JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Ever wanted to pick the brain of one of the most influential minds in the community but couldn’t so much as ask because they’re too busy being influential?
The cost of influence is often fame, and fame can quickly become a matter of personal safety. Because of this, there are many influential people who are open and willing to mentor the generation coming after them, but don’t really have a safe and effective way to grant the public access to their time.
Last August, Air Force 1st Lt. Loyd Bradley, Finance Flight commander for the 673d Wing Staff Agency, was selected for the 20th iteration of Leadership Anchorage, a program under the Alaska Humanities Forum in which young leaders are given the tools, training and opportunity to leave their mark on the Anchorage community and change the city for the better.
Here’s how it works: Interested parties apply with the recommendation of a previous program graduate and meet twice a month for full-day leadership sessions. During the course of the nine-month program, they work in small teams of four or five, with mentors of their choosing, on a community project designed to make a lasting change in Anchorage for the better.
These projects aren’t just ideas either; they need to be tested and executed.
Bradley’s team created something entirely new that could easily spread well beyond the Anchorage area – a way to connect influential business leaders, philanthropists and politicians with aspiring leaders.
“We have people who are well-established throughout the community, who don’t necessarily have the opportunity to pass their knowledge to the younger generations,” Bradley said. “In order to keep Anchorage as the powerful city it is, we want to leak that knowledge to the younger generation.”
Each year, 10 Alaskan women are selected as “Women of Achievement.” Bradley said the award is very well-respected in the community and often includes business leaders, nonprofit founders and senators.
“A lot of times, it’s some of the most powerful people in Anchorage who get the award,” Bradley said. “It’s a pretty big deal – very widely respected.”
Bradley’s team selected these women to test their platform.
“We created a platform to link those ladies with someone who wanted to be mentored by them,” Bradley said. “It’s like a flash mentoring program. We would provide a list of mentors. You pick one, get on their calendar through our platform and we facilitate one video conversation for an hour via our website.
“If they want to talk more later and exchange information, that’s up to them.”
Bradley’s team established the viability of the program with a local senator and then handed it off to the non-profit organization that hosts the awards.
Right now, the platform is simply a way to connect influential women as mentors to younger people, but once the platform becomes public, its potential for growth is significant.
In the future, a company could develop the idea into a full-fledged social network with different expertise categories, group sessions, one-on-one sessions and tradeskill mentoring.
As far as Bradley’s professional development goes, he says going through the program opened his eyes to different perspectives and made him a better officer– and a better person – for it.
“There were people who didn’t necessarily think like me or look like me,” Bradley said. “We were able to all give our perspectives and have respect for each other – and learn from each other.”
Bradley’s class was the largest they’ve had participate in the program and included people as young as their early 20s all the way up to 60-year olds working in positions ranging from leaders in the villages to a librarian to military officers like Bradley.
For the past 20 years, they’ve consistently turned that diversity into strength with consistent long-lasting changes to the Anchorage community.
Bradley graduated from the program in May this year. Though he is no longer involved with the platform his team created, it has been passed off to be polished and published.
Maybe in a few years, a mentor in business, politics or life might be just a swipe away.