Chamber and ASAE chiefs, along with Chamber top lobbyist, accepted CEO Update 2014 Association Leadership Awards

The first-ever CEO Update Association Leadership Awards brought 450 group executives and guests to the grand ballroom of the JW Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to pay tribute to the 2014 winners:

• Trade Association CEO of the Year—Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce;
• Professional Society CEO of the Year—John Graham of ASAE;
• Association Lobbyist of the Year—Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber.

CEO Update parent company Leading Authorities produced the luncheon event, which featured on-stage interviews of the winners by BBC World News America anchor Katty Kay and video testimonials from other association leaders and lobbyists. Leading Authorities is an event services and video production company.

In early spring, CEO Update solicited nominations from 11,000 executives in the association community. An independent panel of recruiters, notable former association executives and other members of the community chose the winners.

Keys to leadership

Kay asked the honorees about the keys to their success, dealing with technological and global change, and advice for aspiring leaders from the millennial generation. A common theme: personal relationships are still where it's at.

Josten spoke about integrity as a lobbyist, a profession often maligned in the media and by the Obama administration. Josten said he is always straight and direct with people, and follows through when he says he will—or won't—do something.

"This is a job that requires trust. I tell everybody that I hire—that's a young person who comes into our operation, for example—to remember you go home at night with one thing, and only one thing intact, and that's your personal integrity," Josten said. "No matter what you do in this town, you guard your personal integrity.

His biggest setback: not yet achieving an overhaul of entitlement programs. Biggest accomplishment: chairing a coalition that led to the first balanced budget in decades.

Graham said the old membership model—of everyone paying the same dues—is changing, aided by technology. Associations must be more nimble to engage with members who only want to pay for what they want, when they want it. Mobile technology, he said, will have the same impact as the personal computer more than 30 years ago.

"Mobile technology allows people to create their own experience with an association. … It changes the equation 180 degrees," Graham said. Nevertheless, "I don't think anything replaces anything. It's all additive. … At the end of the day, we are still creating an experience or trying to create an experience, but we have to do it not only in the physical, but in the virtual and the digital."

Hire people smarter than you

Donohue elicited laughter with some of his deadpan responses. When Kay mentioned other awards Donohue had on his shelf, he said, "I'm beginning to worry that it may be a collection that leads to an obituary."

Kay noted his 30 years running two associations, and told Donohue, "You could have years ago said, "I declare victory. I'm done.'" His retort: "And do what?"

Donohue said as a younger leader he stumbled many times, because he thought he was better than he was. He said it is important to never stop learning, and to surround yourself with smarter people.

At the Chamber, "Nobody is allowed to hire anybody that's as dumb as they are," Donohue said. "The bottom line is if you look at the Chamber, if you look at your own organization, you can't be there all the time. And I don't care whether you're a large budget or a small budget—hire fewer people, spend more money to get the best people you can get, so when you're not there they'll do what you expect, or better than you expect, again and again."

The International Franchise Association was the platinum sponsor of the ceremony, while Washington, D.C.-based tenant-only real estate services company Cresa was the gold sponsor.

Silver sponsors were: Bloomberg Government, Korn Ferry, Loews Hotels & Resorts, Lumix, the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association, Ogletree Deakins and SmartBrief.

Bronze sponsors were ALHI, the Aluminum Association, JDG Associates, AXA and SunTrust.

Hundreds of association executives came to the JW Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to honor 2014 Association Leadership Award winners Tom Donohue, John Graham and Bruce Josten. (Photos: James Favata, Leading Authorities.)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue accepts the 2014 Trade Association CEO of the Year award from Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn and American Beverage Association CEO Susan Neely.

ASAE CEO John Graham accepts the 2014 Professional Society CEO of the Year award from Kuhn (left) and Neely.

Chamber chief lobbyist Bruce Josten accepts the Association Lobbyist of the Year award from Christopher Womack, president of external affairs and EVP of Southern Company.

The Association Leadereship Awards were sponsored by