Leadership Huntsville
Meeting Participants
- Sarah Savage- President/CEO of Leadership Huntsville
- Charlie Blass- Chairmen
- Jennie Robinson- Chair of Leadership Board
- Joel Alexander- Finance Chair and Vice President
- Evelyn Coffey
- Cara Gilchrist
- Matt Massey
- Lakeeta Perkins
- Franetta Ryan
- Taunya Smith
- Leslie Zurowski
Nuggets of Knowledge
Evelyn Coffey
- "Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared expectations."
- Everything you do every day as a leader is to remove barriers so your employees can do their job.
Cara Gilchrist
- Communication is key and everyone should be involved in decision making.
- Set aside your differences when making decisions.
Matt Massey
- I was very impressed at the cooperation between the executive personnel and the board. Both are very good at listening to the feedback from participants and are willing to break the status quo based on this feedback.
- This lunch and learn has whet my appetite about how this organization functions at such a high level. I have scheduled a meeting with Charlie Blass in early July to talk about best practices in more detail. I have a feeling this will not be our last meeting.
Lakeeta Perkins
- There is no such thing as over communication. Set the norms for communication.
- The personality of any organization comes directly from the leader. Leaders must model their expectations of their employees.
- In order to get buy in, start with the why. Sometimes this means encouraging people to deal with the difficult and to use data, not fear data
Franetta Ryan
The most important decision to make as leaders are the hiring and firing of employers. A company must make sure they recruit and hire quality leaders who are the right people, the right fit for the company and “smarter than yourself”. It was suggested to always be slow to hire, but quickly to fire. A personality assessment is a great tool to help identify the leadership style.
Teamwork is essential to a company. They use the SWOT analysis to help identify great mentors: This includes finding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Taunya Smith
- As leaders we should find out the strengths and weaknesses of our faculty. We should play to their strengths but help them develop and grow where they are weak.
- Always keep "the pulse" of the faculty close to your thoughts when making decisions. Ask what could be better and don't be afraid to face the answers.
Leslie Zurowski
- Mentoring Program for new members/teachers. They are matched up based on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Cool vs. Warm communication- Technology is cool communication because it lacks emotion. Personal communication is warm communication.