Lessons of Leadership (from Dad)

This week marks the sixth anniversary of my father’s passing. He was an extraordinary man. 2020, in particular, has been a troubling year for many reasons. Between a pandemic that has ravaged so many lives and the reckoning we’re facing on social justice issues, we’ve all been confronted with difficult choices. This is a time when leadership is critical.

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a middle class neighborhood. My parents worked extremely hard to provide my sister and me with a life that set us up to face the foreseeable and unforseeable challenges the world would throw our way. And with that, nothing could prepare us for what we're facing today. However, there were valuable lessons they taught us that I rely on to get through it all.

My father was born and raised in Chicago in the 1940’s, although his parents were from the south (Mississippi and Georgia, to be exact). His father was a prohibition agent, postal worker and to my pleasant surprise, a US patent-holding inventor. My grandmother, who referred to her grandchildren as “suga puddin’”, was a caring nurse. Even with these noble careers, they still faced discrimination, racial bias and many other barriers to the American dream. That did not deter them from preparing their five children for the life they dreamed for them.

My father always instilled in his two girls the importance of being curious, committed and fearless. He was all of those things and unapologetic about it. Although, he didn’t complete college, he was an Army veteran who began his career at SRA which later became IBM. He was fascinated by computers and often was an early adopter of new technology. I remember the Commodore 64 on his office desk at home. He taught us how to use email. He had a Twitter account before I did, (but I had to set up his profile lol). After realizing that he’d rather work for himself, he and his brother along with three friends formed an LLC and, through a small business loan, purchased a string of motels on the South and West sides of Chicago. They ran them for over 30 years until they retired. 

What I’ve come to learn over time is the only reason my father owned those businesses was so he could pursue his curiosity and his passion. My dad traveled the world studying everything from Eastern medicine in China to researching the cure for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He later received a US patent for a formula designed to treat the deadly disease. He set up a lab in Kinshasa, DR of the Congo, to harvest herbs and develop a cure. He believed the answer to eradicating it would be found in the soil of the diaspora. While his efforts didn’t lead to erasing the disease, it didn’t deter him from moving on to Beijing to study the cure for diabetes. He then wrote a book called A Season to Plant where he explored how one reaches their full potential through the intersection of technology, astrology and natural talent. He makes the case that there are limitless possibilities when one understands and nurtures their natural talent, yet he acknowledged that barriers to these possibilities for some are vast, therefore creating a system of haves and have nots. I wish he had published this amazing piece of work. It’s a work of art.

The amazing thing about revisiting his manuscript and layering that on top of the man I know and love, is that the leadership lessons I exercise today are a direct reflection of his belief and teachings.

Five lessons I learned from him:

• Take risks. Calculated risks.
• Merge your purpose with your passion.
• Lead with kindness, but don’t be afraid to speak truth to power.
• Be curious. Ask questions. Then, go where it takes you.
• Read, read and read some more.

I would not be who I am today if not for my parents' example and insistence on striving for greatness, unapologetically. My father was truly ahead of his time. I miss him everyday, but I carry the lessons he taught me in everything I do.

To honor his legacy, we created The Dream A Dream Foundation in 2017, designed to support youth in the areas of sports, music and education.

www.thedreamadreamfoundation.org