Main Street America: Leadership Training
Pittsburgh, PA
Challenge
Main Street America supports local organizations that are working to revitalize older and historic commercial districts. Leaders of Main Street America programs are the heart of their communities, shouldering the significant responsibility of inspiring their communities to greatness. Typically they work alone or with a very small staff and with little to no training in leadership or team development. This is where Community Allies stepped in to help.
At the annual Main Street America conference, Community Allies developed and facilitated one day of a two-day training program for Main Street leaders from across the country. "Leadership For Team Building" aimed to train the trainers, equipping practitioners with tools they could use to lead others to action and amplify their commercial district revitalization efforts.
Approach
Understanding that change starts from within, Community Allies took a “transformational leadership” approach, focusing on personal as well as team and program development. We used a combination of hands-on, experiential, and peer-learning activities that sharpened participants’ leadership skills in team-building and led them through exercises they could replicate with their teams at home.
Community Allies facilitated discussions and activities seeking to strengthen skill sets in three areas:
Casting a compelling vision. To inspire participation and build strong, enduring teams, Main Street leaders need to communicate a powerful story about the work. We guided them through an exploration of their work’s impact, what values it reflects, and how to express it with passion and conviction.
Leadership for team-building. We provided hands on-tools for building effective and energized boards, staff, and volunteers, including exploring personal and structural barriers to delegation and collaboration.
Building the Main Street team. We demonstrated community mapping and how to leverage the complex web of relationships between the different actors in communities to establish and build leadership.
Results
Training participants left with an increased understanding of how to develop leadership qualities within themselves and others and with practical tools to apply the concepts within their own organizations and communities. They benefited from sharing personal challenges and solutions with the group and enjoyed the chance to engage with and learn from peers from other cities. As one participant put it, "The workshop helped me reflect on myself as a leader and a member of a group in an organized way, so that I may be more intentional about how I act while carrying out my duties at my job."
“I got a lot out of the workshop including feeling more empowered in my role as leader.”
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