Lessons from my Leadership Journey

Lessons Learned:

• At some point in my career in IT, I naively perceived that I was only as valuable as my working knowledge of computers. I believed that the more I knew about computers, the more influential I would become.  Influence is earned through collaborative work and experience, not simply knowing more than others.
• Winning an elected leadership position requires awareness of presence and self-control.   I needed to become aware of how my actions and temper had an impact on the perception of my leadership ability. Once again, I came to realize that degrees and titles only get you half way to the goal of leadership.
• When you become responsible for a team or social group popularity is incredibly exciting for decision-making, but when issues arise, you need to surround yourself with people that will tell you the truth. The harsh truth that sometimes the king is not wearing any clothes.
• Sustainable success requires dedication and a systematic approach to time management and goal setting. Your time is precious. It took me a long time to realize that. I had to become more aware of my distractions and my perceptions of what defined my success.
• Through my leadership journey, I have had many successes and failures. Successes are the accomplishments you put on your resume as you evolve as a professional. The true valuable lessons in life come from what your actions were after failure. It has taken me a long time to appreciate these simple words: I had to learn to deal with failure, overcome disappointment and redefine opportunity.
• At some point, I came to realize that I was no longer a young person with a great deal of responsibility. I had to change my perception of self, grow up and change my presence. I used to act as if wearing nice clothes to work was a burden. That my leadership skills and experience would carry me through.
• Happiness is the support of my wife, the smile of my daughter and the playfulness of my son. They remind me that my legacy is connected to their happiness and ability to survive after I’m long gone.
• My experience and skills are the byproduct of my leadership journey. I need to enjoy the moment and stop living in the past and worrying about the future.
• My rise to positions of responsibility was no accident. I’m wired to take on challenges, to bring order and structure, to speak up when others keep their silence, to produce when others believe in the failure of the system, to create new processes and systems of accountability. We spend so much time working on our weaknesses and those weaknesses overcome our emotions and thoughts with self-doubt. A better approach is to identify strengths and leverage those strengths as needed.
• Crisis Management: When bad things happen in your life you have to be aware of the one simple fact: You can only control what you do to overcome the challenges. The rest is beyond your capability, so do not let it burden you. 
• On the issue of emotional intelligence, I used to believe that my management experience and leadership positions gave me more self-awareness. Nevertheless and despite my best effort It didn't give me self-management. Furthermore I couldn’t suppress emotions. My face is an open book. I had to and continue to engage my emotions and frustrations before they leave a permanent mark in my face. I used to get feedback from my father about the permanency of my gestures as I got older. Now I understand what he meant.
• To continue learning new things and applying what I know to my benefit and the organization I represent. To make time to ask and to pursuit answers to technically complex issues affecting our organization. While I cannot expect to be the ultimate expert, I do need to be capable of making high-level decisions with the information provided by those working the front lines of information technology.