Chamber Amplified

Developing People, Not Just Employees: A New Path for Local Leaders

• Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce

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This week on Chamber Amplified from the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce we’re digging into a different kind of leadership conversation - the practical skills that actually help people grow inside an organization. Communication that lands. Conflict that gets resolved instead of ignored. Understanding yourself well enough to lead others. And even learning how to be wrong productively.

To help us unpack all of that, we’re joined by Chris Caldwell of the Black Heritage Library & Multicultural Center. Chris has spent two decades teaching, coaching, and facilitating professional development, and now he’s launching a brand-new year-long leadership and communication series in Findlay.

We explore:

  • Why one-off workshops rarely create real change
  • How monthly touchpoints build stronger, more consistent leaders
  • The role identity and self-awareness play in leadership
  • Why “being wrong” is a skill, not a flaw - and how it can strengthen team culture
  • How assertiveness can be invitational instead of bossy
  • Ways individuals and businesses can participate, from single-session workshops to the intensive Bona Fide Program

If you’re a business owner, manager, or just someone who wants to develop stronger leaders inside your team, this episode is packed with practical insight (and yes, a little humor along the way).

Learn more or register at BlackHeritageCenter.org, or reach out to Chris directly at ccaldwell0707@gmail.com.

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Doug Jenkins:

Hi everyone and welcome to Chamber Amplified, brought to you by the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host, Doug Jenkins. Are you looking for ways to grow your business, navigate new challenges, or just stay plugged into what's happening in our community? Well, then you're in the right place. Each week we're diving into the issues that matter most to local business owners, whether that's hiring, practices, workplace, culture, technology planning, just the everyday realities of running your business. That's what we like to dig into here. This week on Chamber Amplified, we're talking about leadership, not just the buzzword kind. We all want leadership. We all say it, we probably put it in our masthead, we put it in everything else, uh, in our mission statement. That's the word I was looking for. Uh well, let's talk about the real practical skills that people in our organizations need. Communicating clearly, navigating conflict, and understanding themselves as well as the people they're working with, as well as building teams that actually work across differences. Those are all big points. That's actual leadership. Timing couldn't be much better. The Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center is launching a brand new monthly leadership and communication series in the coming year. And my guest today is Chris Caldwell. He is an educator, a facilitator of the program, and he actually helped build this year-long professional development series, which I think can help your business out. Here's what we're talking about. We're going to talk about why one-and-done workshops don't always create real growth. They can help, they can get the ball rolling. Ongoing touch points do matter, and we'll talk about how that series can be done that way, but you can also get really, really into it. We'll talk about all of that. We'll also talk about how the program blends interpersonal communication, identity, assertiveness, and intercultural skills. All very good for building your team. And why being wrong isn't a failure. In fact, it's a leadership skill. If it's done right, we all know I do some things wrong occasionally. We'll talk a little bit about that too. And we'll touch on the different ways that individuals and businesses can plug into this series. Again, you can do it on a monthly basis, you can do it all the way into a huge deep dive. We'll break it all down. So if you're a business owner, a manager, or just trying to help build strong leaders inside your organization, this is a conversation that you'll want to stick around for. And of course, before we get started, if you enjoy Chamber Amplified, please take a moment to leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really does help more people find the show. Now, let's get into it. Joined on Chamber Amplified now by Chris Caldwell with the Black Heritage Library Multicultural Center as they get prepared to launch a new leadership and communication series. We're going to talk all about that today because I think it'll be a great resource for area businesses and organizations. Chris, thanks for joining us today.

Chris Caldwell:

Well, thank you so much for having me, Doug. I'm really excited to be here.

Doug Jenkins:

It's uh it's exciting because I know we had talked about having you on the podcast when we met uh for coffee some months ago. And uh Lord, yeah. Finally we've uh we're like, hey, this is this is the the thing to do it on. So let's talk about this leadership series. Um kind of the genesis of it. What made you uh decide to go with a monthly series and what all do you look to include in it?

