Change is a constant for chamber CEO

By Bobby Quinten

Mansfield Record

Lori Williams cares passionately for the Mansfield Area Chamber of Commerce that she leads as President and CEO.  

Williams will be the first to say, though, that this passion did not always exist.  In fact, when the Chamber executive position opened in 2015, she had zero interest. None.

However, Williams very reluctantly took an interim role for two weeks while the board of directors sought a new chamber leader.

“This was not what I saw for myself,” said Williams, who seriously, adamantly, absolutely did not want the job.

Those two weeks passed.  No candidate worked out.  Williams never left. In the end, the chamber’s board convinced Williams that indeed she was the best fit for the position, and she started in October 2015.

Williams walked into an organization in complete disarray with financial troubles and a very low regard within the Mansfield community.

“That first year was the most stressful year of my life,” she said.

“I had never run a chamber of commerce,” Williams explained. “I was on the board of directors, but I had no idea what to do as CEO, and I had no staff.  I was it.”

Williams considers that first grueling year leading the chamber to be her greatest professional achievement.  Without a template for how one runs a chamber of commerce, Williams said she relied on her professional strengths and personal interests to lead the Mansfield chamber back to financial integrity and a solid reputation.

Today Lori Williams oversees an organization with 500 members.  The Mansfield Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 70th anniversary in November.  Its annual Chamber Awards Gala on Jan. 26 will recognize local business achievement during the past year. Its leader’s dominant talents are being strategic and being an activator, strengths that fit well with a chamber of commerce’s mission.

In the coming years, Williams wants the chamber “to be a constant resource for local businesses so they can flourish and adapt proactively to change.” The key word there is change, organizations and individuals being willing to change to be successful. Change management is emphasized heavily in the chamber’s leadership and business resources. This is because diverse threads of change are woven into the fabric of Lori Williams’ life from a young age.

Williams grew up in a military family, so as a child, change became a way of life.

“I was always the new kid in school, since we never lived anywhere very long,” Williams explained. “Growing up that way gave me a different perspective on change than most. Now I crave change. I love new stuff.  I love change. If change does not present itself, I make change.”

One change she craved as a teenager was freedom.  Williams grew up in a strict household that created her work ethic, believing that work would be her ticket to travel, buy a car and live as she wished.

“It bothered me that my father worked for someone who told him where to live,” she said. “I did not want to live like that. So I have always wanted to work, and I still love to work.”

While growing up, Williams thought she might become a teacher. After graduating from Wichita Falls High School, she instead started a business career as a copier salesperson.

“In those days, you sold copiers by going door-to-door to businesses, asking to do demonstrations,” Williams said, “and I am an introvert.”

Working on 100 percent commission forced Lori to open up more with strangers in order to make a living.

Eventually, Williams found her niche in staffing and consulting. Working with expansive staffing companies like Kelly Services and Snelling brought her the travel she always wanted. Those years also provided her first taste of management, and she liked it.

“I found that I enjoyed being an authority figure,” Williams admitted.  “To keep moving up, I learned to be strategic and always be willing to change. If I conquered one thing, I would say ‘now, what’s next?’ so I could keep moving up.”

When Williams moved to Mansfield in the mid-1980s as an adult, the small community quickly became her hometown “because I had never had a hometown before.” Mansfield became the headquarters for her own consulting firm in 2001. While continuing to travel heavily, Williams slowly became involved in the community, including membership in the chamber of commerce.  

“I am an introvert. I am not naturally a joiner,” she said, so when invited to participate in Leadership Mansfield, she resisted. However, Williams eventually completed the community leadership training program. In Leadership Mansfield, Williams met Russ Wilson, who invited her to join the Rotary Club of Mansfield.  She declined at first, but finally Williams became a Rotarian and served terms as club president and Area Governor.

As a chamber member, Williams shared an idea that became Mansfield Connects, a monthly event where members could meet for lunch and training. Mansfield Connects proved successful, and soon thereafter Lori was appointed to the chamber board of directors.

By 2015, weary from nonstop travel, Williams was looking for a job with less time on the road when the chamber president position opened. Williams said she overcame her deep reservations and ultimately took the job because of one overarching personal mindset.

“It’s Not About You,” Williams said. “That is so simple and common sense. Those are words you will see displayed at the chamber because it is the right way to do business. In the end, I took this role because it was about helping others be successful, not about me.  Once you embrace that mindset, you control your own destiny.”

As an example, Williams encourages chamber members to get involved with local nonprofits as a way of developing that “not about you” mindset.

Williams’ leadership style synergizes an others-centered approach with her lifelong passion for change. She describes her chamber role as a change agent who is “inspiring thought for change.”  Williams speaks regularly to business leaders about having a personal brand, an identity that connects with customers, clients and community.

“People overall do not think enough about who they are, what to change and how to change,” Williams explained.  “People often fail because they are not self-aware internally. If you do not know who you are, and stick to that, then you cannot compete.  Develop yourself personally and professionally.  You cannot succeed otherwise.”

Interestingly, Williams correlates the same brand theory to her hometown of Mansfield.  She considers Mansfield’s ongoing growth as its strength because “growth brings a lot of opportunities.”

A voracious reader, Williams’s favorite author is Napoleon Hill whose “Think and Grow Rich” (1937) is one of the best-selling success theory books of all time.  Williams also enjoys reading about “future stuff” as it relates to the progression of technology and its potential impacts on society. She absorbs information related to leadership and management theory, such as situational leadership and building one’s dominant talents into personal strengths.

None of that fully prepared the chamber CEO for the events of March 2020 and the global Coronavirus pandemic.  

“When the lockdowns happened, I admit I freaked out,” Williams remembered.

To maintain contact with chamber members, she pivoted quickly to virtual meetings. Additionally, she created Chamber University, an ever-growing curriculum of e-learning courses for members.  

Today, Williams calls the online pivots “game changing. After a while, we knew we could not go back in time. The world had changed, probably forever,” she explained.  “So, you stop old habits and create new ones.”  

The chamber leader confessed that the pandemic years changed her in some ways.

“It made me think more about what I believe and who I trust,” Williams said. “I know now I need to rely on myself more and others less. I am leerier of ‘the powers that be’ than I was before.”

Through all the changes, from copiers to ChamberU, Williams stated that she would not change a thing if she could.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she said.  “I have taken something from everything to be here today.”

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