This year, the Haralson County Chamber of Commerce is offering up a series of leadership seminars under their Leadership Haralson Program. However, these seminars aren’t just for Leadership Haralson alumni, the public is also invited to take advantage of the information the speakers will share.

“It’s important for us to continue to provide leadership development opportunities for our alumni, but this is open to the community as well,” said Chamber President Jennie English. “Anyone can attend these seminars and use the information, whether they own a business, run a non-profit or are an elected official. Leaders of all shapes and sizes will benefit from these talks.”

Leadership Haralson is a program facilitated by the Haralson County Chamber that aims to teach local residents how to be leaders in their community. Each year, the chamber graduates a class, who then go back out into the world to use their knowledge to benefit the community. The chamber also hosts post-graduate leadership training events to further educate them on various topics and help them reach their goals. The 2013 Leadership Development Series is a part of this program; however, it is open to general public.

“We’ll be providing one seminar per quarter,” English said.

The first seminar, “Creative Collaborations: A Fresh Approach to Leading Haralson County,” will be held at 6 p.m. March 26 at West Georgia Technical College.

The talk will be led by Dan Klein and Michelle Darby, who will teach the mindset and methodology of “design thinking,” whereby teams of people collaborate to find relevant, creative and useful solutions for specific users.

Klein and Darby are resident fellows at Stanford University.

As a program director and performance coach, Klein has been a member of the Stand & Deliver team for eight years, working with clients such as Cisco, Nestle, ING, and Vestas in more than a dozen countries around the world. He brings an expertise in improvisation and creative collaboration to his work with leaders and teams at all levels.

Darby is the founder and artistic director of the Just West Theater in Tallapoosa as well as an actor, singer and director. She has directed as well as taught acting and improvisational theater to professional actors, college students, high schoolers and children at Stanford University, The Academy of Art University, and public schools in our local area.

“With today’s economy, it’s easy to focus on all the reasons we can’t do something,” English said. “We’re very excited about this seminar because it’s important to focus on what we can do, on creative ways to solve problems, on how we can overcome obstacles to find solutions.”

Seating will be limited for this event, so call Haralson County Chamber Leadership Development Team Chairman Elizabeth Langley to reserve your seat.

The second seminar in the series will be led by Glenn Gould, Vice President of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce and co-owner of Inspiration Agents. The talk will be held at 6 p.m. May 14 at a location yet to be determined and will focus on “Service Excellence.”

“Leadership is about serving, this topic is a perfect fit for the chamber because service is such and important aspect of any business,” English said. “But, in reality, it doesn’t just apply to business. No matter what field you’re in, you need to know how to serve with excellence.”

Gould has owned and operated several businesses over the years and published four books. He is a “business growth and relationship thought leader,” according to Inspiration Agents’ web site, who has worked with numbers Fortune 500 companies. Inspiration Agents specializes in personal and business development.

The third and fourth seminars in the series will be on trust building and communication; however, the dates, locations and speakers have yet to be announced.

“We’re very excited about this series,” English said. “We hope it helps pull community leaders together as well as brings in some new folks because these topics apply to more than just the business world.”

English said the Chamber is also looking forward to its 24th Annual Chamber Meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 23 at West Georgia Technical College. This year’s theme is “There’s No County Like Our County: The Power of Relationships.”

To reserve a table, contact Linda Rutherford at the Chamber.

Also, call Linda if you are interested in attending the Chamber Marketing Team’s seminar “How to Sell” at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Chamber. Speakers for the event will be Times-Georgian Advertising Director David Bragg and Senior Account Executive of Sales for Gradick Communications Duane Sohl.

To learn more about any of these upcoming events or to R.S.V.P, call the chamber at 770-537-5594.