Chris Caldwell:

Yeah, so you know, something that uh uh so I've been uh facilitating workshops now for the better part of the last 20 years, and something that uh has has stuck with me every time that I've I've done workshops is regularly um, you know, you come in, you give a two for eight-hour session. Maybe if you're if you're fortunate, you know, it's a it's a multi-day retreat, right? But one way or another, um there's there's not a lot of follow-up. Uh there's there's not a lot of of consistent touch point and engagement. And um and as I've you know been working in this in this sphere for so long, um, you know, one of the one of the points of successful coaching is just being able to make consistent touch points with the folks who you're working with, helping folks to draw connections between foundational materials and more advanced information. Um and so when I was stepping into my my leadership role with the Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center, I I really wanted to be able uh to deliver um professional development materials that everyone could use while simultaneously making folks uh or equipping folks uh with the tools to be able to connect more effectively across differences. Um and and my field of of research is in uh communication and and uh persuasion and conflict mediation. So I was just like, this is gonna be the way.

Doug Jenkins:

That's what when I saw the list of topics uh per month, that's what really piqued my interest, is there's it really weaves in a lot of different things, uh, a lot of things that are very on mission for the uh for the library and multicultural center, a lot of things that are very on mission for area businesses organization and organizations, and really I think we'll do a good job of blending those. Uh, but I imagine it took a little while to come up with uh with the list, and some stuff had to be left on the cutting room floor and some things got added. But uh uh tell us just a little bit about some of the sessions so people can kind of get a feel for what's coming up starting in January.

Chris Caldwell:

Uh absolutely, absolutely. So um, you know, central to effective uh interpersonal communication is an understanding of who it is that we are as communicators. Uh who are we? What are our values? What makes us tick? Um what are our aspirations? How do we effectively articulate our goals uh to others? So um as we start these workshops, we're starting at very foundational pieces of identity. How do we understand ourselves and community? Um as we move through the year, uh, we start ramping up uh on um really understanding ourselves in relationship to others. And so uh we have a whole session on uh being wrong, um, how to be able uh to effectively move into a space where chances are likely. Uh the the hypotheses that we have about the world around us aren't always going to work. And and how do we move into a space of wrongness mindfully so we can derive the most effective um insights uh from those from those moments of failure? Um and that's actually another month's worth of a workshop is is how do we generate positive and productive insight? How do we um how how can we utilize our skills and abilities to be um invitationally assertive? Um so so something that uh I've I've run into as I tried to train on assertiveness is is folks regularly think that assertiveness uh is bossiness. Assertiveness doesn't have to be bossiness. Assertiveness, yeah. Assertiveness is I understand who it is that I am, what it is that I'm attire to accomplish, and how it is that I want to go about accomplishing that. So, how can I bring people on board to actually help row the boat in the direction of accomplishing my goals? Um so yeah, that like that's that's through the middle. As we work uh towards the end, um uh, you know, we we do have explicit workshops that are looking at um different kinds of interpersonal and intercultural communication theories, um, and how it is that um human cognition really helps in some ways with our leadership, interpersonal and intercultural communication, um, and how it can uh be a detriment if we if we're not um engaging in a in a full mindful and and intentional way. Um so like that's the that's the that's the core. And then we have a few different ways to go about delivering it. But uh we we can probably talk about that later.

Doug Jenkins:

Yeah, I'm I'm really interested in one. The one that jumped right off the page was to me is was being wrong and how to handle being wrong. Uh you know, not only can we probably use a little bit more of knowing how to do that just in the world in general, but certainly in the business within organizations, we're not gonna bat 100 1000. Nobody bats a thousand. So how do we then move on from that without it being this huge crisis point within an organization? I think that's absolutely huge to address.

Chris Caldwell:

Yeah, yeah. Well, so so I'm gonna give you the I'm gonna give you the elevator pitch version of that particular workshop. Um so let's start here. Um human cognition, uh, if we're if we're looking at uh current cognitive psychological theory, um is is regularly agreed upon to be somewhere to the tune of 90% or more, implicit and inductive. Implicit and inductive. And it's because of the fact that our brains can go from a really narrow amount of information and draw really wide conclusions, inductive, and implicit, fun fact, um the the the neuron firings that happen in our brain, we have over uh I think it's over 10 million neurons fire every second.

Doug Jenkins:

Um, but humans No wonder I'm so tired all the time.

Chris Caldwell:

Yeah, yeah, no, you're like there's a lot there. It seems like a lot of things. There's so much to what you just said. Um but uh but yeah, so so there's about 10 million neurons that fire off every second, and humans only have the ability to attend to like 30 to 50 of those of those firings, and so because of that, if we if we understand that there's a certain measure of grace that we can take for other people and for ourselves. Have you ever been in a conversation where somebody is like laying out what they say or what they think is like very clear logic, and you cannot put the breadcrumbs together to save your life? Like you just you hear their logic, but you can't follow it. Right? Have you ever been?

