This article came up on my Google Alert for Wayne Seybold, a Prosper client. It's a few months old, but it's a great read and describes just what makes him a great Mayor.
Mayor Wayne Seybold is dreaming big
(And he wants others to, too)
By Maribeth Holtz
mholtz@chronicle-tribune.com
Published: Monday, March 24, 2008 11:40 PM EDTPerhaps it’s his skating career that got him dreaming.
Maybe his is a personality that brings people together.
Whatever the reason, some citizens in Marion look to their mayor as one who has led the charge for a community with a brighter outlook for the future.
“I admire him, and I can see the future in him,” said Ann Secttor, who was on the Marion City Council for 16 years and stepped aside in 2007.
Many say Mayor Wayne Seybold’s leadership style is unique and good for the community.
“He’s a real visionary and a dreamer,” said state Rep. Tim Harris, R-Marion. “There’s almost nothing that he doesn’t think we can do here.”
Seybold began his career in Marion politics as a City Council member, before being elected into the mayor’s office starting in 2004. But before that, Seybold’s career was in figure skating, and he spent years putting on shows across the world, which he says let him meet people of all nationalities and prepared him for global business for the city.
Harris and Seybold have been friends since elementary school. Harris said Seybold’s willingness to work with anyone — regardless of their political party — is something that Harris hopes to carry into his work at the Statehouse.
Harris said it was Seybold’s skating career that got him dreaming in the first place.
“It gave him the confidence to keep dreaming,” Harris said.
Seybold said his skating career showed him how to deal with both success and failure — and when he fails, he gets back up and moves forward.
“I take more of an aggressive approach to getting out and selling the community,” Seybold said.
That’s why he takes trips to, for example, Washington, D.C., and Japan.
Tim Eckerle, director of the Grant County Economic Growth Council, said he sees Seybold as a leader who can fall down but get right back up again.
He said Seybold is not about self-glory when projects get done but is all about making sure the project is complete no matter who gets the credit.
“I’ve never met a company that doesn’t love working with Mayor Seybold,” Eckerle said.
Age hasn’t hindered Seybold in his job, Eckerle said. If anything, Seybold doesn’t come across as he knows everything and he’s willing to seek out counsel, he said.
Seybold said he sees his role in City Hall as a leader of other strong leaders.
“I think that part of leadership is knowing how to get out of other leaders’ way,” he said. “Sometimes the best leaders lead from behind.”
Seybold recently has turned his focus to Marion Community Schools, focusing his 2008 State of the City address on the fact that the community needs to come together to solve issues regarding the teachers union and student test scores.
Secttor and Reggie Nevels, current City Council president, both said that’s somewhat rare for a mayor to do because generally the school district and city remain separate.
“To get this city moving in the right direction, everyone’s got to be moving in the same accord,” Nevels said, adding that Seybold probably spoke out about school issues because he is child-focused as a father of three.
“He’s not a mayor simply for politics; he’s a mayor for the people,” Nevels said.
Seybold has proven his leadership by being elected again to another four years as mayor, Nevels said.
“He has proven his leadership ability as he’s led the city in economic turnaround, (and he) has provided the citizens of Marion with a better quality of life,” Nevels said.
Secttor said it’s good to have a young leader in Marion’s mayoral office.
“You’ve got to be involved, and we need the young because if we don’t, we’re just going to go down the drain,” Secttor said.
Secttor said she hopes more young leaders step up into leadership positions in Grant County. She looks to Seybold — whom she describes as “always considerate” — as being part of the wave of the future.
“He’s keeping right up with it,” she said. “I’ve worked with a lot of people, and Wayne has been a person who’s really looked ahead and thought things through. I just think he’s going to go far.”
