out to hair bands like SKID ROW and POISON. I also still like old-school rap. I really don’t think that my musical tastes have really progressed past high school.
Food for thought: We eat out a lot. Obviously Arizona is known for great Mexican food, so I have to say going out for a date night with my husband for some margaritas for a long week, there’s not much better than that. Via Delosantos is the best Mexican food in Phoenix. I get the spinach and asparagus enchiladas with the white sauce. I don’t know what it is, but it’s delicious. It’s an authentic Mexican restaurant.
How I unwind: Well, four months ago, I would’ve said happy hour, but now I unwind with a long walk with my little guy, BODHI. We have great hiking trails in Phoenix. So I love to take a long hike up Camelback or Squaw Peak or any of the local mountains.
Day in the life: We’re closing out our grant cycle, where we donate $1.2 million dollars to the Arizona community, specifically families and children in need. We also adopted Central High School three years ago to raise the graduation rates. So, we’re focused on bringing all the kids in the Suns Central program into the Suns organization for job shadowing, which is a big undertaking. When we first got involved with Central High School, their graduation rate was 70%, and in three years, we’ve helped raise it to 90%. We also are constantly meeting with our local nonprofits to understand what they do in the community so we can best maximize how Phoenix Suns Charities’ dollars are spent and have an impact in the community.
