A Conversation With
What are the qualities of a good leader?
I think one of the best qualities of a good leader is the ability to listen, it’s always been said to me that your best leader is a good listener. I think another quality of a good leader is someone who is open to the possibility of change, willing to hear all voices, from the lowest person on the totem pole to the highest ranking person in the company. So, i mean leadership to me is a collective word, there is no I in leader, in my opinion, you’re only as good a leader as the people who follow you. So If you have buy-in and you have built relationships with the people you are working with, it really becomes a team effort, and while you might be leading that team, really it’s a combination of everyone working together for a common goal.
Can people develop leadership qualities? The people who are in our classes are people who are in management positions, so they’re leading already in some capacity, whether they’re managers, v-ps or directors of programs or small business owners , So our program focuses on three different areas. The first area is leading self, leading business , and leading the community.in leading self we focus on clifton strength finders, it’s a program specifically, it’s through Gallup, so we have a consultant who comes in, her name is stephanie masters, and she is certified as strength based coach and she comes in and does classes with our participants, what she does is we spend an hour at each class developing who we are as leaders, everyone who comes into our class takes this assessment and then we tackle different subject matters throughout the nine months, pertaining to leadership and who you are as a leader based on your strengths and how it is you can best use those strengths to manage your team. and be more effective with them. That’s one piece. The second piece of the leadership program is leading business so our classes take place at a different location every month, from Sept. through May, we meet the third Tuesday of every month and each class is based on a different subject matter, so it might be education day or justice day, or gorvenment and politics, community leadership, quality of life, so during those sessions we also focus on the subject matter we’re talking about, so for instance, justice day we go through the courthouse, so we meet with judges and attorneys and we meet with law enforcement, we go through the jail, and learn about what’s happening in our justice system. Plus also leading businesses is meeting leaders in washington and surrounding areas so that they can have contact with them and then also you’re networking with a cohort of 20 to 25 people there that are in your class who are from all ranges of business , whether its from non-profit or for-profit businesses, and also as well from all areas of disciplines, so we have attorneys, bankers, business owners, we have HR people, marketing and sales, accounting, its all across the board. The third pice of our program is leading the community and it’s kind of two-fold. So one of the ideas is because we have management in our class, a lot of the companies in this day and age are into social responsibility and giving back. and so we have a community class project where we support a different non-profit in Washington County every year and our class does that by either raising money, or we do specific projects for time and talent, something they need help with, and this year we’re doing Dress for Success. We’re doing three different projects for them, working with them and helping them with their organization. One of them is the class is actually collecting specific items for Dress for Success such as personal care items and clothing and things that they need to suit women of all ranges, and the other project w’ere working for them for Dress For Success is we’re finding opportunities where they can now launch their new mobile boutique which is fantastic because now they’ll be able to go to the women in the communities and be able to have essentially a boutique on wheels. It’s going to be fantastic, so we’re working with them to try to provide them partnerships within Washington County where they can set up sites for people to come to them where it’s much easier for them to come to them, or also areas of need where women need to be fitted, so one of the groups in our class is working on that and the third project we’re working on with Dress for Success is actually the Fab Sales we do locally in town, so they do a couple Fab Sales, where they go in and decorate Venue 54 which is also sponsored by Washington Financial, and they’ve given them the space to go in and make it a really beautiful boutique and anyone can go in and shop. So that’s what we’re doing this year to support Dress for Success.
What is the goal of Leadership Washington County?
It’s our tagline. LWC’s model focuses on transformational leadership with creates value and positive change in individuals both personally and professionally.
How did you get involved? So i have to say this is probably one of the best jobs I’ve every had. and for me personally i get to use a lot of the things I really enjoy, a lot of the things I’m good at, in this job. I actually was a prticiaptn myself. Roughly six years ago, I went through the class myself . Just because I was new in the area and i was interested in a leadership program. By background my undergraduate degree is in interpersonal communication and um, in the positions I’d held before coming to pensylvania were a lot of leadership based positions and organizational positions at other companies such as Pfizer and Lever Bros. So when I went through the class i thought it was a really great class and I thought it was something that i really enjoyed, I was then asked to be on the board for LWC and during that time, they had a changeover with their executive director and so then I was asked if I’d be interested in interviewing for the position of executive director. And so I got the job, so my fifth year anniversary was this past august so I guess i’m starting my sixth year right now, and it’s been wonderful, i really feel Leadership is a great organization, we’ve really changed and enhanced the program as times have changed to really offer a return of investment for not only people participating in the program but also for employers to and their employees to our pgoram.
