Day One :
Leadership Gilroy … Here I Come !
Welcome to my first day of Leadership Gilroy !
Day One :
Leadership Gilroy … Here I Come !
By Whitney Pintello
Whitney is a local artist whose paintings can be found at local wineries and restaurants , as well as the Gilroy Garlic Festival . With her family , she has enjoyed staging comedies at Pintello Comedy Theater in Gilroy for over 11 years .
Here I am , ready to rock this leadership thing ! Name tag , check ! Binder full of helpful buzzwords and articles , check ! Room full of potential leaders , accomplished business people , and ( for now ) strangers , check ! Now … what am I going to learn here that I don ’ t already know ? I wonder who here is afraid to talk in front of a crowd . I bet she is … not him … ooh , she looks like fun . When can I open the binder ? Oh good , I love the introduce-your-neighbor thing … how many of us checked in on Facebook when we got here ? When is lunch ?
Welcome to my first day of Leadership Gilroy !
I was lucky enough to be accepted to the Leadership Gilroy Class of 2014 . Leadership Gilroy is a non-profit educational foundation that prepares local community members for leadership roles in business , and on councils , boards and commissions . Training includes : team building , communications , ethics , diversity , change management , negotiation , media training , conflict resolution , and much more in a community context . It will teach us how to better lead others in a servant style of leadership . Though you may have heard a bit about the program , I would like to share my personal take on my trip through the class this year . Who knows ? You may want to attend or suggest it to a coworker or colleague . The nine-month program will culminate in a community service project the whole class will design and execute .
So , how did I get here ? Though you can apply on your own , you can also be sponsored by your employer . In my case , I was sponsored by my Rotary Club , a scholarship they sponsor each year to help locals to attend and hone their leadership skills . After applying and being interviewed , this year ’ s class of 21 members met for a meet and greet , and most recently , our first day of class .
I had heard a bit about what to expect , but I love to be surprised . Our first day was some lecture and discussion led by LG ’ s Executive Director and leadership coach , Denise Martin . For those of you lucky enough to have met Denise , you know her Texas accent and zany antics leave little room for downtime ! Then we ventured outside for a few fun games , led by LG board member , and all around fun guy , Trevor Van Laar . A few simple games with a diverse group of strangers made for some great observations about leadership style right off the bat . We started to eye each other with a better idea of who each of us was . Later in the day , we got the results of our personality testing and had fun dividing up into interactive pie-charts , eyeballing who the introverts and extroverts were , talking about different characteristics we will need to be mindful of as we build our class teams , and later to take into our workplaces or future committees . We also got to role play some different tactics for conflict resolutions , with thoughtful discussion and more than a few laughs !
At the end of the first day , I was already made aware of some very simple changes I could make to be a better listener , to be better in tune with other team members . I also get the feeling that I ’ ll be learning just as much from my classmates as I will from our instructors . Just like life , right ?
I look forward to sharing my experience with you over the next nine months as we learn about media and PR , community history , local government , and so much more !
S P R I N G 2 0 1 4 G I L R O Y T O D A Y 55