Who are you being when you are saying what you are saying? How can you best use what you do well to serve your team? What matters most in your leadership right now? Who has perspectives different from your own, and do you embrace those differences or turn them away?

Hi, I’m Byron Darden with another edition of Leading with Purpose on Purpose. In this installment, we expand our look at the art of engagement as we explore these and even more questions that I encourage you to ask yourself. One thing I’ve come to know is that engagement is as essential in successful leadership as building relationships. This is something I had the opportunity to exercise recently at a networking event where I spoke with my colleague, Belle Halpern, at a Charter School conference. The concept of networking has been a pain point of mine, and on this particular occasion, I did something different. 

As far as I can recall, not once did I talk about the business of education to those I met. Instead, we just had conversations about life itself. What television programs were we watching? We shared about people we knew in common. Our families. I even approached one person about the attractive frame of their glasses. And yes, I do wear glasses.

By the end of the conference, several people reached out to me to connect. Proof to me that when you engage with people authentically, they know you care about them as people first. Enjoy!

Let’s begin by learning about Engaging the Mind and Heart Together