What I Believe About Leadership
The Work That Matters
After more than thirty years of leading, I’ve learned something about leadership. It rarely comes down to one big moment. It shows up in the choices you make every day.
How you prepare when no one is watching.
Whether you speak when staying quiet would be easier.
How people feel when they walk into your room.
Whether you notice the person who has stopped speaking.
Whether you make room for someone else to find their voice and lead.
And whether you know when enough is enough.
These are the beliefs I keep coming back to. They shape how I lead. They shape how I live. And they continue to change as I do.
01
Leadership begins before anyone is watching.
Preparation matters. Character matters. Consistency matters.
Most of leadership happens long before anyone applauds.
It is the conversation you prepare for. The work you do when no one is checking. The decision to keep showing up when nobody will ever know you did.
The work no one sees prepares you for the moments everyone does.
02
Courage creates permission.
Sometimes leadership means going first. Raising your hand. Using your voice. Walking into the room where you are one of the few. Taking the risk before you know how the story ends.
Confidence comes after courage.
I spent much of my career learning how to do exactly that. Then I realized something.
Going first was never only about earning my own seat.
Every time one of us goes first, someone watching starts to believe she belongs there too.
That is the real work of going first.
03
Leadership creates belonging.
I know what it feels like to walk into a room and wonder if you belong there. That experience changed the way I lead.
I want people to know there is a place for them before they prove themselves.
I want them heard. I want them valued. I want them invited into the conversation.
Leadership is creating places where people no longer have to wonder if they belong.
You belong here.
04
Leadership is human.
People do not need perfect leaders. They need present ones.
Leaders who listen. Who notice. Who encourage. Who admit when they got something wrong. Who give grace. Who keep learning.
Some of the most important leadership moments of my career have happened in hallways, offices, gyms, parking lots, and conversations no one else witnessed.
Leadership happens wherever people do.
Be where your feet are.
05
Leadership multiplies.
There was a time when I measured leadership by what I accomplished. I see success differently now.
Who did I encourage?
Who found her voice?
Who got an opportunity?
Who became more confident?
Who stepped forward because I stepped aside?
Who now makes room for someone else?
Your legacy is not the seat you earned. It is how many seats you helped create for others.
That belief is part of why I founded the Global Community of Women in High School Sports. I spent years being one of the few women in the room, and I knew too many women were navigating this work without the relationships and support they deserved. I wanted to create what I had spent much of my own career looking for: a community where women could connect, grow, sustain one another, and keep making room for the woman coming next.
Who else needs a seat?
06
Sustainable leadership requires boundaries.
Exhaustion is not a leadership strategy.
I have spent enough years in leadership to know that being available to everyone, all the time, does not make you a better leader.
Sometimes leadership means saying no. Sometimes it means protecting your peace. Sometimes it means deciding something does not deserve your reaction. Sometimes it means going home.
Rest is not the absence of leadership. It is part of staying whole enough to keep leading.
A full life isn’t the same thing as a full schedule.
07
Belonging is built through noticing.
Notice who has not spoken.
Notice who needs encouragement.
Notice who is carrying more than they are saying.
Notice who is standing outside the circle.
Notice who is ready for an opportunity.
Notice when someone needs you to step in.
And notice when someone needs you to step back so they get to lead.
Great leadership starts with paying attention.
What Being the Only Woman in the Room Taught Me About Leadership →
Still Becoming
Thirty years have not given me all the answers.
They have taught me which questions are worth continuing to ask.
Who is still waiting for a seat?
What does this moment actually need from me?
When is it time to step forward, and when is it time to step back?
I don’t expect to finish asking those questions.
I write about them here, one week at a time.