Introducing the Leadership Seasons Blog
Leadership and the Metaphor of the Long Journey
In 2018, six years into a college presidency and thirteen years into my work as a senior leader in higher education, I took a long walk. I walked out my front door and then seven miles to the airport in Grand Rapids with my backpack on, my phone turned off, and the hope that I could walk 542 miles from the French-Spanish border to the Atlantic Ocean. I journeyed alone at times and with friends and family at other times, but I realized along the way that a walking journey like this one provides a fitting metaphor for leadership experience over the course of a lifetime.
In leadership, just like on the Camino de Santiago, there are mountaintop experiences with soaring vistas and rainy days spent plodding through the mud. There were moments of apprehension when I looked at the map and wondered if I would be resilient enough to make it to the end, and there were days when I felt clear about my purpose and fit for the journey. Along the road, there are opportunities to serve others, like the good Samaritan, and there are humble days when you receive the gift of service from others in your time of need. In the future, I will say more about blisters, getting lost, getting found, making lifelong friends, doubting one's purpose, and the discovery of deep meaning and new purpose, but I think you get the idea. The journey metaphor is rich for those who reflect on leadership.
Journey Outward, Journey Inward
On this journey at age 51, I learned a lot about myself that I didn't know before, but I will share one insight that gets to the purpose of this blog. As I journeyed on the Camino, I shared meals and bunkrooms with new and different people every day. The pilgrims I met came from different age groups, cultures, countries, and faith backgrounds, but we shared one thing in common, which was the great leveler: We were all walking the same path in the same direction. Each day we took an outward journey on the pilgrim’s path where we braved the elements, summited peaks, solved problems, discovered strengths, fell down, bandaged wounds, and kept walking. Each day we also took an inward journey as we spent hours in solitude, witnessed breathtaking sunrises, remembered missed opportunities, considered our weaknesses, felt deep gratitude, prayed in sorrow, and received grace.
The leadership journey contains a journey outward toward people, goals, strategies, results, conflict, cooperation, success, and failure, as well as a journey inward as we define our purpose and grow in awareness of our strengths, weaknesses, dreams, limits, doubts, and fears. It is the nexus of these two journeys in leadership that interest me most. Helping leaders to walk these two journeys well is the foundation of my practice.
In 2021 I announced that I was taking another long walk into the next season of life, and this summer, I took the first steps into this new season. I will say more about this process at another time, but this step is a fulfillment of my aspiration to spend more time with my family and to serve those who are currently doing the important work of corporate and organizational leadership. This weekly blog is just a part of this work.
Serving Leaders in Seasons of Change
This blog will serve readers and leaders on the leadership journey, especially those contemplating significant changes to life and work as they transition from one season to the next. This is not a blog for every leader but for those who seek to serve others with excellence, are purposeful in the lives they lead, and those with a desire to nurture an honest, vulnerable interior life. It is for those who are directly involved in the ecosystem of leadership as senior leaders, board members, and those who work to assist these leaders every day.
I am passionate about serving the people who do the difficult and important work of leadership for companies and organizations. It is exhilarating and challenging to work with focus at a sustainable pace in the spotlight, under a microscope, with the steady drumbeat of constant demands as your music. I have no doubt that this blog will grow and change over time as I learn more about the reader and more about blogging itself. It will not be a collection of Michael's thoughts on leadership but a sharing of the wisdom I have accumulated from others over the years. It will include the latest research and resources that I hope will help you to thrive in your current and future seasons. The topic in the blog include:
The seasons of life that surround the leadership experience, from the preparation and experience prior to taking up a formal leadership role to the seasons in leadership that follow once you begin this journey.
Personal leadership—that is the capacity of a leader to flourish in leadership by leading oneself—finding focus, achieving goals, staying healthy, finding balance, remaining faithful to one's primary commitments to family and friends, cultivating spiritual engagement, self-awareness, receptivity, and joy.
Resources to support a CEO, president, or executive director's obligation to develop this kind of flourishing for those who work on the senior team. A leader’s effectiveness is only limited by the quality of the leader’s first team. If the leader’s first team is flourishing, then this team can be expected to encourage that flourishing for others.
A governing board's primary duties—that is to ensure the fulfillment of the mission of the organization, to exercise fiduciary oversight of the organization, and to steward its leadership wisely and well.
This blog is for the imperfect, the vulnerable, the humble, and those who still have something to learn in life and leadership. A wise mentor taught me that before we can lead, we must first learn to follow. I am thankful that you have chosen to follow this blog.
Is your weariness signaling the need to retreat, renew, and re-engineer your leadership, or is it time to consider what's next? Contact Michael Le Roy for a free confidential consultation.