Local business leaders gather to talk about principles of leadership
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 23, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Mike Haney receives the Duke Citizenship and Service Award presented by Millie Chalk, government and community relations manager with Duke Energy, at the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Luncheon on Thursday at Lane Tree Golf Club.
Mike Haney, who helped develop an award-winning workforce development program in Wayne County, received the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award on Thursday during the Chamber of Commerce's annual leadership luncheon.
Haney is the second recipient of the award, introduced last year to recognize individuals and organizations in the community who use their time and talents to positively affect the lives of others. The inaugural award went to Selena Bennett, executive director of Communities in Schools.
Millie Chalk, government/community relations manager with Duke Energy, credited Haney with embodying the giving spirit for which the award was created.
"(He) has a reputation in Wayne County as a friendly business-minded individual that parlayed his experience as an entrepreneur into a role as the existing industry specialist for the Wayne County Development Alliance," she said. "Mike Haney has a savvy business mind and a determination that almost guarantees success, but at the root of it all, Mike has a heart for people."
After 27 years as a business owner, instead of retiring, Haney joined the alliance as an existing industry specialist, later creating the WORKS Initiative, which stands for Wayne Occupational Readiness Keys for Success.
"The vision for the program was unique because it linked workforce development with education and it aligned itself with the economic needs of Wayne County," Mrs. Chalk said. "Because of his involvement in leadership with this program, Wayne Count can boast that 27 percent of its workforce now holds a CRC, or career readiness certificate.
"And in 2015, as a result of Wayne's CRC attainment, public education, advancement and business industry buy-in for the WORKS Initiative, the county was recognized as the first work-ready county in North Carolina."
Over the last 10 years, Haney has also helped manage industry expansions, which have generated "hundreds of millions of dollars" in capital investment and created hundreds of jobs, Mrs. Chalk said.
"For a boy who moved here when his father was in the Air Force, he has fully adopted Goldsboro and Wayne County as his hometown," she said.
"Mike's commitment and dedication can be seen throughout the community and through the many organizations he has personally touched."
Haney said he was happy to receive the award but said he shared it with many people he has worked with over the years.
"As far as WORKS, Bill Pate and I worked together and we would talk to folks back eight years ago, anybody that would listen to us," he said. "Finally, we got the ear of the commissioners and they agreed to fund it."
He also credited Wayne Community College with backing the effort, singling out Diane Ivey, executive director of WORKS, as being "a gem" in leading the program.
Following the presentation of the award, a panel discussion of "Lessons Learned in Leadership" was held, with four other leaders in the community sharing lessons they have learned along their way.
Dr. Scott LaFevers, a dentist and chairman of the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, presided over the discussion. Panelists included Shelby Benton, attorney with Benton Family Law and recently named president of the state Bar Association; Dr. Michael Dunsmore, superintendent of Wayne County Public Schools; Col. Joseph Slavick, 4th Mission Support Group commander at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base; and Scott Stevens, Goldsboro city manager.
Each admitted they had not foreseen the career fields they would one day find themselves in and that there had been challenges and difficult decisions made along the way. But all were eager to pass along lessons that had served them well and could be applied in any business, or real life, setting.
For Stevens, as a youth he hung out with a lot of "strange individuals" whose only link was that he was a friend to all of them, he said. The ability to pull people together, as well as a willingness to step out of his comfort zone, has served him well, he said.
Slavick's approach to leadership has been a collaborative one, he said, listening to the views of others and building trust and loyalty.
"The challenge to that is you have that one strong idea that doesn't really fit, you still have to be able to build them into the team and inculcate them in the direction that the rest of the team wants to go," he said.
Dunsmore, whose varied background includes being a special education teacher, juvenile probation officer and counselor, said his leadership style is to offer the same respect he would like to receive.
"Take into account everybody's strengths and weaknesses," he said. "I always want to listen to what they bring to the table and how I can best help them to fit in."
Mrs. Benton said she found her passion early, setting her sights on becoming a lawyer when she was in college. But nothing prepared her for the fallout a few years into her career, when she was forced to make a stand that resulted in a former mentor losing his law license.
The takeaway was what she came to call the "3 G's," she said -- guts, grit and grace.
"It took all the guts I had at that moment to do what I did," she said. "It takes grit, determination, passion to do what you need to do to build your career. You have to do it all with grace.
"If you go through life and serve in a way that you rely on your gut, you build your grit and you do it gracefully, you'll be really successful."