CEOs You Should Know- Leadership Anne Arundel

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should know.Hi. I'm John Dinkele, former president
and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journaland now founder and CEO of Dnkle Business
Development. This is iHeartRadio's CEOs youshould know and I'm here today with Chris
Valario Shocked, President and CEO ofLeadership ann Arundel. So welcome Chresten,
thanks for being here, Thank you, thanks for having me. So I

(00:24):
thought we'd get started by just gettingto know the organization a little bit,
and then I want to get intosome some leadership discussions, some questions.
So for those who may not befamiliar, could you tell us about leadership?
Annarundel, sure, So, Leadershipaner Reuntal is a community leadership organization.
There are organizations like us in manycommunities across the country. So folks
make me familiar with one that's intheir backyard. Leadership anner Rental, of

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course, focuses on Anna Rountald Countyhere in Maryland. We provide people of
diverse backgrounds with the education, resourcesand networks necessary to become successful and proactive
leaders. So we take folks fromgovernment positions, for profit, nonprofit individual
citizens. You know, folks whohave a passion for leadership and for really

(01:07):
having a positive impact on their community, and we provide them with the connections,
the networks, the you know,understanding of their community to do that.
Gotcha great, thank you And whatwould you say leadership Van Rundel is
known for. I know you're excitedto maybe you've talked a little bit about,
you know, thirty years since yourfirst kind of graduate came through the

(01:32):
program, So you talk about alittle bit about what you're known for,
and you know, and maybe youknow, kind of talk a little bit
about the past thirty years. Absolutely, So we were founded in nineteen ninety
three. The reason we're celebrating thirtyyears and ninety four is that's when the
first class graduated. So we hada class go through. Our program runs
from September through June. So theclass convened with an opening retreat in September,

(01:57):
and then each month after that there'sa to the topic that they dive
into. So they meet the keylegislators for Anilva County, so from state,
county and city officials who serve AnimaCounty. Then there's Economic Development Day,
there's Cultural Arts Day. So everymonth it's a deep dive into a
specific topics, and so they worktheir way through around the calendar and then

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they have closed with a with aclosing retreat, so they get to kind
of process all that they've learned throughthe year, and it really provides I
think of it as a mister Baggykind of karate kid approach. Where they're
in the class, so they're buildingrelationships with key leaders in you know,
lots of different areas and those relationshipsserve them for many years to come.
But then each month they're also meetingthe key leaders and any of these topic

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areas. So they graduate with thisuber network of folks you know in all
these key areas. They know whoto call in future years when there's a
specific topic that comes up that theyneed help with. So it's a really
dynamic three hundred and sixty degree understandingof community. Yeah, that's fantastic.
I I went through Leadership Maryland,so I can I can kind of imagine,

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you know, what the program islike, and you know, it's
so important for area local leaders inthat Anna Roundel County get to have that
experience and not only just to understandwhat the you know, the county has
to offer from a business side andan education and government and all that.
But like you said, the connectionsbecause it's it's like it's like a it's

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a it's a community right absolutely.And I'm actually a huge fan of Leadership
Maryland. It's been on my bucketlist for a bunch of years, so
I haven't been through it yet,but no, lots of folks who have
been, and many folks will gothrough their local community leadership program and then
Leadership Maryland or vice versa. Theyneed you this broader you know, statewide
programs is that as you know,better than I moves you around the state.

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You know, you're really getting adeep dive and lots of different parts
of our state, whereas you know, a local program like Leadership an Arundel
just really gives you that. Yeah, that andard community yeah yeah. And
people have come to us, Yeah, people come to us for all different
reasons. Again, you know,like business leaders will come because they really
want to grow their networks and buildbusiness connections. But lots of folks,

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nonprofit leaders come to us, youknow, to really be able to connect
not just with other business leaders,but with the community specifically. And it's
interesting too. Some people come infor a specific reason, like folks who
come for a business reason. Iwent through in two thousand and six and
I was with the Chamber of thelocal Chamber of Commerce at the time.
It was Minnanapolis and Anela County Chamberthen, and they put me through the
program, and I thought I wasgoing through for you know, career reasons

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to get to know our community,which certainly served well for that, but
it also just enriched my I hadbeen born and raised in Annamala County and
had no idea of some of theresources and yeah, just real you know,
understanding of this community that I gotfrom LA. Yeah, yeah,
that's great. And I know youtalked about kind of business leaders and nonprofits.
What who is a typical candidate forthe leadership program? You know,

