What is the Leadership Support Task Force?

By: Laura Blake

There is a cooking show called “Reverse Engineering” in which a chef tries to recreate a dish. The kicker is that they can only gather information on the original dish by touching, tasting and smelling it — they can’t look at it or the recipe. Their recreation is always remarkably close, but you can imagine how much closer it’d be if they could use all their senses and see the recipe!

Resources and knowledge go a long way in helping anyone succeed at a task, whether you’re making a recipe or, in the case of Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) members, stepping into a leadership role. The JLC has accumulated various documented processes and materials over time to help its leaders. Most of these resources have been digitized, which makes them more accessible. However, this process has brought to light the challenge that these materials are not always consolidated. As JLC Board Member at Large Kathryn Anderson describes it, “we’ve continuously had a lot of reliance on individual members to understand what their expectations are when they take on a leadership role. There wasn’t really a handbook or uniform League-wide tool kit to refer to, so there was lots of learning on the fly.”

In response to these observations and feedback from members, the JLC created the Leadership Support Task Force to better support and develop its members as leaders. Kathryn and Chrissy Horwedel are co-chairs of the Task Force.

The Leadership Support Task Force is basing its work on what are known as “competencies.” There are three competencies around volunteer action, community impact and women’s leadership. Chrissy explained that the competencies “help JLC members identify what they want to grow in. They are goals and indicators that directly tie into our mission.”

The JLC already offers many resources and events to develop its members as leaders. The task force is identifying how JLC members can engage with these existing offerings to develop skills within each competency. For example, it may recommend that a member attends Training Tuesdays or events hosted by a particular committee. “There’s a lot of collective knowledge out there,” Kathryn said. “It’s just making people aware of it and making it more accessible. Competencies should be embedded in the culture of the JLC.”

The task force is still ongoing, but the group has already made great strides in building out the competencies and surrounding framework. “Everyone’s collective perspective has been great,” Kathryn said. Their efforts will help members develop long-lasting, widely applicable talent and knowledge. “I’m most excited to provide members with skills that they can use inside and outside the JLC,” Chrissy said. For a group of women committed to serving and leading in their community, the results of the task force will be extremely valuable.