Transformational Leadership from Leadership Fort Smith

In the past, Leadership Fort Smith, like most community leadership programs, focused on the community's key issues. Graduates felt like they had some expertise in what was happening in the community and some access to those who were in key positions. Leadership Fort Smith has been described by some as a "Backstage Pass to Fort Smith." While that is an important part of community leadership, it is not enough. Noel Tichy, in The Leadership Engine, states, "The scarcest resource in the world today is leadership talent capable of continuously transforming organizations to win in tomorrow's world."

As a community leadership program we have a lot of work to do in order to develop the talent needed to lead effective change around the community's key issues. We are adding to our curriculum the transformational change model. This model or series of steps is designed to give the participants in the program the skills and support to become effective leaders of change. The model focuses on the following:

Address key issues for the community or community organizations while tackling serious problems or developing new potential.
Performance-based, requiring leaders in training to lead a difficult change.
Hold participating leaders accountable for results, tracking their development and performance over time.

This is a much more challenging approach to community leadership because it challenges the participants to get involved early in the process, not just sit back and observe; reserving their decision to lead until after the program year has ended. Our goal is to see the program become the professional specialist in developing the skills for leading transformational change around the community's key issues. This is a big step and certainly a transformational change for Leadership Fort Smith

Goals & Objectives

GOAL: The Leadership Fort Smith Alumni Association is taking a proactive role to introduce and support transformational leadership and to hold participants accountable for results. Click here to read more about the goals and objectives of Leadership Fort Smith's Transformational Leadership.