About Us

The mission of Leadership Columbus is to develop, connect and inspire diverse leaders who serve as catalysts in building a strong and vibrant community.

Vision: A Columbus full of inclusive and transformative opportunities for diverse leaders who relentlessly pursue professional and personal development, civic engagement, and community impact both individually and collectively.

Values:

Pursue Growth and Learning – We commit to creating and fostering an environment where everyone can learn and grow and have fun while doing it. As individuals, we commit to empathizing with the various learning development levels within our team, program participants, and community members. As a team, we transfer that empathy to all stakeholders. This is a safe place to make mistakes in pursuit of growth. We believe that learning and growth is available from all our experiences.
Inclusive Collaborators – We welcome and celebrate all diversity dimensions. We believe there is strength in diversity and believe it is our responsibility to create an environment where all voices feel invited, included, and empowered.
Relationship and Result Driven – We commit to making a positive impact in the community and driving our actions towards progressive results that benefit as many people as possible. Our focus on results and making an impact will always be in harmony with serving people and building relationships. We will never deliver results to the detriment of relationships. We actively seek opportunities to celebrate, amplify, and uplift the gifts and contributions of others.
Trust Through Integrity – We believe in building trust with all stakeholders by keeping our agreements, working with rigor, and demonstrating honesty in our communications. We follow through. If at any time we break an agreement, we take responsibility for our part and renegotiate with affected individuals to make them whole. We believe keeping our commitments to one another and to our stakeholders is key to building and maintaining trust.
Culture Creators – We don’t look to culture to determine our compass. We create culture based on all the other values we hold. Current culture serves only to communicate to us what needs changed. We innovate and set the pace for what it means to lead and be community trustees. We challenge the status quo and conventional ways of leadership and look for innovative ways to help individuals and organizations lead in the community.

Helping Community Benefit Organizations through Trusteeship

An effective gauge of a community’s health and well being is the quality of the volunteer and civic contributions made by its leaders–those who serve on nonprofit boards and task forces, work with community groups and commissions and serve as elected officials. These citizen leaders must be nurtured and provided with the tools that enable them to be successful and inspires them to be committed and passionate community trustees.

Today, Leadership Columbus provides education and training for emerging and existing leaders in the Columbus area. Since 1974, Leadership Columbus has been the premier training ground to educate, empower, equip and prepare more than 3,300 individuals to become the current and future trustees in and for our community. Leadership Columbus graduates have contributed to the quality of life in Central Ohio by their deeds and actions. In addition to completing more than 200 community projects, Leadership Columbus alumni have assumed positions of leadership in government, banking, business, industry, nonprofit sectors, politics, journalism, education, philanthropy, law and neighborhood development. In addition, graduates populate the boards of the arts, health care and innumerable other nonprofit organizations in Central Ohio.

Learn more about our programs:

View the Leadership Columbus 2022 Annual Report.