A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to our community members and their students who were being inducted into the National Honor Society at Newton Falls High School. Believe it or not, I, too, was once in the NHS—that was a long time ago now!
I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some leadership lessons I’ve learned along the way, so I crafted a short speech, including the lessons below.
I wanted to expand and share why these lessons mean so much to me. I didn’t take the time to do so with the kids – there was a time limit – and so here’s the expanded version,
1. Lead by Example
People don’t follow words—they follow actions. Whether in your school, community, or future career, show up, work hard, and set the standard.
What you do speaks volumes over what you say, and people notice. Actions and taking steps forward to progress make all the difference. I pride myself on speaking up for someone, opening doors, and making things possible for others in service. It’s also what I love doing as a profession.
While building a following can be slow work, it’s worth it. Staying steadfast, setting the pace, and creating a vision (and then communicating that!) so that others may follow is one of the greatest feelings I treasure. I love making “maps” charting the way forward, and then reaching for the machete to get it done! Let’s go!
2. Stay Resilient
Leadership is not about being perfect. It’s about being adaptable. You will face obstacles, criticism, and setbacks. How you respond to those moments will define your growth.
It’s often lonely at the top, and the type of leader you are, in any position, will dictate how you will deal with that. The higher up in an organization you go, for example, the fewer people there are to help, advise, or share the burden with.
At some point, it might just be you. And if that’s true, you better be able to hold on to yourself, keep yourself mentally and physically in check, and make the decisions you know are best for the organization—even though some people won’t like it.
This type of resiliency doesn’t come overnight. It’s developed, honed, and strengthened over years of hard work, tough decisions, and focusing on what’s worth focusing on.
Not everything is important, certainly, and not everything is an immediate need.
The ability to prioritize and execute when the time is right will help build the resilience that keeps your leadership stable when the environment changes and the calm waters turn to whitecaps. <– a North Sea reference…
Be ready to make the best decision you can with your limited information, and stay resilient in your decision-making.
Doubting yourself won’t get you far. Make the call – you’re in charge. And if you need to adjust, do that. Become excellent at making decisions, and you’ll build resiliency through experience.
3. Build Relationships
Leadership is not about doing it alone. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, support you, and push you to be better. Learn from those who have more experience, and lift up those who look to you for guidance.
You can go hard and fast and discount others on your journey towards higher ground. But if you want to keep going after that, you’ll need a team, and often one that is distributed.
It’s helpful to curate, foster, and build relationships along the way, including those outside your chosen profession—you never know when you’ll need to reach out with a question or a crazy idea.
And who knows, you might need to switch paths at some point, so having a team in your corner, regardless, is key to a strong leadership foundation.
Relationships come in all shapes and sizes, too. It could be with colleagues, other professionals in the same trade, vendors, salespeople, the mailman or your local UPS delivery guy, or that retired neighbor down the street. Meet people. Put them on your team, and share passionately what you love doing. It will make them better leaders, too, in whatever area they operate in.
4. Never Stop Learning
I’ve been in education for years, and I can tell you — the learning never stops. The best leaders remain curious, humble, and open to new ideas. Embrace every opportunity to grow.
And be ready to grow in areas other than what you currently do—that means personally, too. Learn about yourself, your partner, your kids, how toilet repair works, or how diversified tax strategies might be helpful.
And spreadsheets. For goodness sake, invest some time in how those work and how they’ll work for you! Pivot tables aren’t as scary as they sound, and making a sheet sing is sweet music to anyone’s ears! ;-)
Learning isn’t always about getting another degree, although that might press you to do better, gain more insight and theoretical knowledge, or persevere in a multi-year project (like a dissertation).
Learning can happen anywhere – on the street, in a cornfield with your local farmer, or in your mind. If you look for learning opportunities, you won’t be disappointed.
And realize this—most people don’t look to grow, so if you do, you’re ahead of the competition. If you’re the competitive type, that is.
If you’re not, challenge yourself at least to grow as a person, to become the best version of yourself that you can be, and change the things that don’t work, mitigate what you can’t, and become even better at the things that make you… well, you!
Best of luck in your journey. I’ve only just begun…