The Kansas Leadership Center sent out this postcard promoting the benefits of receiving leadership training. The picture of the dilapidated downtown at bottom is intended to suggest a lack of effective leadership. Problem is, the picture is of a real town in Kansas, Effingham, and its residents are none too pleased.

A picture is worth a thousand words — and sometimes not always the right ones.

A statewide group that promotes leadership is in the process of apologizing to the small Kansas community of Effingham after the organization sent out a picture and postcard suggesting Effingham isn’t the type of town people would like to live in.

“I can completely understand why the people of Effingham are disappointed,” said Ed O’Malley, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Leadership Center.

Here’s what happened: The Kansas Leadership Center this fall sent out postcards in Lawrence and eight other communities promoting the benefits of receiving leadership training. In Lawrence, the postcard specifically was trying to generate interest for the Leadership Lawrence program that is operated through the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

The postcard contained two pictures. One was of a vibrant community celebration. The other was of a dilapidated downtown block. The postcard asked readers, “Which community would you rather call home?” The postcard then went on to suggest the community with the dilapidated downtown was lacking effective leadership.

The problem, though, is that the picture of the dilapidated downtown is of Effingham, a community of about 650 people about 45 minutes northwest of Lawrence. To make matters worse, the Kansas Leadership Center has a mission of helping Kansas communities such as Effingham prosper, not publicly suggesting to thousands that it is on the wrong track.

O’Malley said the picture was a mistake, and also an example of how small the world has become. He said the center’s marketing team pulled the photo off an online website that offers generic “stock” photos for use. The photo wasn’t identified as being taken in Effingham, and the staff did not recognize it as a Kansas community.

“If we would have known that it was of a Kansas town, we would never have used it,” O’Malley said. “I feel awful that it has happened.”

Residents of the town weren’t feeling too good about it either.

“I guarantee you that a lot of people were not happy about it,” Mayor James Potts said. “The attitude was ‘how dare they.’ The photograph doesn’t do the town justice in any sense of the word.”

He said he called the Wichita-based center to complain and received a quick apology. Potts then said he decided to exercise some — what would be the word — leadership and take the high road.

“I don’t have any bad feelings about the Kansas Leadership Center at all,” Potts said. “I obviously wish they hadn’t done it, but you can’t blame them if they didn’t know.”

Shortly after being contacted by Potts, O’Malley set up a time to come speak to a community group in Effingham. O’Malley will make that trip Wednesday.

“If I were them, I would be very upset,” O’Malley said. “That’s one of the reasons I’m going up there. I want to apologize in person.”

The issue did draw some attention in Lawrence. Gary Hamon — who along with his wife grew up in Effingham — received the postcard at his Lawrence home. He originally thought the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce was behind the mailing because the postcard directed people to contact the Leadership Lawrence program.

Chamber officials said they did sign up to be part of a free marketing program through the center, but said they did not play any role in designing the postcard.

“Our promotional dollars are next to nothing, so we took the opportunity to do this,” said Sue Hack, director of Leadership Lawrence. “But we would not want to do anything at all to disparage another Kansas community.”

The center — which is a nonprofit funded by the privately funded Kansas Health Foundation — used the same postcard to promote eight other leadership programs. Other communities where the postcard was mailed are: McPherson; Topeka; Thomas County; Rooks County; Great Bend; Pratt; Dickinson County; and Butler County.