Texas A&M Forest Service kicks off sixth annual Leadership Institute
Program’s goal is to expand natural resource professionals network across Texas
The sixth cohort of the Texas A&M Forest Service Leadership Institute kicked off Oct. 7-9 in San Antonio. The leadership program brings together natural resources professionals from across Texas for training to strengthen their leadership and collaboration skills.
Each year the institute brings together a cohort that meets in person for opening and closing three-day sessions and then online for monthly meetings over six months.
The vision of the institute is to establish a program that will rally existing and emerging leaders within the fields of natural resources and increase their capacity and ability to enact meaningful change throughout Texas.
“Our agency mission is to conserve forests, trees and natural resources, protect lives and property, and provide statewide leadership related to that mission,” said Leighton Gibson, Texas A&M Forest Service marketing and communications manager and institute coordinator. “The leadership institute helps build the capacity of our partners who share that mission through leadership training, furthering our mission across the state.”
This year’s cohort boasts a diverse group of 23 members from differing natural resource organizations across the state including assistant city managers, fire chiefs, conservation managers and organization directors.
“The leadership institute was a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves while developing new skills to improve our workplaces,” said Jason Brown with the city of Cleburne and participant. “I am excited to use my new tools with my team.”
Focus on self-leadership, cohesive team building
Session I of cohort six was designed around leading oneself. During this session, participants focused on building a cohesive team with other cohort members and exploring who they are as leaders through enrichment programs about interpersonal leadership.
One key to success for the institute is dynamic and engaging speakers. In this session, participants heard from Frank Keck, founder of Core Build Solutions Inc. and Texas A&M Forest Service Leadership Institute speaker and facilitator, about building a united team and foundations of leadership; Cindi Baldi, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Culsure, about decision making in leadership; and Todd Cottrell, Texas A&M AgriLife organizational development manager, about discovering strengths.
“I find the best leaders are the most self-aware — they know who they are and where they’re going,” Keck said. “Our goal is to really help leaders in different natural resource capacities develop themselves, to make a better Texas.”
The leadership institute hopes to continue to grow and support local leaders while increasing the network of natural resource professionals across the state with each cohort.
Over the next several months, the cohort will participate in monthly lunch and learns, networking opportunities and course activities. The cohort will graduate from the institute in April, after the second three-day session, which will have a new host of speakers and leadership training.
To learn more about the Texas A&M Forest Service Leadership Institute, the speakers and how to participate, visit https://tfsleadershipinstitute.org.
