Club teaches people to be better leaders

What is leadership and how can people become better leaders? These are some of the questions that the Leadership Club in Tamaqua seeks to explore in an effort to create a better borough.

“I wanted to see us start something, because I believe that good leadership lifts the entire community,” said Ed Noftz, one of the club’s founders. “I wanted to grow personally, but I also had a bigger dream in my mind. I envisioned a day when good leaders would fill our organizations, churches and businesses throughout Tamaqua.”

Noftz took his idea to Micah Gursky, the borough council president in 2013, to discuss how they could make leadership development possible in the community.

“He was much more familiar with the proper channels and he knew way more people than I did,” Noftz said.

Through their conversations and networking, the Leadership Club became a reality and business and community leaders started meeting in 2013.

Each month, one of the members lea the discussion. The topic is derived from either a section of a book the group is reading or a TED talk.

Currently, they are reading a book from a series called “Habitudes.” The series is specifically oriented toward different groups, such as new professionals or college-age students and discusses how people are influenced. The club is specifically using the faith-based series about “the Art of Life-giving Leadership.”

Noftz said they watch a short video clip, and discuss the questions and the theme for that lesson.

One of the club’s members, George Taylor, said the book has given him a new perspective.

One of the lessons “reminded us that all too frequently, we get too busy doing our jobs as leaders that we neglect learning how to do those jobs more effectively.”

Taylor said that board meetings usually jump into the business part of the meeting and leave the learning to last, but “Well you know how that goes, right? The ‘business’ completely burns out the people and they’re really too tired at the end to benefit from any learning opportunity. The learning begins at the beginning.”

Taylor also found one of the TED talks intriguing. It was about starting a movement.

“It begins with one person dancing on a hillside of people,” he said. “One person dancing alone could be looked at as just a crazy person dancing on a hillside. But a second person joins that person and pretty soon a third and fourth and fifth and so on. The question is ‘Who started the movement?’ The answer is the second person who began dancing. He legitimized the actions of the first. Good leaders support and foster actions from those he or she works with.”

A retired nonprofit business manager, Gary Price, joined the Leadership Club early on to help keep his skills sharp.

“By keeping my skills sharp, I am doing a better job in my volunteer work,” he said. Price is active in many organizations in Tamaqua including YMCA, United Way, Boy Scouts, Rotary, Masons, Odd Fellows, Calvary Episcopal Church, Historical Society, Adult Day Care Center and a few others.

“Learning is always a way to make the quality of your efforts better,” he said.

The group meets at 7:45 a.m. on the second Tuesday of the month at Lehigh Carbon Community College’s Morgan Campus, and ends at 9 a.m. to give people time to get to work. It is open to anyone in a leadership position or anyone who aspires to be in one, Noftz said.

The group is looking to expand and offer a second meeting time that will gather on the second Tuesday of the month in the evening at the Tamaqua Public Library, as well as bringing a leadership development process to the high school students, he said.

In the meantime, the club has brought a one-day conference, “Leadercast,” to Tamaqua via video conference to the Arts Center for the past two years.

Noftz said he’s excited about the growth of the club and its outreach.

“I am assisting these endeavors in any way that I can. I would love to see more groups form whether they use our same format or not,” he said.

For more information about the Leadership Club and how to join, contact Noftz at 570-668-1121 or by email at pastor@newlifeag.us.