Doug Jenkins:

I as I'm working through something on tech support for something else, I am experiencing that exact issue.

Chris Caldwell:

Right. And and so so when when our when when we step into any given circumstance, the way that we move by ourselves is implicit and inductive. We we have a model in our own heads, and what ends up happening is we try our best to act upon that model. We try our best to make the world fit into the square hole, like the round peg into that square hole. Um sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't. Um and if if if everybody is able to develop a comprehension of their own minds as probably being right, but also having a very high latitude that you're wrong. Um it it just it makes things go easier. And I'll I'll give I'll give one other piece on this. Um and I'll ask your audience, what does it feel right? Or what does it feel like to be right? And and this question's for you too, Doug. What does it feel like when you're right?

Doug Jenkins:

Uh great. I mean, I experience it almost every day, Chris. So you know it's outstanding.

Chris Caldwell:

Okay, so then so so like like it it feels great, it's it's it's it's affirming, it's it's it's positive. So what does it feel like when you're wrong?

Doug Jenkins:

I hate it. Like from a person like I'm willing, like I will admit when I'm wrong. I never want to be the person who who won't admit it, but like knowing that if I was wrong, and then how did me being wrong impact things? Did I crate an issue with an event that we're running or something like that? Um, that always feels horrible.

Chris Caldwell:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and see, so so Kathryn Scholes, uh, who who I lean on fairly heavily for this workshop, uh, she ends up bringing up this concept called error blindness. And functionally, error blindness, uh the the the way to kind of think about this is um we don't actually know what it feels like to be wrong. We know what it feels like to find out that we're wrong. When we're doing something wrong and no one tells us that we're wrong, it's it feels like being right.

Doug Jenkins:

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Caldwell:

And and so what ends up happening is we're like the coyote in the Looney Tunes cartoon. When we're when we're wrong, we're like the coyote after he's run off the cliff, but before he's looked down to figure out that there's no more earth underneath his feet. So we're just gonna keep on walking. And and that's that's another piece to wrongness. Like it we don't we don't know, we don't have an onboard sensor for for our implicit and inductive senses to to be checked. The only way that we can do that is if we develop a working community that is comfortable and confident in helping us uh explore wrongness as it's happening.

Doug Jenkins:

One of the other things I like about this series, it looks like there's different ways to be involved in it. Uh obviously there's a monthly uh session for it, there's the the bona fide program, so that seems like it's a little of a deeper dive into it and everything. Can you tell us a little bit about the different ways people can get involved?

Chris Caldwell:

Absolutely. So um, yeah, we're running these monthly at the Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center to start, which is 817 Harmon Street. 817 Harmon Street, uh here in Finland. Um there's $60 uh for each session, um, which I personally think is a really great deal. Um all things all things considered. Um if you if if you are a uh business owner, if you are a shift supervisor, if you are a manager of a larger team, um, or uh heavens, uh if you are a VP of a very large uh you know division, um one way that you can uh actually engage in a way that uh is is very cost effective is to buy in for our year-long program. Um functionally, what ends up happening is if if you sign up for um for a monthly one-off, um it's expected that you, Doug, would would be in that chair. But if if you sign your organization up for a year-long uh uh seat, anyone in your organization can be sent to occupy that seat. So it's it it becomes it becomes an open chair, and it's at a significant discount because functionally it's $220 less um to just buy it as a bundle um and and go. Um and then there's the bona fide program. Here's what I want folks to know, Doug. I need 10 brave, uh uh intrepid, um, growth-oriented professionals who want to learn, grow, and improve their overall skill set. So the bona fide program, I I pulling from 13 years of of teaching in higher education. Um I've I've I've taught classes freshman through graduate uh uh level courses, um up and down I-75 and in different in different states. Um what I've done is I have built what is functionally a sophomore collegiate level class. Oh yeah, it it I have built a sophomore level class around all of this content. So yeah, if you sign up for the bona fide program, you're expected to attend all 12 of the workshops because it's included in the price of the bona fide program. Right. Um but what you're also expected to do, there's gonna be readings, uh like mandatory readings, mandatory reading responses. We're gonna have we're gonna have quarterly service projects around the community to put uh some of these skills and tools into practice. And from my experience in higher education, I have a really great connection um uh down in Costa Rica for a uh service learning program. Um basically the cost of the bona fide program has uh a goodly sum of that trip built into it. Um so after successfully completing the workshops, successfully completing the readings and the reading responses, going out and doing the volunteerism, um, and then going abroad and putting your intercultural communication tools uh to the test outside of the United States, um, you get a plaque. You're you are you are a bona fide uh you are a bona fide uh person-centered leader as far as the Black Heritage Library and Multicultural Center is concerned. And I will go so far as to say, um, for those leaders who invest in a professional coming into this program, you will not be disappointed. I honestly I make a guarantee of that. If you are disappointed in the quality of this workshop, I'll give you your full money, I'll give you a full money-back refund, dollar for dollar, but I guarantee that you will be satisfied with it.