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that's really kind of the fun clackthere. Really isn't a typical because people
come to us at different points intheir careers for different reasons. We often
get rising leaders. So sometimes specificallyin corporate if there's a business that has
somebody on their team and they reallywant to keep them and they want them
to get you know, immersed inthe community and build their network. So
sometimes they'll sponsor a rising leader,like when I went through frankly you know

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at the time, but we've hadfolks. John Coln is a great example.
He's the founder of Fike Triple A. He went through the flagship program.
After he retired, he moved toAnalde County of Montgomery County, wanted
to really kind of understand how toget involved with the community in his retirement.
He uncovered this challenge of Anamon notbeing very fite friendly at the time,

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so he as a project in hisflagship class started by Triple A and
that was ten years ago. That'sreally cool because, yeah, is there
anything else in particular you would wantto talk about, like some of the
specific aspects of the leadership bann Arundel, Well, you know some of the
programming that you think our audience wouldbe interested in learning. Sure, well,

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so you like they shared, youknow. Our actual flagship program follows
that kind of schedule that many leadershipprograms do, where there's a specific topic
each month that they get into andthen they have a retreat. LAA is
fairly unique in that we have asecond program called the Neighborhood Leadership Academy,

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and that was created twenty five yearsago, and it was specifically because a
community activists came to us, agrassroots leader and said, it's terrific that
you're doing this program. It's tuitionbased, like many of them are across
the country, so there's a costassociated. But she said, there are
folks who are grassroots leaders in ourunderserved communities and they either can't afford your
program or they can't take a dayout of their month, out of their

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work life to participate. So shereally challenged us to come up with a
program that could serve our grassroots leaders. And so n LA has been around
for twenty five years and it isgrant supported, so it's no cost to
participants. They have to have apassion for grassroots leadership and demonstrated engagement,
you know, in our underserved communityacross the county. And so that class

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starks in January and graduates in Juneto both Flagship and NLA graduate together.
Actually, our big graduation is inJunie each year, and this year that
will double as our thirtieth anniversary celebration, so we'll have just a superside celebration
with those classes graduating and just areally fun look back on the impact of
this organization over thirty years. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, and that's

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great that you do that. I'mkind of curious, so how many typically
participants do you have in the NeighborhoodLeadership Program and also the Flagship program each
year? Yeah, so flagships generallywe have a roughly forty five to fifty
people. So yeah, they're largeclasses, and you know, there are

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challenges to being a large class.That really takes a lot of effort to
make sure that in the course ofthe program year everybody really gets to you
cross networks and gets to know eachother. So we don't want it to
be larger than fifty because we reallyneed, you know, to have those
meaningful connections built over the year.So that's roughly fifty people. We try
to keep NLA roughly around twenty totwenty five people because again there's only six

(08:13):
sessions. We really want people tobuild quality relationships. So our current class,
we've got twenty six people couldn't sayto know that to that twenty six.
So there's twenty six and the currentflagship of current Neighborhood leaders to the
academy class. So yeah, sowe'll be graduating about seventy five leaders in
the gum. That's awesome graduation.And then yeah, and then our goal

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is to cross pollinad the best wecan between the NLA community and the Flagship
commutee. So many folks will graduatefrom NLA and at some point they make
those through Flagship as well. There'sno requirement or expectation that they do.
They're they're definitely different programs. NLAfocuses more on core leadership skills, so
we start with communication and we youknow, walk through resources in the community,
how to tap into resources and thatkind of thing, whereas Flagship,

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as I you know, shared,is a little bit more top driven on
the topics in a community. It'smore leadership skill building for NLA. So
they're they're not you know, themutually exclusive. People can go through both,
and a handful of our community has. But regardless of whether NLA grads
go through Flagship, we really wantto you know, break down as many
barriers as possible to you know,those leadership connections. There's oftentimes just you

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know, preconceptions that there's you know, barriers to entry, and you want
to be that organization that can reallybrooker network connections. You know, across
a community. Yeah, that's great, that's great. And speaking of connections,
you know, after thirty years,I imagine you have an amazing community
of alumni. Do you do likealumni events throughout the year and how are

