Active Gratitude Sparks Community Service

Mark Voxland, Moorhead, BCLP 1994     
Mayor

Service. More than a Motto
There is a common thread running through stories of BCLP alums, especially those whose roots go deep in their local communities. It can be captured in the idea of “active gratitude.” Mark Voxland is a lifelong resident of Moorhead and currently serves as mayor. He learned early in life from his father that to be in business, one needed to be part of the community. And that meant giving back to the community in gratitude for what it had given them.

Be prepared. Do a good turn daily. Help other people at all times…
When Mark returned from college to join his father in Voxland Electric, he decided to get involved in Scouting. “I was a scout master at 22. Can you believe parents having that much trust in someone so young?” He has been active in scouting ever since. At age 30, Mark got involved with the Jaycees and was asked to run for school board a few years later. While that role did not appeal to him, the chance to run for city council did.

Once elected, Mark served as a city councilor for 14 years. When the mayor retired in 2001, Mark stepped forward as one of five candidates. “We must have run an okay campaign, because we won with 65% of the vote,” says this master of understatement.  Becoming mayor wasn’t part of some grand plan to achieve political power. For Mark, it was one more way he could give back to the community. “Besides,” he quips, “I was too lazy to move.”

Attending to the Rhythm of Change
From Mark’s perspective, the key to community leadership is talking with people to see where they think the community should be going. “What you learn from those conversations helps you translate your own vision and enables you to look forward even as you connect with people’s immediate concerns.” This leadership posture requires a person to be a skillful listener to hear what others are really saying. That often requires being a good questioner in order to encourage and support people as they articulate what really is at stake for them. And it takes patience. “If you throw out an idea, you have to realize that it takes time for people to see how it might work for the community. A leader needs to attend to the people’s rhythm of change, not force them to adapt to yours.”

Mark’s insights into leadership come from the school of experience. The same week he was elected, the city manager took a new job in California. A week later, the state announced a $2.4 billion deficit that meant cuts to all governmental units. Four of the eight council members were new to their jobs when Mark took office in 2002. “Several realties came crashing down during that time. Our agenda was clear. We had to prepare for some pretty deep cuts in state revenues, find a city manager, and continue to identify ways to move Moorhead forward.”

Working together, the mayor and council stuck to the agenda. They ended up dealing with a $1.4 million cut in state aid that required, among other things, the need to reduce the city workforce by 22 people. In the process, the council restructured how the city organized itself, melding services so that none became separate fiefdoms. Most important, the council was challenged not to get into this same situation again. “In the simplest terms, that meant growing Moorhead.”

Common Vision Unites Community
Over the past five years, Moorhead has experienced significant growth in terms of housing and business relocation or expansion. One of the guiding principles for Mark and other Moorhead leaders was to put people first by providing access to housing and improving the essential structures people come to identify with a healthy community. It is a tribute to Moorhead and to community leadership that a $64 million school bond issue passed in 2002, even as the council was investing an additional $25 million in providing water and sewer for the two thousand acre building site.

“In all this, leadership was the catalyst for getting vision buy-in from the people. There was a lot of pent-up energy to move, to do something. That we were able to pass a major school bond issue at a time when we were making deep cuts in the city budget is striking. But at the school board level, members were able to articulate a new vision for K-12 education in Moorhead that caught people’s imagination. At the city level, we worked together as a team to tackle the financial problems we faced without losing sight of our need to grow rooftops, businesses and retail. The council went on retreats, learning to work off each other and out of a common vision.”

Mark drew on his “first principles” of leadership – listening, questioning, patience — in playing his part in Moorhead’s renewal. He went to every service club and church group “that would have him” to describe what the council wanted to do. “My job was to spark and keep alive the idea that it was time to change.” The results of his efforts and those of other Moorhead community leaders are impressive, both in terms of what got accomplished and the process of keeping people connected to the vision.

Working Across Differences
“My participation in the Blandin leadership program helped me sharpen certain skills, often by giving me language for what my instinct and experience had taught. The notion of ‘wellsprings and filters’ really helps when I am talking with council members, staff, or members of the community. I am reminded that while we are exchanging words we might be missing the meaning. I also took away from Blandin the importance of learning to work across differences — of positions, location, issues. We couldn’t have made the progress we have without a willingness to do just that.”

Mark is intentional about cultivating future leaders for Moorhead. He uses appointments to standing committees purposefully, paying attention to people who do well and show an aptitude for certain tasks and challenges. “I try to give people short-term specific tasks so they gain a sense of accomplishment and, through their involvement, get to know what city government is all about.” Mark also keeps an informal file on interesting and interested people — people who might be good candidates for city council or mayor or for major leadership in other ways in the community. That level of intentionality is just one more expression of Mark’s gratitude. It is one thing to make his talent, energy, and vision available to Moorhead. It is another to think beyond the demands of the moment to the future needs for leadership. “Moorhead had a good mayor before I came along. I want a good one after me.”