The idea itself isn't new, but a leadership academy is a new program for state government.
"Leadership is critical for any organization to succeed," Gov. Mike Parson said in a Tuesday news release announcing the program. "I am proud that we are investing to make our leaders better for their teams and for the citizens of Missouri."
Corrections Maj. Myles Strid has been chief of custody at the Jefferson City Correctional Center since February, after starting nine years ago as a Corrections officer 1.
Although he's learned from the department's leadership training program, he said Tuesday: "I could go in and, hands on, show other people how to do a job - but when it came to trying to inspire other people to be leaders themselves, it's more challenging."
Even in a quasi-military organization like Corrections, he said, employees "want to feel like they're a part of a team and everybody wants to work together to achieve things."
Michelle Hataway, an Economic Development Department project manager, who works with start-ups and existing businesses in both Mid-Missouri and the St. Louis region, also has worked with other leadership development programs, like the ones the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce and the state Chamber of Commerce and Industry hold.
"I think all leadership training is great training," she said. "(In this state program), we get to learn and meet other people across the departments.
"We get to learn what they do, and what struggles they're having and what motivates them."
That kind of networking, Hataway said, will help each department improve its own services - while understanding the needs and services of other state agencies.
Stacia Dawson agreed, saying state employees "all have 'what's the greater good?' in mind when we're working with them."
Dawson is a services section manager in the Office of Administration's Division of Purchasing procurement process, helping state departments and agencies work their way through complicated legal procedures and requirements, as they make contracts with suppliers.
"We've had a lot of recent retirements, a lot of loss from the top-down," she explained. "I have to find out what my strengths as a leader are, to help grow" the new employees who don't have the experience or knowledge the now-retired colleagues had.
Drew Erdmann, Missouri's chief operating officer, said the state's first leadership class will start working to help change government operations.
"(There are) close to 50,000 state employees," he explained, "and if you don't invest in developing leaders, that means teams are not as effective as they can be - and (we) can't deliver for the citizens as well as we could."
The Leadership Academy class had dinner Monday night with the governor and his wife, Teresa, at the Mansion.
"What was amazing to me," Hataway said "is understanding the investment that is being put in to state employees and focusing on empowering us as workers, so that we can do the best for the citizens of the state."
Strid added: "To have the governor himself tell me how important it is for us to be professional, hard-working leaders is incredible to me.
"I want people to know that their state government is committed to improving leadership and improving management, so that our departments can better-serve the taxpayers."
Missouri has 16 different departments - and the academy includes at least one representative from each of them.
"What's come through right away, from the very first day is, (there's a) lot of commonality of experience, a lot of common challenges and opportunities," Erdmann said.
Missouri launched its program after looking at similar programs in other states and in the private business world.
The state expects to have one new class every six months, and each class will get "a capstone project to solve some real problems that the state government needs to have solved."
Dawson said: "We have tough jobs, and we're going to bring (this training) back to our jobs, to our lives in general, to be better leaders for tomorrow."