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you kind of tapping into that wholecommunity. We do, Thank you for
acting. It's been an area thatwe really didn't do as much with until
really the last five years. Wewere various program driven and really you know,
just focusing on the two programs anddelivering those and it just seemed to
me what I came on board fiveyears ago and went, you know,

(10:07):
looked at this amazing network of usto it we should really be leveraging them
and you know, bringing them into bring up that kind of next generation
of leaders. So we do awhole series of programs. We've got actually
quarterly programs that are specifically networking ourcommunity. So we've got a kick off
at the beginning of our program year. I shared about Tribute is kind of
the end of our program year,and we've got a couple of others who

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actually just announced our new leaders.We celebrate new people coming into new positions
of leadership, whether they've ever beenthrough our programs or not. And that's
a spring program that we do calledthe New Leaders Celebration, and that's coming
up the second and so we havea whole program of events to you know,
provide folk who graduated, you know, twenty five thirty years ago may

(10:50):
still want to come out and learnwho's stepping into a new role in our
Again. They're all some government,some for profit, nonprofit roles. You
know, the new CEO at Officeof the Chesapeake, the new you know,
actually new superintendent at the Naval Academyis one of our new leaders this
year. So lots of different folksstepping into exciting new roles that serve you
know, our local community. Becausethat's the New Leader's event. Appreciate thanks

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for sharing that. I mean,that must be an amazing, uh you
know community of people. And Iwould imagine that's a good area for growth,
especially you know, tapping in andleveraging that that group is. I'm
sure that's uh, you know,through your program, that's changed the way
they thought about their community or youknow and built like amazing relationships through leadership

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band Arundel. So that's that's fantastic. Where where do you see where do
you see the most growth. Ifyou kind of look ahead down the road,
where do you see growth opportunity?Yeah, that's funny. I mean
that is really kind of our greatestopportunity for growth, and our greatest challenge
is our alumni network. We couldwe're small in terms of staff, so

(12:00):
you know, we are challenged withso many more ideas that we'd like to
execute than we can possibly sustain inthis moment. So trying to figure out
what are you know, the areasthat make the best sense for now,
while we're still cultivating other opportunities thatwe may do down the road. We
know, certainly we're founded on ourcore program, on our flagship program,
and certainly then five years later NeighborhoodLeadship Academy, So those have got to

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be, you know, our keyfocus. So being deliberate with what we
can do as far as the alumniprogram moving forward and how can we be
efficient many things. We feature someof our key institutions that are you know,
delivering tremendous content. We actually havea program coming up on asking powerful
Questions that'll be offered at the communitycollege. We've an the community college is

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one of the top college community collegesin our country, here in our backyard,
so where we can leveraged partnerships andyou know, feature what key leaders
are doing in our community. Wedon't necessarily have to own it, but
if we can, you know,feature that while we're building, deliberately building
the programming that we should own.That's a great opportunity. Is really how

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to how to grow deliberately and carefullyfrankly, you know, without really overextending
ourselves and burning ourselves out, becausethat's always the organizations of our side,
that's always the challenge. It's justburnout. Yeah. Well, i'd appreciate
you sharing all that. So I'dlove to. I love to talk about
leadership on the show, and soI'm curious, how would you describe your

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leadership style. That's such a hardquestion because I think it's better after the
people of my team, But youknow, i'd be interested to hear their
responses to that so that I linkwith myself as a collaborative leader. You
know, we're an inspirational leader.I really like to, you know,
bring my team around the table andhelp them to tap into what they love

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most and do best. You know, it started out in theater, believe
it or not, I went totas Versting that a theater caeter degree,
So you know, that kind ofensemble cast approach of you know, getting
people to work together is where Icome from, not so much as a
business leadership perspective. So yeah,I mean I just think that I'm fascinated

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by what makes people tick. Ithink when people are doing what they love
and feel you know, empowered andsupported. Yeah, possibilities are endless,
whereas if you, you know,tell people what to do, you know
comes kind of top down directing.There's you can just come into all kinds
of resistance and you know, channlelngeconflict, whereas you know, when people

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get all the duck swimmen where they'rehappy. Yeah. No, I completely
agree with that, And I'm kindof curious, you know, running that
you know, leadership program through thepandemic and even though it's sort of it's
passless now and where everybody's kind ofdealing with that, at the time it
was it was very disruptive obviously,So how did you kind of manage through

