Good News - March 2019

LIFEWORK LEADERSHIP 18 MARCH 2019 Good News • South Florida Edition Omar Aleman Redefines His Mission at Lifework Leadership Shelly Pond Good News Editor Formerly a special agent for the U.S. De- partment of Drug Enforcement (DEA), Omar Ale- man, owner of Aleman & Associates, was instrumental in the arrest of – perhaps the most celebrated apprehension in DEAhistory – Pana- manian Dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega for in- ternational drug trafficking during the invasion of Panama in 1989. Now a private investigator, mo- tivational speaker, adjunct professor at Trinity In- ternational University and philanthropist, Aleman said Lifework Leadership helped him reshape his life following the passing of his first wife under what he now calls “Jesus & Associates.” Dedicated to transforming leaders by clarifying their calling and engaging their hearts for service, Lifework Leadership is a nine-month leadership course. Classes include teaching from nationally- known speakers, case studieswith prominent busi- ness people, literary discussion and practical life application. Each class examines the life of Jesus as the best example of leadership and is designed to engage leaders on issues they face in their per- sonal and business lives. Omar and his wife Julianne Aleman, who has also been through the program, recently discussed their experiencewith Lifework Leadership and how it has influenced their understanding of leadership and their work in the community. Good News (GN) – First could you tell me a little about Aleman &Associates? OmarAleman (OA) –When I first retired,Ale- man & Associates was a company I was using to follow up on what I used to be at DEA, director of training. I figured after I retire, using all of my contacts that I had spoken for and trained for free with the Department of Justice, now I could go out and train and speak and get paid. And I did that for several years, contracted with the Super Bowl, spoke all over the place, and I was training police officers overseas. That went along until the passing of Cheryl, my wife, in December of 2010. That was very important in terms of Lifework Leadership. Because my wife was a Broward Circuit Court Judge, I was on a track where I was involved with a lot of justice people, judges and people in the community. Even though I was a Christian, her situation was so important that we spent a lot of time with that kind of a populous. Once she passed, it freed me to do something else with Aleman and Associates. I was no longer interested in making money, but I did want to have the company be a back drop to serve Christ and do nonprofit work. I still wanted to speak. I still wanted to train, but I wanted to do it for the Lord. Nowmy com- pany became a sub associate of Jesus and Associates. Aleman and Associates was me after I finished DEA. I want to beme. I want to train. I want tomakemoney. My wife passes and I think, I can still keepAleman andAssociates so long as it be a subsidiary of Jesus andAssociates. GN – Was this before or after Lifework Leadership? OA – Before. Now this is the interesting thing. I met Stephan through Cheryl. I really got to know Stephan Tchividjian when he invited me to the dinner with the the- ologianRavi Zacharias. Hewas in town andStephan invitedCheryl andme to a private dinner with him.After Cheryl passed, I began to see the vision and that came to fruition when I sat with Stephan at The Grill. I told him, “Stephan, I want to redefine the way I do life as Jesus and Associates.” And he said one of the first things you need to do if you want to redefine and get involved in the nonprofit Christian community and the business community is take Lifework Leadership. So I said, “Stephan, nothing personal but I teach Organizational Leadership at Trinity international University. Why should I want to go to another leadership class?” And he said, “Well this is a little different because you are now shifting your em- phasis from leadership in terms of the criminal justice system to leadership in terms of serving Christ and what a better way to do that than going through Lifework Leader- ship?” Then he explained tome what Lifework Lead- ership was. It was a leadership situation but it was more involved with serving Christ. So that was dif- ferent even though I was involved in this at an evan- gelical school. That was organizational leadership. So then I got involved in Lifework Leadership in 2012. I was very, very impressedwith Lifework Lead- ership and I began to find the people around me that I could really trust andworkwith in terms ofAle- man andAssociates.Who is at lifework leadership? All of the professional Christian leaders of the com- munity. Now in 2019, if I would go through my rolodex of people who are important to me today, the vast majority of them I met through Lifework Leadership. My whole life in terms of my work within the confines of being a Christian man in this community is based in the fruit of Lifework Leader- ship. Without Lifework Leadership I would still do Christianwork, but I would not have the kind of net- working I have because I find myself surrounded by people from Wadid Daoud – I mean I look around almost everyone I know who I have any connection – Bill Davell – It doesn’t matter who it is – Steve Solomon, RoyMoore –They are all part of that…Lifework Leadership created for memy new community. My new foundation. So then they asked me to be a coach. After that they askedme to be a speaker.About that time I was reallymaking awhole career change as a re- sult of Lifework Leadership. GN – Julianne, what year did you go through and what was the decision for you to take the course? Julianne Aleman (JA) – 2015 – 2016. Around that time was when Omar said, “You should do this.” He talked about it all the time and we’re married, so I thought, well, if we get any busier than this I don’t think I’ll have a chance to do it, so that was a good opening. OA – One of the issues about this is very important. I went to Stephan and said I would like for Julianne to go through Lifework Leadership, but she’s not a business woman. The reason why is that she is my partner in Aleman and Asso- ciates, which is not a business of the world but it’s a business of God and he got it. He said, yes. She was not there because she owned a business or she was a corporate giant. No, Stephan knew that in order to help me and her at the same time, he was helping Aleman and Associates. GN – Have the principles of Lifework Leadership affected or moved you in any direction? JA – Lifework impacted me in a profound way because before I met Omar, for 20 years in my past marriage, I wanted something like this to equip leaders but there was no such program. I was in a community that was under extreme, toxic leadership, and I was trying to do the best that I could to lead inChrist’s example but was very confused at the time. Under this toxic leadership, I’m trying to lead like Christ but things are not matching up. So I feel that Lifework played a very important role because it showed me the difference between an extreme toxic leadership to a very healthy excellent lead- ership through these speakers. I saw where the errors were and was able to dissect it more meticulously and I felt actually very healed, very restored and healed. GN – Are there any particular guest speakers at Lifework Leadership that left an impression? JA – John Cortines, COO, of Generous Giving, came and talked about giving. He was really just confirming everything we have been doing for the past years. And that was very encouraging because sometimes we think, Lord, should we give more or what should we do after this? Julianne and Omar Aleman