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Leaders are Grown not Born

I attended the DeKalb Leadership Symposium on Saturday, March 4, an event organized by the community to strengthen leadership in the community.  There were people from all sectors, of all ages and backgrounds.  There were many takeaways from the day and I will try to share the highlights here.

The keynote speaker to kick off the day was Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, one of the first women to train and serve alongside men in the US Army. She did a TEDx talk called "Fake it till you make it" which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuoQE3-BTMw.   Great leaders need three things: confidence, compassion, and competence.  Confidence includes being humble in what you know and what you don't know, being confident enough to ask for help and sharing success with your team. Leadership is not about one person.  Compassion is actually caring about your team and the people you serve which also includes being inspiring to others and serving others honestly and ethically.  Finally, you can't be a leader without being competent, working hard and acquiring the expertise you need to do your job effectively.

The rest of the day was spent in three sessions, listening, sharing, learning, growing, thinking, and growing our confidence in how we all have the capacity to be leaders in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our churches, in our communities, and the world.

The nonprofit sector is driven on serving others so we can check the box on compassion.  The only reason people work or volunteer for a nonprofit organization is because of the commitment to the mission, to help others.  What we need to support is growing leadership in the other areas; confidence and competence.  This is why I spend my time working with nonprofits to point out what they are good at, what help they need to succeed, and helping them be confident to make bold changes and dream big.


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