By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
For five years, Leadercast has been simulcast in Crawford County. On Thursday, however, the creator of Leadercast came directly to the community to talk about growing leadership skills.
The Crawford County Education and Economic Development Partnership (The Partnership) brought Jeremie Kubicek, an author, former CEO, Leadercast creator, and co-founder of the Giant companies, to talk directly to the students of Crawford County.
“If you want to be amazing men and women, you need to lead yourself,” Kubicek told the 90 students filing the event room at Hord Family Farms. He spent nearly two hours speaking to the students.
“I thought it was really good. I learned a lot of things about being a leader,” said Bucyrus senior Claire Miller. “I think I can apply it by getting to know myself and what kind of person I am. Then just developing the skills for a better leader – a liberator, like he said. I think it’s a good message for teens and everybody.”
The Partnership’s executive director, Gary Frankhouse, credited community development coordinator Steve Crall for the students’ opportunity to hear Kubicek speak. But Crall said most of the credit should be given to the area principals.
“We were planning for the State of the Vision,” Crall explained, “as part of that Jeremie, through Pat Hord, was going to be here. We decided we were going to try to bring the students in because of the Leader in Me (program) we’re trying to get in all the schools. We thought it’d be a good way to celebrate leadership and listen to Jeremie’s message.”
Crall said he met with the area principals and their enthusiasm brought the students to the event. He added that there is talks about a future leadership academy.
“I think it was a very good response. He had a lot of topical stories about him when he was kind of their age and also what they’re going to face in the future,” Crall said. “The bottom line is, we want them to know this place – Crawford County – is a place where they can do very well. We want them to see there are opportunities here. If they want to go away, that’s awesome because they’re going to go and they’re going to grow. But we want them to know where their roots are at and that there’s always a place here they can come back to.”
Kubicek also held a seminar with leaders across the community where he discussed his book, 5 Voices: Discover Your Voice, Build Your Team and Change Your World. At the beginning of the event, Kubicek explained how he would hold Leadercast events, but he realized the excitement wore off after a few weeks and attendees would go back to their real worlds where leadership skills fell by the wayside. He decided that he needed to find a way to get around that, though he realized in order to do that leaders would need to know themselves first before they can lead others.
As a result, Kubicek came up with his book, 5 Voices. Kubicek said there is a wide spectrum of leadership, but most people fall within a variety of five categories: protector, liberator, abdicator, and dominator. His co-founder, Brian Williamson, showed how everyone can fall into one or more categories and how that leadership style impacts those around them.
“I think it goes back to what our vision and what our purpose is: it’s to make the livelihoods of individuals, families, and businesses better,” Frankhouse said about bringing Kubicek to Crawford County. “It’s starts with these characteristics of leadership. That’s where hope and opportunity come from. It’s the place to start.”
Frankhouse said there were a handful of times in life where you get special opportunities and Thursday was one of them.
“He’s here in Crawford County. I can’t think of anything better we could do,” Frankhouse said.
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