Because That’s What Leaders Do

Leadership is a choice, a skill, and a lifestyle all at the same time. Every day I must choose to be a leader. Every day I must exercise my leadership abilities. Every day I must choose to continue my leadership journey. Each one of these components is vital to being a successful leader, because leadership is a journey. Today I share my journey into leadership from my choice, to where I exercise leadership skills, and how I choose to live a leadership lifestyle. While I would say I am still growing as a leader, I believe the steps that I have taken will help future leaders.

Choosing to be a Leader

“I choose to nominate Demetri Wilright, for Region VI Southern California Zone Chair.”

Ebube Agu (2012)

This simple statement, started my journey into leadership. At this time in 2012, the Region VI National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) were accepting nominations for the 2012-2013 Regional Executive Board (REB). They were accepting nominations from the floor, and the person who was nominated needed to accept the nomination. When asked if I accepted the nomination, I stated “I accept”. It was at that second I choose to be a leader. Every leader, has a moment like this presented to them. Whether it is deciding to run for class president, taking a step into leadership for a non-profit, or starting your own company, you have to decide to start. The good news is since it is your decision to start, you can choose when you want to become a leader. I choose NSBE, because of the community, and it has been where I started practicing my leadership.

Exercising Leadership Skill

For the past 9 years, I have been exercising my leadership skills in NSBE. I call it “exercising” because just like a muscle you have to use it to grow stronger. Also, just like exercising there are phases: beginner, intermediate and expert. In the beginner phase, when you first use your leadership skills they aren’t very strong. To fill that gap, I would recommend finding a mentor or someone to help you grow those skills. For me, I was fortunate to have assistance from the NSBE Region VI Advisory Board (RAB). All of them were tremendous leaders, and this can be seen by where they are now. One is a Talent Development Architect, another is a Director of Corporate Strategy & Development, and one is now a Chief Information Officer. While these are not all of the RAB, these are some of the leaders I was fortunate to be trained by. While my story is a little unique, in the sense mentors came to me, finding a mentor offers immeasurable value when it comes to your development.

Once, you move to the intermediate stage, this is when you find your own leadership identity. As written in Developing as a Leader: The Power of Mindful Engagement, “seeing oneself as a leader or having ‘leader’ as a core part of one’s identity, is an important precursor to taking on leadership roles” (Ashford & DeRue 2016). I share this line, because it shows the importance of a leadership identity. When someone talks about your leadership, what do they say? Can you take a disorganized project and bring clarity? Are you able to bring together the right group of people and motivate them to rally behind one cause? Great leaders are not the same everywhere, if they were most companies would not ever go through CEO changes. As an intermediate leader, defining that identity is vital.

While I would not quantify myself as an expert leader yet, I find myself learning from expert leaders through books, podcast, and various other sources. The constant that I am realizing is that expert leaders are learning constantly. I was able to see this in person when I walked up to Norm Judah, the previous CTO of Microsoft, and I explained my idea about why we should be make smart watches the new cellphone. He swiftly rattled off research stating right now the main problem was that there was not a battery powerful enough at that size yet. I remember thinking when he responded, this guy is well read. The reason I thought this is that he was able to provide me facts without seeming like he was talking down at me. As I find myself reading more books on leadership, psychology, and other topics, I am seeing that same theme. Leaders who are successful are well-read, and continue to learn their entire life.

Leadership is a Lifestyle

The reason I believe leadership is a lifestyle, is because of what I just stated, the most successful leaders are lifetime learners. If you have been reading this and wondering how this relates to my grad school journey, here is why. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), there is a course called Developing as a Leader. It is a 7-week course, but I already can tell that it has made an impact on my life. At the end of the course we were tasked to determine our leadership development plan. I decided that my plan was to read or listen to at least 1 book a month, write weekly reflections, and seek feedback once a quarter. Reading or listening to at least 1 book a month, allows me to grow my mind, understand new ideas, and new ways to think. Writing weekly reflections allows me to learn from my mistakes, to learn from my successes, and to sharpen my skills. Seeking feedback quarterly allows me to see my blind spots, and gauge how others see me. All of these are to say I am being intentional about how I am growing as a leader. I am forcing myself with these 3 things to continuously learn. I want to be one of the best leaders that I can be and taking this course was a step in my journey. Leadership is now built into my lifestyle, as I make my way to an expert leader.

Key Takeaways

1. You have a choice to be a leader, and only you can choose when to start
2. There are levels to leadership which causes leaders to vary in skill and technique
3. Determine your leadership identity, and then put it into practice
   1. Note: As you put your leadership identity into practice, know it can change or grow
4. Develop a leadership plan and act on that plan
5. Leadership is a lifestyle and the great leaders never stop learning

Citations:

1. Ashford, S., & DeRue, D.S. (2012). Developing as a leader : The power of mindful engagement.