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that? I'm assuming you still hada leadership class through that time, So
how did what did you learned duringthat time about communication or managing people or
leading and like, you know,how did you get through that time with
with a with a group. Yeah, thank you. I'm very proud to
say that we did keep going straightthrough the pandemic. I know that,

(15:13):
you know, several programs had topress pause. We felt strongly that leadership
doesn't have the luxury of press andpause in crisis, that you have to
really, you know, provide thatcontinued support for our leaders. We had.
Some of our leaders were at thefront lines of you know, healthcare
and food sustainability. A feed AnneRundell was a huge program that was serving
our community, and the founder ofthat program was an online graduate of our

(15:33):
program. So it's like, youcan't so we'll get back to you when
things are easier. So we we, like so many other people, we
had to innovate how do we doit? And like so many others,
we jumped on the Zoo bandwagon andwe worked with partners. We partnered with
some of the leadership programs in otherparts of the country had more experience with
Zoo, so they coached us andyou know, we just really benefited from

(15:56):
relationships and networks to help, youknow, learn what we needed to to
keep moving. I'm super proud thattwenty twenty class graduated. Virtually nobody wants
to have a virtual graduation, butthat one we streamed to Facebook, which
sounds like not such a big deal. Today everybody streams to Facebook, but
in twenty twenty, it's pretty wildto put virtual graduation. We got people

(16:21):
who their families were in California sothey could participate in their graduation. That's
so yeah. Yeah, we hadsome solil linings. And then you know,
the class of twenty one probably hadit the hardest because they really they
stepped into I would give them stangecredit because they stepped up for this leadership
or you know, leadership experience ina hybrid environment. We were still it
was free when they started, waspre vaccine, so it was you know,

(16:45):
knowing we were going to have tobe masked, knowing we had restrictions
on how I mean, we onlyhad thirty five people in that class by
design because we needed to stay underall the limitations. You know, we
had government Day outside in the People'sPark in Annapolis. We had our legislation
under the pavilion, and people boughttheir camping chairs and it was wild.
I mean, it was something Ihope we never have to do. But

(17:07):
it brought back to you know,a lot of innovation, creativity, like
how can we you know, we'renot going to not move forward, so
how can we do this creatively andtogether? And I saw our community come
together in such just beautiful ways.I think it's harder now in a lot
of ways because hooks are tired,you know, obviously we've just from all
the hybrid are we in the office? Are we not in the office?

(17:30):
Are just such kind of post COVIDexhaustion that I think it's harder now to
get people, you know, whetherit's showing up for in person events.
We can do them all now,but people are a lot more selective about
what they're going to get out thedoor at seven o'clock to go to and
you know those things. So we'vegot more challenges. You're definitely right about

(17:52):
that. Yeah, yeah, OhI'm sorry, what's that. No,
I'm just talking to all of you. Yeah, times to day, I
mean it used to be, ofcourse, people would be you know,
right out and bushytails for a morningmeeting, and now it's like kind of
you know, there's off of thekids off there. You know, there's
all the way that we that ourschedules function. Yeah, you have to
get dressed for morning meeting when Ijust do this other thing on zoom and

(18:15):
then I got rid of all mybusiness at player. You know, this
is a lot of post COVID Ithink challenges in that regard. Yeah,
and there's other times too where ourboard is meeting in person now you know
fully where it used to. Youknow, we went through a hybrid period
and like we're just not going toget to know each other like we need

(18:36):
to if we continue, you know, offering hybrid or you know, we
reduced the number of meetings that we'remeeting but made them in person. So
you know, trying to get thatbalance where give you back some time in
your schedule, but make sure whenwe're together, we're really together. And
so far that it seems to belooking really well for us. Yeah,
and and as you know, Imean that's keat especially a program like that

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is is to get getting together andbuilding those personal relationships and one on one
conversations. You just it's just moredifficult to do that, you know online
you need to you need to youknow, kind of be in person to
do that kind of stuff. Soit was it's good that you transferred or
or adjusted to that during you know, COVID and twenty twenty, but it
sounds like, you know, westarted integrating right back into like in person