Doug Jenkins:

It's one of the biggest things we talk about uh when I talk to area businesses is they are having trouble developing leaders within their organization. It's something they want to do. It's a lot of times very hard to set those things up internally. So I think having external programs like this are a good way to get involved in that, whether it's doing it uh just one course at a time or all the way up to the modified program. So if there were a business or an individual interested in taking part, how do they get signed up?

Chris Caldwell:

Yeah. So um if you're just trying to do uh the the one and done or the $500 um options, um, and you're you're uh an area individual uh who's who's just interested in learning, um, what we functionally have set up uh on our website, blackheritagecenter.org, uh blackheritagecenter.org, uh we have we have uh the means by which to sign up monthly um or annually uh for for these workshops. If you are a business, um functionally uh you can or I have a uh I have a uh a sign up sheet um for uh individual days, monthlies, and for the bona fide program. As folks sign up for those pieces, that's all that's all that the person has to do. Uh from there, the multicultural center will bill uh the organization uh with with an invoice directly. Um if you're an individual um who wants to participate in the bona fide program, um you can email me directly. Uh my my email address is ccaldwell0707 at gmail.com. Uh so it's my first initial, my last name, uh C-A-L-D-W-E-L-L 0707 at gmail.com. Um it's it really is open uh to anyone um who wants to build those skills, and our our monthly meetings are from 11 to 1 every third Thursday um of the month. Um tickets are available at the door if you're just rolling in. Um but I I would like to have coffee and donuts available for people. So it it helps to have an RSVP. That's all I'm saying.

Doug Jenkins:

Well, Chris, uh I think this is a great idea. Uh, happy to be able to talk with us about you and uh put it here on Chamber Amplified. Thanks for joining us today.

Chris Caldwell:

I appreciate your time, Doug. Thank you so much, and have a good one.

Doug Jenkins:

That'll wrap up this week's episode of Chamber Amplified. Just a few takeaways from today's conversation with Chris. Again, touching on leadership development, not always a one-day fix. I think Chris said it best: real growth comes from consistent touch points. There's a single eight-hour workshop can be good. You get a little tired at the end of those, your brain burns out, but doing it on a monthly basis in shorter increments, that's where you really start to develop those skills. Understanding yourself the foundation of everything else before you can lead others or communicate effectively, you really need to know what your own values, motivations, and blind spots are. That will help you. Uh, again, I really like talking about being wrong. It's something that we're really bad about in today's world. Look, we're gonna be wrong. Nobody bats a thousand. I don't care what the people on YouTube say and all the influences say, you're messed up sometimes. How do we recover from that? I think that's a huge, huge opportunity for people to learn. And of course, businesses need pathways to grow leaders. A lot of our local employers want to build leaderships, but internally they just don't have the capacity to have a structure in place. So programs like this give you that ready-made solution. If you'd like to learn more or get your organization involved, you can visit BlackHeritage Center.org to register for monthly sessions or the full year-long track, or just email Chris. And again, that is C Caldwell, C-A-L-D, W E L L 0707 at gmail.com. Chamber Amplified is a free resource from the Fidlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, made possible thanks to the support of our members. Their investment drives everything we do: business advocacy to local leadership programs to bringing you timely local information that can help your business thrive. If you'd like to strengthen your business and the community as a whole, well, we'd love to talk about how an investment in the chamber can do just that. Just let me know you're interested and we'll get that put together for you. And of course, if you have an idea for a future episode, send me an email anytime, Djenkins at Finley Hancock Chamber.com. Thanks again for listening, and don't miss the next episode of Chamber Amplified.

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Doug Jenkins

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