What’s Your Biggest Regret?

This was the question I was asked today at the Committee 4 Wagga School Leader’s Mentoring Session, (it’s one of my favourite things to participate in throughout the year.)

I didn’t even hesitate.

My biggest regret was wasting so much of my younger years getting drunk, feeling hung over, eating too much of the wrong things and generally not hitting my full potential until much later in life.

Of course no one would have been able to have convinced me of this when I was younger – in fact – it’s a trap I still fall into all these years later. But the regret is still there from that time as a teenager, early twenties and into my thirties.

Groggy, lethargic, unfocussed.

I achieved a lot considering the trauma I put my mind and body through but I could have achieved a whole lot more.

What’s the best advice you can give to a future leader?

This was the second question asked.

My advice was to find your tribe early and stay in touch with quid pro quos when you need to reach out. Birds of a feather flock together, so find your flock and help each other out throughout this journey of life. As a leader, you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Learn from them, engage with them and stay close to them. And when the favour is asked in return, make sure you’re there to help them out too.

But my biggest advice for leaders always comes down to a quote I heard when I was in my 20s.

“Managers do things right - true leaders do the right thing”.

There’s a difference – and when you work out what that difference is, it’s enlightening.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received from a true leader?

What advice do you give to our future leaders?