(19:22):
things a little bit in twenty twentyone. But so that's that's that's a
good thing because that's such a valuableexperience. I imagine people going through that,
and a big benefit is building thosekey relationships, especially with you know,
fifty people. It's a it's ait's a good group. It's a
perfect size, it's not too big, not too small, and so yeah,
that's great. And I've seen thattoo. As far as boards are
concerned, I mean, I thinkmore and more nonprofits are are getting their

(19:51):
boards back together in person. Butat the same time, I see actually
more hybrid than I do full onlike in person one. So if it's
quarterly, they're two of them arein person, two of the virtual.
Because you're right, I mean,the people's schedules have changed and it's hard
to get back out of that ifthey're used to taking their kids or like
you know, working with wet pantsor like, you know whatever. It

(20:11):
is really really interesting. But sowhat gets you excited about the future of
leadership Van Arundel, Oh, it'sjust it's really is unlimited potential. I
mean, like I said earlier,we have challenge in managing our capacity for
sure, but what we could do. There are just so many incredible talented

(20:34):
leaders in this community that we couldfeature, that we could engage, that
could that have yet to go throughour program. I mean there's this limitless
community of folks who you know,many people have it kind of on their
bucket list. They'd like to doit at some point, and they're waiting
for their personal and professional lives tokind of line up. Some folks have
really young children and they want towait until they're older. You know,
lots of different reasons to engage.But there's a lot of people in our

(20:56):
community who would like to plug intothis prom again, whether they've not been
ever been through or they've graduated abunch of years ago but haven't had the
time to really engage and give back, and so just really playing that connected
up and getting people involved is justlimitless possibility. So just you know,
being able to again prioritize not getto it over well way help much we

(21:21):
could do. That's that's to me. The greatest challenge is just to you
know, be deliberate and strategic andnot get too carried away. But there's
just there's a lot of opportunity,and especially because the way these structures,
these programs are structured, there's somany topics. I mean, we could
do so much in arts and culturein our community and helping human services,
small public safety. Like each sessionwe actually tomorrow is our Environment Day session

(21:45):
for the current class, so youknow, Earth Day month, Earth months
and yeah, so it's every topichas so many opportunities to engage, not
just our legacy, you know seasonthe leaders in those topic areas, but
the upp and comers kind of thenew technologies, the new innovations in each
area. So there's really limitless opportunity. It's just and they change each year.

(22:07):
We have different each session day isshared by a graduate, so the
different days are not the same yearover you because it depends on who's charing
it and what their specific you know, approach to that topic is. So
they evolve and change. It's avery you know, organically moving and growing
organization. So just getting to kindof stay tuned to what it will be

(22:30):
like next year. It isn't goodof a merry go Reilm. It's not
getting busy near every year when itcontinues to you know, as soon as
you're done with one session day,the next week coming right behind. So
yeah, very DNA, that's reallycool. I'm it sounds like there's a
lot of opportunity for growth, andyou're right. I mean, I mean
for community leaders, business owners,CEOs, they go and other you know,

(22:52):
folks that are wanting to learn moreabout their community and Anne Ronto and
and be a part of a community. It's it's just a great, great
opportunity for them to do so,so that's a lot of fun. Well,
I guess it's kind of wrap thingsup. Is there anything else that
you like our listeners know about youand leadership? Annarundel, Sure, I
mean really, our tribute, ourbig thirtieth celebration June twenty sixth is our

(23:15):
celebration of community leadership that is doublingas our thirtieth anniversary this year, and
it's a great opportunity for folks tocome out who may have just been considering
getting engaged. So it's not justfor our community, it's a great way
to connect with the leadership community.So folks, whether they graduated thirty years
ago you know, or has nevergone through the program. It's a great
time to come out and connect withthe leaders of anaover county. Excellent and

(23:37):
tell us tell we can find moreinformation about leadership, Annaruntel. So it
is all over leadership AA dot org. We've got a very robust website with
connections to our Instagram and Facebook andLinkedIn communities, so lots and lots of
opportunities to connect to right through LeadershipAA dot org. Well that was great.
Oh my gosh, thank you somuch. I really appreciate you taking

(24:00):
the time to to talk to metoday. I loved learning more about UH
leadership. An Arundel and man,best of luck to you and look forward
to you know, seeing you continueto grow. And thank you so much
for joking me. Thank you itwas my pleasure. Thanks so much for
having me. This has been iHeartMediaCEOs. You should know