HRI Leadership Academy: Impacting professional and personal lives
In 2022, AmericanHort and the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) partnered to develop horticulture’s future leaders, today. The HRI Leadership Academy was created to fulfill this mission, with an intensive leadership training program for individuals seeking to strategically and thoughtfully guide teams and organizations.
CHARTING THE PATH FORWARD
The HRI Leadership Academy’s inaugural class of 14 participants began the journey in the fall of 2022 to enhance management and communications skills, develop strategic decision-making tools and hone individual motivation techniques. The class was an example of the horticulture industry’s diversity, with participants coming from the garden retail, nursery, landscape, greenhouse and allied industry segments.
The curriculum, which applies equally well across professional levels and individuals’ objectives, included both in-person and online instruction. The program culminated in a LEAD team project, in which individuals: learn and research an industry issue; engage with their team and others; adopt a position and solution; and deliver analysis and recommendations.
GROWTH OPPORTUNITY
Despite the time spent away from family and businesses, participants found the academy’s year-long commitment to be life-changing.
Kyle Fessler, greenhouse production manager for Woodburn Nursery in Woodburn, Oregon, participated in the academy to ensure he was well-prepared to steward the family business when the transition to his generation takes place.
“I need to set myself up for future success, to learn the skills and build the tools necessary to be an effective leader for our organization,” Fessler explained. With the program, Fessler said he found “a good opportunity to help build those skills that I’m looking for, that I will eventually need for an expanded leadership role within the company.”
For Christine Fortman, co-owner of Berridge Nurseries in Phoenix, Arizona, the academy provided an opportunity for professional and personal growth. Having had a corporate job outside of the industry before joining the family retail garden center business, she learned more about leading a horticulture-specific business.
“I’ve spent the last decade getting up, going to work, doing the work and going home,” Fortman said. “I thought there should be something else that I could be involved in, learn from and be a part of. (The HRI Leadership Academy) helped me gain a different perspective across the industry.”
Fortman credits the opportunity with broadening her view of the industry beyond retail. “There’s a whole other world of horticulture going on that I just wasn’t exposed to, so that was really exciting for me,” she said.
MAKING AN IMPACT
Both Fortman and Fessler said the HRI Leadership Academy improved their communication and interpersonal skills. Fortman admits that interactions with their staff were a sticking point before participating in this program.
“Over the last two years, I’ve noticed that I have increased my ability to do those interpersonal interactions, those hard conversations, so that absolutely has impacted me,” Fortman said. “It has been a true shift in my style and my approach.”
For Fessler, the program changed the way he communicates and works with other employees. Learning what’s important to people, how they do their jobs and how they receive communications has changed how he interacts with them.
“What I’m looking at in my day-to-day conversations with coworkers, with management, with vendors and customers, is how can I convey the message and our value proposition so that we can both find successful outcomes in this conversation? I put that into practice every day,” he said.
THE UNEXPECTED BENEFITS
Unexpected benefits of the program included the bonds formed and the ability to ask questions and be sounding boards for one another. But participants are also friends who chat, joke around, meet up for reunion and genuinely like each other.
The group chat, Fortman said, has had “just about anything and everything” discussed on it. “I love that we can always reach each other,” she added.
“We have this resource in each other that we can call when we have an issue, whether it be about growing our business or just about life in general,” Fessler noted. “We became a good group of friends. Making those connections with people in the industry is something I don’t think I would have ever had the opportunity to do otherwise.”
Both Fessler and Fortman noted how the program changed them as people. For Fessler, it was an adjustment to his critical thinking and decision-making process. Participation in the program broadened Fortman’s perspective on the industry.
How could the HRI Leadership Academy impact your career and your life? Applications for the Class of 2026 are open from November through Feb. 7, 2025. Learn more about participation and the curriculum at hrileadershipacademy.org.
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