Members of the 15th class of Leadership Lake Norman last week began their nine-month
odyssey into self-discovery and learning about the community in which they live and work. It
began with a two-day retreat at Bethelwood near York, S.C., a church campground owned and operated by several Methodist churches in the area.

The site is far enough removed from Lake Norman to be, at least physically, away from the
workplace for about 28 hours, and remote enough to encourage the 20 or so “campers” to bond and focus on the task at hand. Among them was this reporter, who is undergoing the program to provide fodder for a series of stories, and to ultimately learn more about Lake Norman region, and about those who make it tick.

Bethelwood has no televisions, a dining hall with sketchy cell reception beneath the metal roof, a series of cabins with bunk beds in communal sleeping quarters, a small lake, walking trails, gravel roads and a few meeting lodges. It’s just the kind of environment where folks can get to know one another very quickly.

Throw in some team-building exercises, a pitch-dark scavenger hunt over unfamiliar terrain
and an old-fashioned bonfire, and many of the strangers who arrived at the Leadership Lake
Norman retreat left as friends. They also learned quite a bit about each other — and themselves — as “people builder” Chip Sholz on Friday morning led the group through a self-assessment report generated by an online survey group members took before their arrival.

Sholz, principal of Sholz Leadership Development, is himself a former chairman of the Lake
Norman Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, which sponsors the Leadership Lake
Norman program. He led the group through interpretations of their own assessments and asked members to provide insights about themselves.

The session not only encouraged group members to get in touch with their own personal and
professional personality, but also to provide insights about how to deal with others of similar or different tendencies, and how to assemble a team by incorporating different personalities in appropriate roles.

For more information about the program visit www.lakenormanchamber.org.