M3 Application Assignment

Position: Business Teacher at Cornerstone High School in Detroit (teacher for 15 years)

Worked I education for over 30 years

Mentor Teachers, Foundation board of DADF, Life Insurance for the State of MI, Ambassador for Empowered, DECA Advisor

CEO and Founder of S.Y.N.C (Owner for 3 years)

1. How would you define effective leadership? Effective leadership is a complex concept because there are no specific set traits that must be embodied by all leaders. It does, however, require that one is able to evoke life and death listening on a daily basis, build relationships to ensure that you have the right people doing the right job at the right time, and consistently make decisions that benefit both the employees of the company and the consumers that they serve.

2. Do you think leadership develops with experience? Yes. While there are definitely people who have characteristics that make it easy for others to follow them, experience is a key factor in learning how to navigate situations that you can't prepare for, that aren't easily solved, and that involve diverse people and personalities. Prior to getting that type of experience, many leaders lack humility, compassion, and empathy, which are all necessary in order to be leaders who transform people, companies, and communities.

3. Are there one or two experiences you look back on as having been especially valuable in helping develop your own leadership? Please briefly describe them. One day, when I was an Assistant Director, a challenging issue arose and I had to make an important decision because the Director was off-site and unavailable. So I did. When the Director returned, I explained the situation before telling her what I decided to do and asked her what should have been done. When she told me, my heart dropped because I knew that I had not made the best decision. I began to panic and wanted to back pedal and try to reverse the decision, but she refused. She simply stated that the decision I made would stand and that we would deal with whatever we had to deal with if needed. It turned out fine, but I learned two important lessons: #1 - When you are training those under you, it is important that they know it's okay to make mistakes, and #2 - It gave me the courage that I needed to step up and make decisions instead of waiting for others to make them for me.

4. What made these experiences so valuable? It taught me that I do not need to be a perfectionist, that I needed to learn how to be okay with the outcomes of my decisions, even if it simply means needing to apologize in the end, and I learned that the support of a great leader is key in developing other great leaders.

5. Have your own views of leadership changed over time? Explain how. They have indeed! I once thought that I had to be charismatic, a great public speaker, and a fast thinker. I now know that I can be a passionate self, I can work on being a better speaker, and I can take my time to make deliberate decisions without feeling rushed. However, if a decision needs to be made quickly, I am confident that I have devised a team that are a great resource for me and that will give me the insight that I need to make the best decision possible.

6. Do you think leadership in your arena (e.g., sports, business) is much different from, or involves different pressures, then leadership in other arenas? Yes, my arena is education, and I think that the pressures I face are quite different from the pressures of those leaders with whom the bottom line is making a profit. In my arena, when making a profit is the end goal, our children suffer, and when our children suffer, the effects are long-term, both for them and for the communities in which they live and work.

7. Do you ever reflect, after the fact, about how effective your behavior was in a particular situation? Is this ever a source of new or different insights?  Please share your insights. I spend time almost every day reflecting on the decisions that I made that day, what went well, what did not, and how I could have approached things differently. I write my feelings in my journal because it is important for me to be able to evaluate how my emotions played a role in my decisions. Since I know that my emotions can be a weakness, it is important that I operate not only based on my passions but on wisdom, insight from others, and careful thought on what is best for the good of the whole, not just specific individuals.