Every community benefits when it has good leaders in place. Local government, police and fire departments, schools and businesses, for example, all function better when people who are well trained are heading key positions.
However, natural-born leaders are rare. Leaders primarily evolve because they’re people who learn skills over time that enable them to lead people, organizations and communities.
What communities and organizations do to teach needed leadership skills is important, and makes a difference.
Fortunately, Columbus has invested in leadership training for decades, specifically with Leadership Bartholomew County, which has operated for 37 years.
Now, however, the community and its organizations should benefit even more with the introduction of the Columbus Leadership Development System, created by Leadership Bartholomew County and CivicLab, a program that teaches the practice of civic collaboration. It’s a comprehensive, coordinated leadership approach for developing individual, organizational and collective leadership skills.
Whereas different leadership systems have existed separately and have been connected loosely in the community, now they’ll operate according to a shared set of standards and values about high aspirations, good design and collaboration — known as “The Columbus Way” — and operate in a coordinated fashion so that participants in one program will know which leadership programs they can transition to next, and will be able to do so in a timely manner.
This system represents a step forward for local leadership training in that it provides a clear pathway for people to take additional steps and acquire more skills. It’s a welcome offering and an opportunity that the community’s organizations, businesses and residents should seize.
The community will benefit by having people with enhanced leadership training.
Send comments to editorial@therepublic.com.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”To learn more” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
To learn more about the Columbus Leadership Development System, send an email to contact@leadershipbc.org.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
