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I’m embarking on a story about leadership in Northeast Ohio. It’s not the usual story about leadership - trying to find the new leaders and blaming the established leaders for not giving up the reigns. Instead, it’s based on a thought that perhaps there are plenty of youthful, energetic leaders in Northeast Ohio; we just don’t know how to recognize them. The idea first popped into my mind after attending a slew of meetings on economic development this past winter. I wasn’t covering the meetings as a reporter, I was just there to absorb and learn. That’s probably the best way to get fresh ideas for a feature, and sure enough, that’s what happening. The meeting was one of the “Tuesdays at REI” discussions. Instead of learning more about whatever the topic was that day, I looked around me and realized that the majority of people in the room were under 50, many were even in their 20s and early 30s (I’m not saying where I fall in that category). That’s when it struck me, “Who are all these young people who care enough about economic development that they are coming to this meeting in the middle of a weekday?” They weren’t
CEOs or presidents of non-profit boards. If they were civically
engaged, they weren’t regulars at any of the organizations
I’ve become familiar with over the past few years. They were
farmers and IT workers, scholars and marketing professionals. And
while they might not be civic activists right at the moment, who
knows what kinds of activities they’ll get involved with in
the future, or who they’ll talk with about economic development
and influence them to get involved? Along came February and I had a slow week, so I arranged a bunch of brain-storming sessions with some of the people who have become my regular sources. Only one of them actually works in a field remotely related to economic development or planning… and all of my contacts that week are young’uns. And it struck me again, “Hey, these people might be journalistic gold for me, but they’re valuable to the larger community as well because they are so involved.” That’s when I realized I had story. Here are those evasive young leaders that the community is on the lookout for. Here they are attending meetings and organizing events of their own. They’re talking with their friends and getting them involved… but they’re not the old-style of leader. It’s easiest to define this new breed by what they are not, rather than what they are. They’re not benevolent dictators. They are not leading the community by spending their money in the areas they want to see developed - in fact, many of the new crowd are spending so much of their time developing new ideas and working on community projects that they don’t have time to hold down jobs that will pay a juicy six-figure salary. They’re not necessarily tight with the politicians. They’re not so entrenched in their vision that they summarily dismiss anyone else’s ideas. Rather, it seems they need other people’s ideas to help them direct action. And they’re not expecting the world to automatically follow their lead. Because of these negatives, these aren’t the kind of people that you’d meet and immediately think, “This gal makes me want to jump on her band-wagon.” Instead, they work on a subliminal level. It’s not until you’ve met them a few times and seen them in action when you find that suddenly you’re chomping at the bit to get involved. Sure, after a few years of these individuals having enough influence on enough people everyone starts to point to them and say, “That one, he’s a young leader.” But that takes time. And in the meantime, these clandestine leaders WILL take the region someplace… it might be a subtle move, but it’s a move somewhere…and that’s how economic development has to go, in small bits. I think the challenge for the region is to find ways to provide outlets for these leaders. We can’t necessarily pick who they are, but there must be some way to organize our institutions so that these clandestine leaders can do their thing and ultimately change the economy. 
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