For me I guess the biggest change for me is that I’m more conscious about how I lead and my influence as a leader.
My fellowship has allowed me to take in-depth look at not only myself personally but look at others who are considered leaders around me.
Being a Bush fellow has allowed me to create a vision for my life, it has given me understanding of where I’ve been and where I want to go. It has allowed me to search and seek out how to become a better husband, father, grandfather and coach.
It has opened my eyes as to the impact that a person can have as a positive leader. I have learned that I truly am a transformational leader. It has become clear to me that my leadership style is about leading by example.
One of the more intriguing parts of the fellowship is learning about oneself as a leader. For me it’s a critical piece because it’s part of discovering that secret sauce or what I now describe as “The Leadership Pillars of a Winner”

We are affected by our environment and the people we surround ourselves with, it’s true that “Birds of A Feather, flock together.” As a leader continual growth is never easy and one should never get that comfortable.
The more time I spend me people I’ve learned, and I should re affirmed how instrumental my Faith has been in my leadership journey.
As I have observed others the last few months I’ve learned that it’s difficult to lead without a vision and one of the things that has been consistent in my leadership is I have been one to never see things as they are but see them for what they can be.
I learned that humility has been a pillar of my leadership style and sometimes to a fault.
A major piece is that how you select the people around you will determine your success or failure.
Transformational leadership requires collaboration.
I have learned that as a leader, perspective is everything. Perspective is important because it’s how we see things, how we see others and more important it’s those things that we believe.
Often what we see is what we will be,
As I continue to grow as a leader I have learned that as Coach John Wooden would say “ The most powerful leadership tool you have is your personal example “ The last year has allowed me to spend a significant amount of time reflecting on my life’s journey and through reflection one gains insight.
I learned that true leadership is about creating leaders, and that’s done through leading by example.
What I’ve learned about my leadership is thanks to my Grandmother the Rev. Pauline Jones have been blessed with a unique perspective. Most people don’t realize that we see things not as they, but we see things as we are and if we change the way we look at things, the things we look change. As a result of her teaching I was raised not to look at things the way they could be. I get so frustrated as someone who works with young people that most discussions always start with their deficits and rarely their assets.
My grandma taught me that I could be Selfish or chose to Significant! I’m so appreciative that she helps me understand the source of my gifts.
She would often share the word such as Proverbs 11:24-25
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
those who help others are helped.
Reminding me that what’s mine is not really mine, that I have been blessed with certain gifts and have a responsibility to make a difference.
The greatest gift a leader can give another is to offer themselves. This comes from focusing on who you are more than what you do and that’s what real Leadership is all about. That we all are just stewards of the gifts that’s been given to us.
So, my views continue to develop with my quest to really understand and my desire of being a transformational leader.
As I mention above, I’m looking to sustain my leadership through the development of my Coach Like A Champion Academy through the creation of a curriculum that can be used at all levels of coaching.

I know that coaches and impact and my goal is to spread that message, it’s been proven that a Coach will impact more lives in year than most people will in a lifetime. I want Coaches and others to know the importance of what we do, we are the molders and they are clay.
Grandma use to say “You do your giving while you are living so you will be knowing where it’s going”
As for self-care, I tell everybody that it took me 60 years to discover the importance of self-care. I can honestly say that because of my discovery of self-care I’m so much wiser and so much stronger as a person.
Self-care continue to be a top priority for me, and I truly appreciate the understanding and knowledge of its importance the last year. So again, I’m appreciative to the fellowship for the opportunity.
I have learned the importance of resting my mind and body.
One thing that landed on was first making sure that I’m getting the appropriate amount of sleep. I started using a daily mediation app and have been called Headspace which I have been focused on using it to start my day. While not always the ways there yet I’m on working out on a consistent basis.
Other areas of my self-care have been eating healthier, and improving at all these area by just 1%
As I said recently, I really feel like my stars have aligned in so many ways. I most definitely feel that I’m continuing to grow as it relates to my priority of self -care. I’m extremely proud of myself for my accomplishments over the past year. I finally started my Sports Leadership classes and my first reading assignment was reading a book called the 1% Solution for Work and Life by Tom Connellan.
For those who are into self- improvement and self-care I would highly recommend you putting this book on your reading list. One of the first things that caught my attention in the book was the fact the difference between first place and fourth place – between a Gold and no medal -was only 1.08 seconds or 0.9percent. The major takes away from me was that we can all get 1% better at hundreds of things and while everyone can’t be great, all of us can be better than we are right now. Yes,” the difference between Exceptional and EXCEPTIONALLY exceptional =1percent.”