Building an Area’s Leadership Capacity

Central Iron Range

From Open Pits to Open Doors
Communities on Minnesota’s Iron Range are known for colorful histories, marked deeply by the boom and bust cycles of the iron mining industry and by its symbolic “melting pot” of ethnic heritages. Founders created tight-knit communities where residents felt they belonged, gathered together by work but also by a spirit of “being in this together.”

A fierce sense of self-sufficiency, however, led to years of politically charged and often adversarial decision-making that pitted neighboring communities of Hibbing and Chisholm and other Central Iron Range communities against one another. By 1987, facing economic and demographic downturns, community leaders recognized the need to collaborate across boundaries — to build on the strength of their common roots – to promote the socioeconomic vitality of the entire region. Since then, three area cohorts have gone through the Blandin Community Leadership Program and have spearheaded numerous collaborative initiatives across the Central Iron Range.

Guaranteeing Access to Leadership Talent
Sensing a gap in local leadership and not content to wait for leaders to arise out of some sort of “spontaneous combustion,” a group of BCLP alums working with other local communities’ leaders, created a “local school for leadership” in 1997 — a homegrown program modeled after that of the Blandin Foundation and tailored to the needs and circumstances of what Central Iron Range communities needed.

That focus on intercommunity cooperation also led to the creation of a joint community Chamber committee, which in 2001, became the Central Iron Range Initiative. CIRI brings together city, county and state leaders on a monthly basis to work on issues of joint economic development and planning. Funded, in part, by the Blandin Foundation, the group has completed a variety of projects that have benefited the area, including raising funds for a joint Central Iron Range sanitary sewer district project.

Shelley Robinson (Chisholm) and Lory Fedo (Hibbing) are both 1996 BCLP alums. Shelley is director of Range Center, a large regional nonprofit organization, and Lory is president of the Hibbing Area Chamber of Commerce. “The relationships we forged through BCLP have helped projects evolve a lot faster in our neighboring communities,” notes Lory, “because of the focus on collaboration…because we’ve learned to ask what is the common good?” The two applied to be part of BCLP for their own ongoing development as persons committed to quality of community life. “It also helped me envision what a leadership program on the Central Iron Range might look like,” says Lory. Both women share with colleagues throughout the community a common belief that the health of a community depends on having access to a wide range of leadership talent.

Developing Leadership Capacity
Now in its eleventh year, the Hibbing Area Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program is designed to enhance the leadership skills of new and emerging leaders. Modeled after BCLP, the program boasts over 300 alums from the Central Iron Range area. Each year, a cohort of 35 men and women make a commitment to meet monthly for six months to hone their leadership skills. During the course of the program, the cohort treks to the state capital to see firsthand how the legislature impacts economic development for their region. Another skill building exercise requires participants to create and present an innovative eight-minute, multimedia presentation to “sell” their small group to the rest of the group.

“The Chamber’s Leadership Program is a high-spirited, creative process designed to draw people into the circle of relationships that often builds friendships but always develops social capital,” Lory explains. “Being intentional about networks becomes increasingly important in a community where two-thirds of its members are ‘not from around here’.”

Shelley offers her perspective as an employer who encourages employees to participate in the Chamber’s program. “I had a supervisor participate a few years ago. This person thought personal power was a bad thing. He came back telling me that he learned he didn’t have any idea what it was or that he had any! I rely on this regional leadership program to further build the leadership skills of our company’s top performers.”

Expanding Circles of Social Capital
This regional program clearly demonstrates that intentional efforts to teach leadership skills are an effective way to develop leadership capacity for a region. Employers report that employees return to their jobs with increased confidence to handle tough situations. Shelley and Lory also report higher levels of community involvement among graduates of the program.

“We see evidence of critical mass,” says Lory. “People coming through the Chamber’s leadership program realize community development makes a difference.” Shelley adds, “It is also a place to recruit untapped talent. Program participants are invited to join leadership efforts throughout the community. Once involved, new leaders discover they can have an impact on issues at work and in the community. Increased involvement is good for the health of the community; it also deepens an individual’s sense of belonging to the greater community.”