Heartland Leadership Labs Attracts over 300 for Aeneus Williams

Sikeston - The final lab of the 2011 program was held today attracting over 300 to hear former St. Louis Rams and future Hall of Famer, Aeneus Williams. The room was filled with area and local business professionals as well as more than 100 students from the Mingo Job Corp near Puxico.

“Good leadership can effect the world and is the driving force behind the Heartland Leadership Lab’s mission”, commented organizer Brad Aycock. “The Heartland is filled with great leaders and the Heartland Leadership Lab is a way of further developing those leadership skills.”

An inspired vision of Alan Kennan and Brad Aycock, both gentleman came together with a passion to create an environment where area business people could hear from the nation's top speakers on the topic of leadership.

“Leadership effects your families, your workplace and ultimately effects the world we live,” Aycock said.

The vision was born of two men and completed by the helping hands of a large group of volunteers from the First United Methodist Church of Sikeston. With the use of their facilities and a long list of corporate sponsors, the vision became a true reality throughout the Fall of 2011.

Each lab was held over the past three month period beginning on Sept. 30 with Dr. Tim Elmore, continuing on Oct. 28 with Sue Nelson Kibby and finalizing today with Aeneus Williams. These national level speakers delivered valuable messages to their audiences that bring immediate impact to local business and leadership.

September’s speaker was Dr. Tim Elmore. Tim is a renown expert on many topics about today’s youth, the Gen Y Group. His topic was entitled “Habitudes: Images that Form Leadership Attitudes and Habits”. Tim is the founder of Growing Leaders  and has written more than 20 books, including his most recent book Generation iY.

Sue Nelson Kibby is a consultant for many large Fortune 500 companies throughout the world and specializes in strength finders studies. In the October lab, Kibby helped the group identify their own strengths and led discussions of how to “Lead By Strengths”. Her book, StrengthsFinder 2.0, was given to each attendee and an online strength analysis was performed to find the top five strengths of each member of the group.

The final speaker of the 2011 Heartland Leadership Labs was Aeneus Williams. Aeneus lead a discussion of Teamwork Makes the Dream Work. The future Hall of Famer spoke of his days with the Arizona Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams.

Williams shared the story of when he arrived in St. Louis of the vision Coach Mike Martz cast upon him as a leader when Martz stated, “You’ll do for our (Rams) defense what Marshall Falk did for our offense.”

Most impressive was the time given by Williams throughout lunch and the breaks, as he took his time with each individual seeking to talk and get an autograph from the football great.

During the afternoon session, the audience was allowed to ask questions of the speaker on many subjects from “what he thought of Michael Vick” to “the influence of Christianity on the football field." As a pastor, you would have expected a strong “church” related answer but Williams was more down to earth with his reply.

“God is honored by the level of work you do on your job”, said Williams. “In the NFL, they aren’t paying you for your Christianity. They are paying you to play football and you better do your job.”

He also reminded the crowd that the letters of NFL stand for “Not For Long” to many of the athletes on professional teams.

The work and organization of the First United Methodist Church should be applauded. Brad Aycock and Alan Keenan have followed their vision to bring high level management conference to our area to improve not only our workforce, but our leaders.

Special thanks to all the area businesses that participated and in the event to include Alan Wire, Missouri Delta Hospital, Newwave Communication, MANAC, Orgille, Noranda, Montgomery Bank, County Wide Insurance Agency, Moll Printing and the ShowMe Times.

Discussions are already underway for the 2012 labs and you can find additional information by contacting Brad Aycock through the Heartland Leadership Lab website (www.Heartlandleadershiplabs.com) or the First United Methodist Chuch of Sikeston.