Welcome to the Emerging Leader
This edition highlights servant leadership in many forms. The video shorts from Humble Designs and Malala Yousafzai as well as the powerful words of one of our students demonstrate the immense potential we all have as leaders.
What we've been reading
Peter Drucker said " People often overestimate what they can accomplish in one year. But they greatly underestimate what they could accomplish in five years". Compounding is not just for money. Get 5% better at any task each year and you'll be 4 times better over your lifetime. (Farnam Street)

Here's a boost of encouragement if you made a New Year's resolution to read more in 2018. We always say leaders are readers. In fact, most CEOs read about a book a week! So don't give up - keep at it this year. (Quartz)

Move over fingerprint and face ID. A voiceprint makes it possible for your bank to have fewer security breaches because it knows that you’re you and not your evil twin sister. (Fortune.com)

Tech “addiction” is a topic of rising national concern. It’s not Apple’s fault that you feel enslaved by your phone but they have a perfect opportunity this year to create a brave and groundbreaking new take on that device: a phone that encourages you to use it more thoughtfully, more deliberately — and a lot less.
What we've been watching

"Meet Treger Strasberg, Founder, Humble Designs (2:10)

Ms. Strasberg demonstrates the power of passion and the courage to act. She created Humble Designs years ago to help the homeless population resettle into more than a house, but their own home. She says "every thing I have in my house, I want them to have in their house."

"Support of a Father" with Malala Yousafzai (3:10)

I love this Dr. Henry Cloud interview with Malala. We all know Malala has been an ambassador of education for girls. All leaders are developed through support of others, in this case her father. What are you doing to uplift someone to help them achieve their potential?
What we've been thinking
“ Dear young people, we didn’t come into this work to “vegetate”, to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark.”
Pope Francis, 2016 WYD Poland

Each semester, IWA's Leading with Service class is asked to read Pope Francis’ 2016 World Youth Day address . They are asked to draw connections between Pope Francis’ call to “make a mark” and IWA’s definition of an authentic, bold, servant leader - someone who creates extraordinary solutions which make the world special. I love this assignment, as I’m frequently impressed and inspired by the insights of our future leaders. These students see that faith and leadership go hand in hand. While all of the students produced exceptional reflections this semester, here is an excerpt that deserves our attention.

“The IWA community’s definition of a leader paints an exemplar leader as a servant, bold, and authentic leader who creates extraordinary solutions which make the world special. Pope Francis urges us to be exactly like this. A bold leader takes risks no matter what the consequences to serve her community and the world in special and needed ways. We as adolescents tend to think that these worldly problems are too big for us to tackle and that we should leave it to the adults who know what they are doing. I know I do. The truth is if we all keep on tossing the problems of the world onto a to do list nothing will ever get done. We as followers of Christ are called to put down our phones, logout of Netflix, silence Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram and go out and do something. We have so much power for change at our fingertips, yet instead of using them to help a child in need we use them to double tap on a picture of a celebrity that we don’t even know. There are so many extraordinary solutions that we can come up with and accomplish if we just put out hearts, brains, and hands to the cause.”

Here is her reflection in its entirety which truly captures the Pope’s message and the essence of authentic, bold servant leadership in light of our Catholic faith.

- Ms. Gina Galassi
Thanks!
Leaders   are always looking for inspiring content to grow their ability to lead and serve.  That's why the Leadership Department of Incarnate Word Academy created this monthly e-newsletter, The Emerging Leader . Our promise is to assist your leadership journey by providing indispensable professional and leadership development content that only requires 30 minutes. Make it a monthly habit!
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