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Organizational Leadership Students Get Advice from Former Ky. Governor

Photos By: Ashley Kempher

   Students from UC’s Center for Organizational Leadership had the opportunity last week to hear firsthand from one of the most prominent leaders in the history of the state of Kentucky.

Martha Layne Collins, who served as Kentucky’s governor from 1983-87 and who remains the only woman to have held the office in the state’s history, was on campus and part of a pair of Organizational Leadership classes – “Foundations in Leadership” and “Lessons in Leadership.”

Martha Layne Collins speaking in a UC "Foundations in Leadership" class.

Collins, who now serves as the chair of the Kentucky World Trade Center, brought a message of being ready to react to opportunities, because quite often you don’t know what direction they will be coming from.

“I’m one of those type of people who would like to stand up here and list “10 Things You Need to Do to Be a Successful Leader,” but I can’t, because it always changes,” she said. “Therefore, what we need is to learn to do those things that help us develop and be flexible.”

Her own story strongly reflects that point.

Collins grew up in rural Bagdad, Ky., at a time, she said, when women were limited to three career choices: nurse, secretary or school teacher. She went off to college to the University of Kentucky, where she made light of her major – home economics.

(“One of my political advisors when I was running for office said, ‘Please don’t tell anyone about that.’ I said, ‘That’s okay. I can’t cook or sew anyway,’ ” laughed Collins.)

She ended up teaching school, a profession she thoroughly enjoyed, but got involved in political organizing on the side. A mere 12 years after her first political office, that of Clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, she was elected governor.

One of the accomplishments she is best remembered for is helping to lead Kentucky’s effort to get Toyota to come to the state and build its Georgetown assembly operation.

“The feedback I got from the students is they loved hearing the Toyota story,” said Assistant Professor Stacie Furst from UC’s Center for Organizational Leadership. “She talked about some of the personal touches she used as governor that made a difference in bringing Toyota to Georgetown.”

Martha Layne Collins

Collins’ story came right back to one of the points often made in one of Furst’s classes. “We talk a lot in our leadership classes about how important it is for leaders to treat each situation differently, and to understand the individuals they are trying to influence and how they differ. I think her Toyota story exemplified that in a very colorful way,” Furst said.

Furst said Collins also talked about her more recent work, including her position with the Kentucky World Trade Center. Many of her students were surprised to learn Kentucky ranks 12th among all U.S. states in terms of import/export activity.

“I think her visit helped reassure our students of another important thing, and that is that they don’t have to have their lives totally figured out right now,” said Furst, noting how that mirrors Collins’ experience. “She showed that if you work hard, opportunities present themselves. Our students connected with that.”