Makes the community better.
So through our program, many of our participants have taken promotions and had opportunities within their respective fields since going through LWC. It has been a great vehicle for networking, one of the things i love best about my job is the fact i come in contact every year with a new set of participants in the class and get to meet them on a professional and personal level and lots of times there’s a lot of connections made between past alumni and current people going through our class. so it’s a great opportunity for me to help network and put really good people together to create really wonderful things.
HOW MANY ARE ACCEPTED?
Our cohort is between 20 and 25 people, we prefer to keep our classes smaller to provide for that intimate setting and so they can get to know everybody in the class, so when you as a participant going through int he class, you feel like you’ve walked away with 20 to 25 friends, people you can call on if you run into a situation.
Share a bit about yourself.
I was born i Akron ohio area, i’m from ohio, originally, i grew up in Bath, Ohio, actually, graduated from Bowling Green State University, in ohio when I graduated I went to go work for Unilever in the Lever Bros. division and I moved to central Illinois, it was an account manager and a category envelopment analyst, and with lever brothers also I moved to St. Louis where a lived for a period of time. And then I switched careers and moved back to the Akron Ohio area and started my pharmaceutical career with Upjohn Pharmaceuticals in mergers and acquisitions, ultimately ended up working for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and most of my career was spent at the Cleveland Clinic working as a seniors specialist for senior institutional representative for them .
HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN CARDIAC HEALTH?
It was one of the areas in which i sold, i sold lipitor for Pfizer among other medications for the cardiovascular division, tHeart disease is the number one killer among women, this is Heart Month for Women, and Red dress, I’m a big proponent of the Red Dress program, for a very short time i helped with the Red Dress campaign in Pght, but I do believe in good health and I also have one of the things I’m currently doing right now is I’m co-chairman for the Washington Health System Gala, so I feel very passionately about community hospitals, so while a lot of my time was spent at major institutions, I truly value the impact that great community hospitals can provide their community, and not only as an economic driver but also as quality of excellent health, and i believe we are very fortunate in this area to have Washington Health Systems and all that they’re providing. In fact, the capital campaign we’re working on right now is to provide updated equipment and resources for the OB unit, Actually washington hospital is one of the hospitals in this area other than going north to pittsburhg , that delivers babies, obviously that’s really important.
I’ve had a wonderful time working on this committee and i’ve met a lot of great people and a lot of great physicians who love what they do, and again are really passionate about WHS.
GALA
The gala will be held on April 6, The Theme is called vegas, baby, but the theme is old vegas, so the Rat Pack , the Rat Pack feel, I think it will be a lot of fun, one of the things were doing is selling raffle tickets, for $20 apiece or 3 for $50 for a trip to win to Vegas, I think that will be great, I mean who doesn’t want to go to Vegas, the trip includes free airfare, you can stay at a number of hotels that you can choose from, and you get two tickets to 15 different shows to choose from. Country Meadows is sponsoring the trip to Las Vegas.
I am a mom, i two children, i have a 7 and nine year old, my son Will is 9 and my daughter lillian is 7, I do, so it’s interesting because being a mother of both a son and a daughter, i feel an equal responsibility in raising children that are thoughtful and kind and smart and to give back. So, for my daughter, i tell her whatever she wants to be when she grows up, she can do whatever she wants to do when she grows up. I put no limitations on her. And i don’t know that there should be any limitations on her. And I’m very fortunate that i’ve met really great friends here, very strong, positive, impactful women in Pittsburgh and Wahsingotn County, and we all kind of are resources to each other and most of us are moms, and a lot of us have girls, and it’s really nice. On the other side, i have my son, who I also say to him you can do whatever you want to do, and to bring him up , well both children, with good manners and respect for the indifivual regardless of their sex or gender or enthinicty, that you should evaluate people on who they are and not who you think they are. So yeah, i encourage both my children. At home, everybody does all jobs around the house, whatever is on your list for that week.
WHAT YOU WANT TO SHARE
So, i think it would be nice for people to know that leaderships has actually been around for 20 years, and this year, we’re calling it 20/20, it’ will be our 20th year of leadership and our 20th class, so you’ll see throughout this coming year, starting with our new class, which will start in september, you will see different things that Leadership will be sponsoring, and you’ll see our new logo, we’re excited, we have over 300 people in the community who are alumni of our program. so there’s a lot of great people who are out there, we feel we’ve been doing a good job, we’ve been asking would you recommend, 100 percent of people who responded said yes they would.