‘Leading is listening,’ community leaders tell Freeman High students

The world of leadership and management has changed a lot over the past few decades, and many think it has changed for the better.

At an “Emerging Leaders” event on Mar. 20 for Douglas S. Freeman High School students, community and business leaders from the Richmond-Henrico area emphasized how leadership has become more about listening and embracing different perspectives, with bosses taking a step back from the “my way or the highway” approach.

Freeman students Christian Washington and Sara Vera-Sota, both “Equity Ambassadors” who help promote diversity and inclusion around the school, interviewed the panel of five leaders, who spoke to about 100 students.

Compared to years before, when almost all people in leadership roles were white men, the leadership world now is much more diverse, said Logan Vetrovec, a director at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Office of Health Equity.

“I think leadership has changed a lot. Back when I first started out, it was a very male-dominated world that I worked in. I was in sales at UPS and it was pretty much just my way or the highway,” she said. “You weren’t encouraged to question. And now that I’m in higher education, I just see how our leaders are actively listening.”

U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-4th District), Virginia’s first Black female member of Congress, joined the event through a virtual video, encouraging students to advocate for “those who cannot fight for themselves” and seek perspectives from a “diverse set of voices.”

“I’ve spent nearly the past two decades in elected office…during that time, I’ve had to learn how to navigate white- and male-dominated spaces that were not built for me,” she said. “I’ve had to bring my unique perspective to the table and share it with those around me.”

Many people also are more willing to talk about challenges, such as imposter syndrome and self-doubt, said Tom Tittermary, a manager at cybersecurity company Zscaler.

“I have wicked imposter syndrome on a regular basis,” he said. “I still got it, I was shaking over there before we came up on stage. It’s like anything else, it gets easier the more times you do it.”

“When it comes to imposter syndrome, you don’t ever get rid of it,” said Virginia delegate Destiny LeVere Bolling (D-80th District). “We all have it. It’s just the way in which you learn to use your imposter syndrome and also learning to cope with it.”

In the past, executives and officials often took a “prescriptive method” of leadership, applying their leadership or boss role to every situation, Tittermary said. But now, being a leader often means occasionally stepping back from the leadership role and listening to others as just another member of the team, Tittermary said.

“Whenever my team is trying to make an important decision, I make a point to step back out of the leadership role when we’re engaging in discussion, because it’s very easy from a leadership perspective to go back to the days of, ‘Do this, do that,’” he said. “Everybody knows that when we’re having a big conversation, that I am just part of the team.”

Leadership today also has a bigger emphasis on seeking more diverse perspectives, Bolling said, which is often easier for young leaders because of the vast reach of social media.

“A lot of us on stage, we didn’t grow up in a world with a lot of digital-age or social media-age outlets,” she said. “So you all have the advantage to really connect vastly with folks from everywhere, anywhere, and learn different things. You’re not just bottled up in your own silo.”

Vetrovec, who works to engage VCU students with the broader Richmond community, encouraged the students at Freeman to join different groups and organizations to meet people they would be less likely to encounter on their own.

“If you want to learn about other people, you need to go where other people are,” she said. “Everyone has a different set of life experiences that they’re bringing to the table.”

In the professional world, that may mean joining employee networks like women leadership groups, Black professional networks, LGBTQ+ groups and other networks within an organization, said Mike Rosser, a human resources manager at Bank of America. Rosser also encouraged students to join groups that they didn’t naturally identify with to seek out different perspectives.

And for current high school students, leadership may look like simply talking to a quieter student, encouraging them to participate and asking them for their thoughts, Bolling said.

“Whether they’re the shy one that sits in the back of the room, or maybe they sit in the front of the classroom and just don’t talk as much, it’s important that you go to those people and say, ‘What is it that you want to say?’” she said. “That is one of the pillars of being a leader, listening to other perspectives. Because as a leader, you cannot operate in a silo.”

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.