Leadership Hickman – community leadership skills development

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Daryl Phillips, CEcD

Community leadership development programs contribute greatly to economic and community development. Having an annual class is a requirement to become certified in the Governor’s Tennessee Three-Star (3-Star) Award for Preparedness for Economic & Community Development. Like a lot of small rural communities, Hickman County has tapped most of those interested and available during the 10-plus years we have been conducting the Leadership Hickman community leadership training and development program. This year, we just didn’t have enough interest to put together the usual class. There are a limited number of folks who have the desire to increase their leadership potential and the ability to participate one day a month for several months normally required. During these economic conditions, the cost of the program also limits our pool of applicants. That is why I have been working for the past several days on modified curriculum for Leadership Hickman. I think that a combination of a few Saturday or evening meetings, a significant online component, and some a’ la carte, self-directed learning would achieve our objective of quality community leadership development. Plus, it would be accessible to more of Hickman County’s citizens — as its time requirements would be more flexible and the cost to participant should be negligible. I hope to have a prototype together this month to see if there is any interest in an updated avenue to continue leadership development in Hickman County.

About Daryl Phillips, CEcD

I am a professional economic developer. I presently work for communities and companies in developing and implementing workforce and economic development solutions as CEO of Phillips Economic Development Solutions (Phi EDS). Prior to September 2017, I was the economic development professional who served a community team of elected officials, business people, community leaders and dedicated stakeholders for economic development in Cheatham County, Tennessee (pop. 39,880) and its four towns. During my five-year tenure, I served the team as Cheatham County grew over 1,700 jobs, turned around population declines at the start of this decade into healthy population growth, increased tourism expenditures 20.3% and local tax revenue from tourism 25.4%, grew sales tax revenue 36%, focused on developing the local workforce and was recognized by SmartAsset as having the 9th highest Incoming Investment Index of all the 95 counties in Tennessee. I am a member of International Economic Development Council, Southern Economic Development Council, Tennessee Economic Development Council and International Council of Shopping Centers. I have earned the designation of Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) from International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) certification from National Development Council and hold a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.
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