Listening

I was an eager, fresh-faced young professional on the move. That's when I met three people, all school superintendents at the time, who indelibly redefined for me what it means to be a leader. And I met another leader-in-progress yesterday. Although my new professional friend with Harrington Bank is not an educator, she has the same essential quality that has subsequently propelled my then superintendent acquaintances to even greater positions of influence. That quality is the ability to listen. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The year was 1991. I was a field representative with SERVE, the new educational R&D laboratory for the southeastern states. In all honesty, my job was created to permit me to earn a salary while completing my required year-in-residence at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Roy Forbes, the founding executive director for the lab and a UNCG professor, tasked me and two other doctoral students with making cold calls to superintendents across North Carolina. Our job was to tell them about products and services at the new lab of which at the time there were embarrasingly few.

My phone calls to gain an audience resulted in scheduled appointments with superintendents from Currituck County in the far northeast, down the coast to New Hanover County, taking a northwestern tack back to Guilford County, up to the state line through Rockingham County, and following the North Carolina-Virginia border back to the coast again. Of the scores of superintendents I met and subsequently worked with, three stand out--Mike Ward at Granville County, Tom Houlihan at Johnston County, and Gerry House at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City.

What distinguished these leaders from the others? Their capacity to connect with me as a human being and then just listen to me talk. There I was a graduate student and second-year assistant principal on leave from a small-town district, peddling little more than a smile and a promise. But when I sat down to talk with them about the lab, do you know what Mike, Tom, and Gerry wanted to hear? Who was Steve Bingham? What does he hope to accomplish at SERVE? What does he want to be for the world? What are his dreams? Imagine that. And now imagine the hard work I have put into myself all these years hence just wanting to live up to the great things Mike, Tom, and Gerry evoked from me the day I met them.

As many of you know, Mike went on to become state superintendent, Tom to lead the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Gerry to direct her own education foundation in New York. I am not sure what Morgan Grainger does at Harrington Bank. I do know that her company sponsors the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Teacher of the Year Program, that she read something about Triangle Leadership Academy serving CHCCS, and that she called me to learn more about TLA. And here is something else I know about Morgan--she has the same magic that Mike, Tom, and Gerry showed me lo those many years ago. At the risk of offense, she probably now knows as much about me and TLA as you do. Why? Because she asked good questions and just listened.

Long story short, Morgan is to talk to Harrington Bank senior leaders about the possibility of TLA-VitalSmarts trainings for their employees. You'll recall that, thanks to our friend, Howard Schultz who went to bat for us at corporate, we can invite and profit from business participation in Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer trainings. That's a promise for much-needed revenue.

Whatever comes of my conversation with Morgan, however, I will count as a second benefit. The first benefit is her affirmation our work, you and me, together. I remain grateful for the opportunity to serve as your executive director and for the opportunity it affords me to connect with future-ready leaders like Morgan Grainger.