The Leadership Putnam (LP) Class of 2024 held its welcoming ceremony last Wednesday at The Plaza Arts Center, where Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Maggie Milner welcomed 17 new participants from various businesses and service organizations throughout the county.
“We’re very proud of the leadership program. This has been going on since 1991 with a few years of interim time when we didn’t have classes, but over the last three years, we’ve really expanded and grown this program,” Milner said. “We developed a leadership board that has really helped to put the class into further action from where it already was. This program really is a key part of developing leadership in this community among individuals and among businesses and peers with the efforts being made.”
Following welcome remarks from Putnam County Commissioner Daniel Brown, Milner then singled out several past Leadership Putnam graduates who now serve on the program’s board, including new, incoming board chair, Laramie Fuller of the People’s Bank in Eatonton, Tracy Stickley of Putnam General Hospital and Putnam County Fire Chief Thomas McClain, both of the 2021 LP Class, Putnam High School Principal Dr.
Andrew Cooper, a member of the 2022 class, as was Joey Rainey of AT&T, and Class of ’23 member Robbie King of the Putnam County Tax Commission, among others.
King in turn introduced the keynote speaker for the event, former U.S. Olympian (1972), Georgia Tech graduate, U.S. Navy officer, Disney Company head engineer and lead Ritz-Carlton/Reynolds community planner Rob Mitchell.
Mitchell suggested great leaders need to focus on four primary areas of their lives: defining values and a personal mission, creating a “win-win” mindset, striving for continuous improvement, and gaining Biblical wisdom.
He said the personal mission statement is critical so a person can go back to it repeatedly to ensure they adhere to a stated set of values, such as honesty, mutual respect, teamwork, courage, positivity and humility, among several others. Likewise, he pointed out a win-win mentality encourages stronger one-on-one relationships and emphasizes beneficial interdependency over win-lose outcomes.
Likewise, seeking continuous improvement is not only personally beneficial, Mitchell stressed, it also develops God-given gifts that each person has over five distinct dimensions: physical, mental, spiritual, social and emotional. Overall, Mitchell said putting faith in Biblical wisdom will help teach and encourage not only each of the preceding qualities but will provide guidance when facing doubt.
The Leadership Putnam program involves a full day’s commitment, one day per month for six consecutive months and includes one three-day retreat along the way while planning a community-benefitting project over its course.
It requires not only the commitment and attendance of its direct participants but also the support and cooperation of many local companies, coworkers, family members and friends for the program to be deemed a success.
“I just hope that you all can be the best leader you can be,” Mitchell told the incoming Leadership Putnam participants in concluding his speech. “And I’ve fallen short so many times I can’t count.
But that mission and that vision and those values that I’ve learned are very helpful to me and hopefully to you as well. I’ll close with a statement that Albert Schweitzer made.
He said, “The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.”