Celebrating the leaders among us

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already." ~John Buchan

Look around your workplace. There are leaders everywhere. In fact, "lead from any chair" is the philosophy of our leadership model. It's important that we recognize and celebrate the everyday leaders who show initiative and inspire others.

Today we celebrate 35 of your inspiring colleagues, who dedicated nine months to improving their skills through the Leadership Academy.

Through this academy members learn about things like project management, negotiation, and strategies to improve the performance of themselves, their teams and the agency. Each participant in Leadership Academy also works on a group project that aligns with OHA core values and makes a positive impact in our organization. Often these projects form a foundation for improvements in the agency. This year projects included domestic violence prevention training, a telecommuting tool kit, an employee retention tool and a supervisory support program.

Leadership Academy members often help each other out through job-shadowing. But the academy involves more than the students; other OHA staff serve as mentors to the participants.

Leadership Academy is a joint endeavor with OHA and DHS. The development and networking that happen in Leadership Academy help to strengthen our agencies and encourage our staff to break new ground. OHA needs that type of innovation and genuine leadership to succeed; we are lucky to have staff who step up to the challenge.

Applications for the 2013-14 Leadership Academy class open soon. To learn more about how you can be part of it, please visit the academy's intranet site.

I am proud of the 2012-13 Leadership Academy graduates. Please join me in offering a heartfelt congratulations and a big thank you for all their hard work, now and in the future. Here are the members of the class of 2013: