LEADERSHIP NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS I WISH I KNEW
BUT I WILLINGLY SHARE
LEADERSHIP NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS: I WISH I KNEW
Life is a journey — a journey ultimately designed and created by you. It is informed by your belief systems, experiences, and purpose, and, once defined, by the “self-care” elements of courage, attitude, respect, and empathy for self that you invest in your journey.
Over the last 10 years, my journey led me back home to Trinidad and Tobago for eight years and to the Turks and Caicos Islands for two years, serving in leadership roles in education, youth, sports, and community development — at times at governmental levels, sitting at decision-making tables with ministers of government, proudly serving in a region I love and that is “home.”
“My ship,” one of two life symbols, sails on. But the lessons learned over the last 10 years are worth sharing. Leadership is as hard as it is rewarding. It has the capacity to build and break, to change and challenge.
When I started this journey, I wish someone had shared these three leadership navigational lessons with me.
1. Your Leadership Vision and Mission Are Not Broadcast — They Are Given Exclusively to You
As a leader, you will need to learn the space and culture and strategically align with it, adjusting as needed while staying true to who you are and the assignment. Simply put: adjust your sails.
2. Not All Shipwrecks Are Bad
Assess the data objectively. Study the wreckage. Salvage the parts of the ship that can be saved, and let the damaged parts be carried away by the waves.
The truth is, as a leader, looking at the data is crucial to success. A wrecked ship is not necessarily a personal failure of the captain, the engineers, the sailors, or the weather.
As leaders, our goal should be to be grateful for the lives spared, learn from whatever caused the failure, and rebuild the ship better, bigger, and stronger.
The cruise ship industry did not disappear after the Titanic sank, nor do good leaders cover up data to appear “competent” when systems are failing.
3. Good Captains Must Know When It Is Time to “Abandon Ship”
I disagree with the traditional notion that captains must go down with their ships. Captains, like any other leaders, should empower their second-in-command to take over and manage the ship, including navigating both calm and difficult seas effectively.
Leadership is not about holding on to positions indefinitely; it is about passing the baton with grace and humility, confident in both your ability to move on and the ship’s ability to keep sailing.
I am grateful for the journey over the last 10 years — the crew members I proudly worked alongside on the deck and in the galley, the pirates who infiltrated my peace and tested my courage and resilience, and the captains who taught me to navigate with patience, love, knowledge, and unwavering purpose.
From this journey, I discovered the “Magnificence Framework,” a treasure buried deep within me that would not have been uncovered without this experience. Inspired by beautiful sunsets after stormy days, rest days on shore, and warm sand that quickly dried and concealed my tears, I embrace fully the tenets of the #MagnificenceFramework and proudly share the possibility of leading with magnificence on someone else’s ship.
Where to next? Who knows. But as the saying goes, “A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what ships are built for.”
Sail on magnificently.
— Michelle K. Agard
Dedicated to my forever friend, “Shaman Raold Simon.”
