Jan. 19, 2025

You don’t often see entrepreneurs becoming elected officials — and probably with good reason.

As a business owner, you generally have the freedom to put your ideas into practice fairly quickly.

As an elected official, you’re more likely to end up where Mayor Paul TenHaken was when I spoke with him shortly before the start of the year: comparing his final 16 months in office to between miles 20 and 21 of a 26-mile marathon.

It’s the worst, he explained, “because you’re still far enough away from the finish line that it’s a long way to go, but you’re close enough you can kind of see the end, and you really have to dig deep to finish,” he said.

“There are things we have to dig deep on and make sure we run through the tape.”

If you think about this within the context of your own business, my guess is it might resonate. How many key initiatives or growth opportunities do you have in front of you that need a bigger surge of effort to capture? And how do you show the leadership necessary to make it happen?

In business, the ingredients aren’t always easy to assemble, but we all know the list starts with people. Hire, develop and empower the right team and success often follows.

In a community, it’s the same thing, but “people” means a much bigger pool — not just the people whose full-time job it is to run a city but the politics and the public opinion that entwine along the way. I empathized with the mayor’s fatigue when we talked about some of the obstacles to getting various projects across the proverbial finish line.

Last week, the Sioux Falls City Council passed a bond ordinance to allow for replacements of two aging swimming pools, one with an outdoor aquatic center and the other with an indoor recreation center.

It was telling to watch. Director of finance Shawn Pritchett noted that the city had gone into “excruciating detail” as to the intricacies of the bond.

“I’ve almost run out of words to discuss this topic in the last four years,” council chair Curt Soehl added.

“It’s been a grind,” council member David Barranco continued.

As an outsider, it was hard to disagree. It also was hard to believe that two fairly straightforward projects with minimal opposition ever could have taken this long to approve. Even more mystifying to me was a decision to issue two series of the bond so that the council could have yet one more opportunity to weigh in and approve a final design at Frank Olson Park, which is going to result in additional issuance costs to the city.

However, here’s what else you need to know: As our elected leaders voted on these substantial projects, a total of three members of the public showed up to give input. None exactly gave the councilors a show of support. And that’s more the norm than not.

“Partly why the aquatics bond has gotten delayed a lot of times is increasingly we’re only hearing from the people who are against things,” TenHaken told me before the start of the year. “I’m only hearing from people against the Delbridge (taxidermy collection) leaving, against us bonding, against building a Convention Center, but I know the vast majority of the community wants an expanded zoo and aquarium and butterfly house there. I know a large majority of the community wants indoor recreation for their families.”

What happens, he continued, is “the loud voices get loud, and they tend to overshadow what we know is the right thing to do.”

We need a new generation of leaders to emerge, he added.

“They need to get involved, engaged in driving the community and not just hoping the right things happen. We’ve taken for granted what Sioux Falls is. We’re like, this just happens. We just build Steel Districts and Jacobson Plazas and that’s how this works, and that’s not just how it works. It takes a ton of work.”

The reality, as he rightly noted, is that there aren’t always going to be visionary developers like Craig Lloyd and Jeff Scherschligt, or philanthropists like Garry Jacobson, or even mayors like Paul TenHaken.

The next generation of leaders needs to start stepping up, speaking up and showing up.

“If anything is going to prevent us from continuing to be the great city we are, it’s a leadership gap that I’m worried about,” TenHaken said.

Last week, we also shared a look at a report that shows potential options for retrofitting the Sioux Falls Arena and Convention Center into recreation space. There are some creative concepts for reuse there, but my bigger takeaway was a somewhat grim reminder of how far making any of this a reality probably has to go.

Honestly, the idea of months — maybe years — of more feasibility studies, public input and undoubtedly committees is not particularly energizing. TenHaken at this point has all but punted the final approval to the next administration, which is understandable given the months he has left and the long, arduous process that appears to remain.

I’m not even sure I’m sold on this whole concept yet, so obviously there’s still more work to do. But there’s a case for expediency, too, because there’s a cost to inaction. When we overdo the “due diligence” at the expense of actually doing, or when we fixate on trying to placate most everyone at the expense of majority rule, the opportunity costs mount.

I see the “leadership gap” TenHaken mentioned at times in our business community, too, if I’m being honest. I can point to multiple organizations where the incoming leader hasn’t impressed me so far as much as the predecessor did, or even worse, that person now essentially exists based in another state. But I’ve also been energized and optimistic talking to next-generation leaders at a number of our longtime businesses, especially our family-owned businesses. And I’ve been encouraged enormously during the past two years getting to know our SiouxFalls.Business 30 Under 30 groups of outstanding young professionals.

This year, I’m asking you to introduce us to more of them. We’re looking to lift up and engage with the sort of leaders it will take to help move our business community and our broader community into the future. Please click here, and nominate someone by Jan. 31.

To build on the metaphor, the marathon that is building a community really is a relay-style one. We’ve been fortunate the first legs were run so well, but we can’t afford to drop the baton.

Nominate now for the 2025 SiouxFalls.Business 30 Under 30