CASE STUDY LYNCH, KENTUCKY The Challenge: In Harlan County, Kentucky, the population is approximately 31,000 people, with 94.9% white, and 2.8% African-American. Like Elliott County, 33.9% of their citizens are living below the poverty level.1 The statistics are dismal. Looking at one of the county’s communities, Lynch “is not on the way to anywhere” and paints an even more problematic situation. In addition to the unemployment and families living below poverty level, an official in the town had embezzled money, the town later hired a woman with a criminal record, and she got away with $138,000: two credit cards were maxed out, and the State of Kentucky added $10,000 in fines. Besides that, the water and sewer system was in dire straits. Could things be any worse for this town of approximately 820 people? How would you get your town out of debt and improve life for your citizens? How would YOU teach the citizens to trust their elected officials and believe in American democracy again? Where We Are: Today, the City of Lynch is host to “the best mining museum” in the USA. They brag about being the closest place to heaven you can be while keeping your feet on the ground. The water and sewer system are better though they are not where they want to be yet, the debts are being paid off, and they got grants and raised matching funds for a new firehouse. Lynch sees itself as a tourist place, a destination site, a retirement center, and a place where those who grew up in Eastern Kentucky want to contribute to its welfare and hopefully return later. The solutions, of course, rest in motivating the locals to solve their own problems. And the leader emerged from an unexpected source: the African-American community. The Sparkplug: In this case, the city officials recruited Ronnie “Deke” Hampton as Mayor to bring the community together again and move them forward. This African-American spark plug grew up in Lynch, played football there, followed his Dad into the mines, became a leader in the unions and later worked for the State of Kentucky. Following in his father’s footsteps, his entire life reflected many of the chief characteristics of a good leader, and the town’s leaders recognized it. First, Deke surrounded himself with a team he could trust, as he had learned to do in football and in building mining rescue teams. This team included anyone who wanted to participate in the renaissance he hoped to create, but only those who had earned his trust were given important tasks. Others he “taught” to be trustworthy and to handle whatever tasks came along. Lessons for leaders can come from anywhere. While nursing his wife through a bout with cancer, Deke watched the cooking channel, only to apply the “presentation” theory to his community. Foods that he didn’t like became something he would “try” when presented well. So, he applied that philosophy to Lynch. The first tasks he and his team worked on were to clean up and beautify their town’s public places. While successfully tackling those problems, he addressed the debt by facing the reality and making his work at the city level totally open and available to anyone who wanted to look at it. He wrote an SOS to people who had once lived there, including the corporation whose payrolls had supported life in Lynch in the past. The message was simple: they needed help to get out of their mess. People not actually living in the community saw the plea for assistance and began to get money for them. Next they wrote grant applications, and with those successes, the folks at Lynch realized their beloved Eastern Kentucky town had a number of assets, most of all, the capabilities of its leaders. By 2010, Mayor Hampton felt he had done his job, and that the city was in good hands. He declined to run for office for another term, and is completely content with the progress of his successor. Chief Characteristics of this Sparkplug: * Leaders are often the products of caring and achieving parents * Leaders learn lessons from unexpected places and make them relative to their constituents * Leaders surround themselves with competent, trustful team members * Leaders train other people to be leaders * Leaders take on the easy tasks first * Leaders do not fear the truth * Leaders are comfortable being transparent. * Leaders are comfortable seeking help any place they can get it. 1 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/21/21095.html