Reaching for the top

By Phyllis Stephens

June 20, 2008 02:34 pm

— My love for leadership began twelve years ago when I began providing staff support and coordination to our own Leadership Dalton-Whitfield (LDW) program. I commend the LDW founders that had the vision to start this program and to the past presidents that took ownership in their year to make it special for each class participant.
Three years ago, I attended the community leadership conference that was held in Atlanta and I gained valuable information about alumni programs, leadership skills programs and the importance of evaluating leadership programs to keep them current and timely. As a result of the Atlanta conference, the Advanced Leadership Academy was created by a talented design team, the LDW Alumni Association was formed, a new leadership skills development program called the Emerging Leaders Institute program was launched and a model for a community leadership continuum was developed.
I had the opportunity to attend a leadership conference in Denver last month which was aptly themed as “Reaching the Peak ... Inspiring Leaders, Strengthening Organizations and Sustaining Communities.” More than 300 people were in attendance sharing their ideas and experiences about their community leadership programs.
Pat Gordon, chairman of the Leadership Dalton-Whitfield Alumni Association, attended with me, and we were inspired to learn about new ideas for our own alumni association, as well as new programs that are on our radar screen and listed in the leadership continuum. Pat eagerly shared the stories of our own alumni association with many conference attendees and all were impressed with the level of involvement and activity of our alumni, especially the successful “Share the Vision” events that have been held.
We were amazed by the high caliber of speakers that were included in this conference. The speaker that inspired me the most was a man by the name of Dave Fleming, who is the leadership coach for Greater Tucson Leadership. He remarked, “We should become a seer: vision is your ability as a leader to see what was, what is and what will be. Leaders should pay attention to ‘what is.’ If you know what is happening and why, it can be translated into ‘what could be.’ Vision isn’t a string of words to put in a flyer, it’s seeing what can be and paying attention to the moment to make things happen. Leaders should take a risk because risk invites opportunity, it activates things around us and it energizes us.”
Fleming encouraged leaders to start a chorus by involving other people. “We should understand that you are THAT important (to be a catalyst) but you are NOT THAT important because you cannot do it by yourself,” remarked Fleming.
A chorus of leaders started our community leadership program 23 years ago and the chorus grows larger each year with new leaders ready to become involved, to be a seer, and to be a catalyst for change in our community. I recently witnessed a catalyst for change when seventeen LDW alumni stepped up to the plate and were trained as facilitators for the new Emerging Leaders Institute program.
These alumni have trained 29 participants in a leadership skill development curriculum developed by the Fanning Leadership Institute. As a result they have inspired a new chorus of young, energetic and enthusiastic leaders that want to form their own alumni association to partner and collaborate with organizations to be a catalyst for change.
We are confident that we will reach the peak by developing new leadership initiatives and by continuing to offer quality community leadership development programs.

Phyllis Stephens is senior vice president of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce.