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June 16, 2008 The Third Sector

Leading the way | Maine's leadership development programs enhance all areas of Maine

By Elizabeth Banwell

Over the last 20 years, a remarkable number of committed organizations and individuals statewide have worked to create leaders in Maine’s nonprofit, public and private sectors.

Employing a variety of philosophical and practical approaches, these leadership programs share a common vision: to create a cadre of citizens prepared to work effectively with others to tackle social and economic issues and improve the quality of life for everyone in Maine.

These programs are statewide and regional. Early on the scene was the Maine Development Foundation’s statewide program Leadership Maine, now 15 years old, and the Institute for Civic Leadership, which after 16 years still offers programs for leaders in the Greater Portland area.

“Maine is large geographically, but small in population,” says Cheryl Miller, senior program manager of Leadership Maine. “We began with the belief that by educating 1,000 leaders about public policy, we could positively impact the economy of Maine.”

Other regional leadership programs, all of which are modeled after ICL and Leadership Maine, include Lead Western Maine, serving Somerset, Franklin, and Oxford counties; the Penquis Leadership Institute serving Piscataquis County; the Bangor Leadership Institute serving Bangor; the Washington County Leadership Institute; and the Midcoast Leadership Academy serving Knox and Waldo counties. “These programs hold the tenet that leadership has to start in your own backyard,” explains Lori Roming of the Unity Foundation, which has supported leadership programs in the midcoast.

Jim Patterson, former director of the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast, launched the Midcoast Leadership Academy two years ago to address the loss of middle to upper-level management that occurred when the credit card company MBNA left the region. “Executive ranks dropped from 3,300 to 1,400 people,” recalls Patterson. “For the social and economic health of our region, those leaders had to be replaced.”

Two other programs developed by Maine residents — Alexandra Merrill’s Women’s Leadership Collaborative and Carol Wishcamper and Karen Moran’s Provocative Perspectives on Leadership and Service — have bolstered the leadership ranks in the state. The programs prepare participants to address complex social issues by creating experiential forums that examine assumptions and oppressive social constructs, identify values and highlight the ambiguity inherent in social change. “Any self-defined or publicly acclaimed leader has to understand the implications of the continuum of leaders at their best, and at their worst,” says Merrill. “A woman who is leading has to start with her own work. It is essential to strengthen one’s sense of personal authority and agency.”

Networking potential
The aggregate list of alumni from all these programs creates an impressive “who’s who” roster of many leaders in our state. Consider that Leadership Maine has 618 graduates; ICL, 450; Bangor, 213; Washington County, 200; Lead Western Maine, 60. Without including alums from other programs, that short list totals 1,541 people.

Success stories from these experiences include the architect who developed his business on the principles of collaborative leadership, the Washington County secretary who gained enough confidence to obtain a position as a director of a private college, and the young banker who became inspired by the promise of the creative economy and organized last year’s Juice Conference. Other alums have launched the Pulp and Paper Museum in Jay, the Area Business and Civic Alliance in Strong and the Penobscot Valley Pathways guide to walking trails in Greater Bangor.

Developing leaders to support healthy human social processes and a stronger economy is noble, audacious and tremendously complex.

Research shows that it does take time for individuals and organizations to change. Research by the Philadelphia-based TCC Group on organizational life stages indicates organizations must develop core programs and then infrastructure. Only after these two stages have been successfully negotiated can an organization think about impact and expanding its mission.

If examined through this framework, leadership development in Maine is poised to take advantage of its next challenge. Growing numbers of people believe these programs have reached an important threshold and can now accelerate their impact by harnessing alumni and programs across the state. To that end, Maine Development Foundation this summer will convene leadership programs to discuss ways for alumni to collaborate.

Warren Cook of Maine Network Partners, a champion of nonprofits working across organizational boundaries, believes networks would guarantee greater social influence. “Barriers to collaborative action are falling,” he says, “which gives us the opportunity to effect more large-scale social and economic change by working together towards real solutions.”

 

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