Every two weeks in this space, I am fortunate to sit down and visit with a local or regional leader in our area to discover the various ways “leadership” functions in organizations, businesses and our community.
September is very important for Allen Lima Leadership; this is the month we graduate the past year’s class and introduce the new ALL class.
In this week’s column, I wanted to share some observations of leadership within our program and give readers the elements of Allen Lima Leadership and what a class member experiences throughout a 10-month journey with ALL. So in lieu of a guest interview with a local leader this week, let me share some perspective from my point of view, of how ALL works and how we try and give class members a tremendous experience with real-world value.
Some of you may know John Calipari, the longtime college basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. “Cal,” as he is known to most college hoop fans, is a three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
He is also recently known as the innovator of the “One and Done!” What this means is Cal has a process of bringing in some of the greatest high school basketball players to Kentucky and only having these student-athletes for one year. (It must be noted that the National Basketball Association does not allow a high school basketball player to go directly from high school to the NBA.) Cal has been incredibly successful in garnering players from high school and then losing them to the NBA after one year. Hence, One and Done!
I share this because as the executive director of Allen Lima Leadership, each year we offer the opportunity for members of our community to become one of 30 in the ALL class. The new class comes in and experiences the essence of ALL for one year, and then they graduate. I feel a little kinship to Coach Cal, as one gets very connected and attached to the current class. In a flash, the class year is over, and that class is gone, and we are on to the next class.
I must share how enjoyable it is to be the “professor” and “leader” of these classes. I graduated from ALL in 2001 and have been involved ever since, as an alum, a stakeholder, a board member and now as executive director. My class instructor was Micki Volmer, who is truly responsible for ALL becoming the program being so valued in our community for more than 30 years.
That said, as the calendar turns to September, we graduate the current class and introduce the incoming class. We also take the incoming class through a two-day orientation in this month.
Just as I feel a little melancholy in saying goodbye to the graduates, the incoming class comes in with energy and fuel to begin their journey. So as Coach Cal does, we celebrate the graduates as “One and Done” and enjoy the new class members with so many unique styles and personalities. I have the joy of seeing both grow and flourish.
Congratulations to the 2020 ALL Class! They were a remarkable group of individuals that persevered through a global pandemic and came out on the other side with a collective bond and an eye on bettering our community.
The good news for the graduates is we have reestablished the ALL Alumni Association, to connect and build a bridge back to the future with a multitude of gatherings, events and leadership forums for each class since 1989.
The 2021 ALL Class has started its 10-month journey. After having two successful days of leadership and connecting with each other, we move into various class sessions each month. We begin in October with our agriculture day and end in June with our legal and justice day. In between, we focus on education, economic development, manufacturing, health, diversity and media.
As our latest “Outstanding Alumni Award” winner, Ronda Lehman with Mercy Health, recently shared with me and our graduating class on her experience with ALL, “I really enjoyed the ALL program. As someone who grew up in Allen County, I thought I had seen a lot. However, going through the program, I was blown away! It’s life-changing to see all the businesses and see firsthand behind the scenes and see our impact globally and around our state and region. I absolutely loved getting to meet the people in the class. It creates a bond and tremendous amount of respect for all of the wonderful things happening in Allen County.”
Allen Lima Leadership is three decades strong now, with more than 750 alumni. I look forward to guiding this latest ALL class of 2021 and giving them the opportunity to lead, connect, grow and serve.
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