EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine August 2017 | Page 43

Challenge
ACCEPTED:
H O W O N E P R O G R A M I M PA C T S
A N E N T I R E CO M M U N I TY
by Janet Kersey and Skip Lily
Designed for the community’s most active leaders, the
Leadership Daytona Program of the Daytona Regional Chamber
of Commerce has a very successful track record of equipping
graduates with the skills, knowledge and contacts needed as they
accept the challenge to become a more visible resource while
making an impact for the greater good of our community. With
over 36 years and 900+ graduates of the program, this three-
month journey is specifically designed to engage participants in
a unique and powerful opportunity to jointly engage in solving a
specific community issue, while learning from each other and the
community’s top leaders.
A
s an employer in the Volusia county area, there are
options for training key personnel to become better
leaders: professional coaches, online classes, seminars
and private groups that meet regularly to sharpen each member’s
skills. However, there is a unique program that stands out among
the rest. Did you know there is a program that allows employers
to identify an employee that shows great potential, immerse them
into a group of professionals to excel their knowledge of how
a community works, and unite behind a common issue and
work together to solve it? Experiences like this are rare for
employees and you might be surprised how it opens minds and
impacts professionals.
One of the most unique aspects of the Leadership Daytona
program is the newly implemented “CEO Challenge.” Created
and developed by Bo Brewer, CEO of the People Business, who
along with former Leadership Daytona program facilitator,
Joni Hunt, Director of Government Affairs for Florida Hospital,
re-envisioned and directed the inner workings of the program
over the previous five years. “I took a look at what was most
successful in my own business and understood that to develop
strong teams who work well together, you really had to create a
crisis, throw them into it and allow them to operate in a way that
as team they can come together, decipher the problem then work
to find the perfect solution. The results had to be measurable,
involve all, define the issue, develop objectives and solve it
AUGUST 2017 | 43 |