What a tremendous privilege it has been this past 8 months to travel around our beautiful state and appreciate the diversity of its landscape, industry, and people. I am proud to be a Montanan and that pride is greater today because of Leadership Montana.

Leadership Montana has provided a local and regional context for learning, a framework for reasonable debate and engagement, and a network of peers that prompt me to smile when I think of them!

Leadership Montana gave me a backpack full of tools, connections, and experiences that I pull out on a regular basis and will help me tackle my goal and many more in the years to come.

Leadership Montana taught me how to truly listen and be self-aware, how diversity is absolutely necessary for success, and gave me the confidence to do things on my own and do them my own way.

It’s rare to have a structured opportunity to pause and reflect on what it means to be a leader and how each of us as individuals in the class are growing and developing our leadership skills. The time in Leadership Montana has offered an opportunity to do just that.

Listen, Learn, Lead are a daily practice for me now. It’s something I weave into my every day that influences simple interactions at the coffee shop, all the way to big-picture organizational discussions about connecting the community with conserved lands.

Leadership Montana afforded me the time and space to expand my focus through education, practical learning experiences in communities, and valued networking with professional peers especially ones that I would have never had the chance to meet in my siloed world.

Leadership Montana has been and continues to be an invaluable partner in my life. Through the program I have been able to develop meaningful relationships and leadership skills that are unparalleled.

The exposure to the issues facing Montana cannot be fully realized through simple communication, but rather must be experienced first person. As such, Leadership Montana should be mandatory for every Montanan looking to make a difference and move the state forward.

Leadership Montana has re-awakened the desire in me to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” I now want to see the world from another’s point of view and to become a better person by understanding those views.

I have shared the last year with a very diverse group of people.... We gathered and united, and this is the very reason why I know that with the continuance of Leadership Montana, we as a state can grow and embrace future Montanans to become great leaders.

I truly wish I'd had this experience 30 years ago when I started raising my children so that I could have seen myself through their eyes and I known better how to understand, help, and react.

I now know that I am better equipped to have a positive influence on others, both personally and professionally. I know that I can positively impact our great state of Montana and can provide the leadership that is often required to make my community a better place for all.

Leadership MT has introduced me to a level of empathy and consideration that I’d never been able to tap before. I believe that is most likely the result of Leadership MT's introduction to, and example of, a level of honesty and truth that I’d never been able to tap before, and the empathy flowed as a result.

Leadership Montana has shown that simply listening to the viewpoint of others, even if it differs from your own, can serve as a catalyst to facilitate an open and productive dialogue that leads to collective problem solving and stronger relationships.

People have recognized a change in me, they have seen a spark, that something is different, a different attitude. [My classmates] are 37 people I really needed in my life, and I didn't know it ... I cannot say enough good things about Leadership Montana.

Leadership Montana transformed a diverse group of individuals at Big Sky into an incredibly close and cohesive team where we all experienced an incredible “safe space” to share with our classmates in ways that I would have never thought possible at the outset.

There is no doubt that my family, community and business has benefited beyond words from what I have learned.... I will spend the rest of my career and my life helping the citizens of the State of Montana, my family, friends, and employees have and create better lives.

Diversity of opinion is healthy – divisiveness is not. Leadership Montana enables people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to share a common experience in an atmosphere of courtesy and respect.

Seeing firsthand the individuals and families working hard at their ranch, business or job and what they are doing and facing in their communities has made all the issues more real to me.

Leadership Montana’s education is part of my me at a cellular level now; I am far from perfect but I am better today than yesterday and I will strive to be a more gracious and impactful leader every day to follow because of my experience with Leadership Montana.

Leadership Montana framed the state in a different way for me.

The people in Leadership Montana have all had a decidedly different life than mine. We all have different interests and beliefs. Yet many of us have been able to build a meaningful connection with each other, even if we disagree on things.

I’ve always been proud to be a Montanan, but the Leadership Montana experience has made me want to work harder, do more, and have a bigger impact in our state – to make Montana proud of me.

Leadership Montana has provided a time and space to engage in learning and reflection, tools to help me navigate the world with grace and conviction, and, beyond all else, a community that has inspired and astounded me, encouraged me, and listened to me.

Leadership Montana’s program design has inspired me to connect in ways I didn’t know I needed or wanted, and it has inspired me to show up for many more meaningful conversations in my community.

Leadership Montana helped me reconfirm the importance of leading where you are, all day, every day.

Personally, Leadership Montana has challenged me to look inward, to spend time focusing on who I am today and who I want to be tomorrow.

Leadership Montana has made me more aware (Listen), accepting of different viewpoints with better willingness to share my viewpoints (Learn), and confidence in moving forward with ideas (Lead).

Everywhere you go in Montana people are digging deep into their communities, working to elevate their neighbors, colleagues, and children and it simply takes pausing to discover the statewide work of resilience and vibrancy going on around us.

My experience with Leadership Montana came at exactly the right time. How did the universe know that right now is when I needed the friendships and collaboration with other professionals that care about our state?

I have the tools now to really listen to people who disagree with me, in a way that seeks to understand instead of persuade.

To answer how has this experience impacted my life, I think I need to ask “how hasn’t it?” I can’t think of one aspect of my life that isn’t impacted by LMT in one positive way or another. I want a t-shirt that says “#yesand” or a bumper sticker that says “WWLMTD? …what would LMT do?”

This course provided me the time to deepen understanding of the strengths and barriers facing individuals and Montana as a whole. The experience brings diverse people together and as a result, puts faces and names to perspectives....

One of the biggest lessons I learned from Leadership Montana is that leadership is a team; it is not one person. A change from the status quo, to better, is done through more than one person.

I know, more than ever, that it is not about you and it isn’t about me - it is about “us.” The more we can focus on the similarities that bring us all together, the more we can capitalize on our shared interests for the betterment of this beautiful state.

With the additional knowledge of the geographic areas we visited and the professions represented from the tours, panelists and speakers, we are able to make better decisions for our own benefit as well as the communities we serve.