INSIDE OUT LEADERSHIP-PART 1
Why I'm Relentless About Learning -
and Where I Learned It
Every leader knows it. Every leader forgets it. We are not expected to have all the answers.
The Pressure to Perform
In commercial roofing, there are dozens of moments every day where someone looks at you and asks, "What do we do?" Conditions change. Plans fall apart. And because you're the President, because they came to you, the temptation is powerful: just tell them. Give the answer. Be decisive.
But here's what I eventually had to admit: in most of those moments, I didn't truly know the right answer. I knew what felt right. I knew what seemed lowest-risk. But certainty? Rarely.
So the real question became: what does a leader do when they don't know?
For me, the answer was to be brave. Not brave in the chest-pounding sense — brave enough to say out loud, "I'm not 100% sure. What do you think our options are? If you were the customer, what would you expect?"
That might not sound like much. But the ego is a tricky thing. It convinces us that our authority — our influence — is built on always being right. And that lie keeps us from accessing the best resource we have: the people around us.
Here's what I also learned: as the senior leader, the decision usually still lands with you. You carry the responsibility. That doesn't change. But there's a world of difference between a leader who performs certainty and one who pursues understanding. Between a knowing culture and a learning culture.
When I started making that shift — admitting I didn't have all the answers, staying curious, asking better questions — something began to change. My team showed up differently. They brought creativity. They owned the solutions. And they came through, almost every single time.
Where This Got Planted in Me
One of the places this idea took root was the Global Leadership Summit. I've been attending for ten years now — through leading in construction, associations, chambers, leadership centers, churches, and my own family. Year after year, the Summit has reinforced a simple but countercultural truth: the leader who stays curious unlocks more than the leader who stays certain.
That principle has quietly rewired how I lead. It's not a dramatic transformation you can point to in a single moment. It's a subtle, shift — humility practiced repeatedly until it becomes habit.
And what I've seen is this: when leaders model the willingness to learn, it gives everyone around them permission to grow too. Each of us is capable of far more than we imagine, if we're willing to stay humble enough to keep learning.
The Invitation
The Global Leadership Summit says it plainly each year: "Armed with enough humility, we can all learn from anyone — a business person from an academic, a pastor from a nonprofit leader, a government official from a social scientist."
That's the invitation. Not to come as experts. Not to perform. But to come as learners — alongside more than a thousand other leaders, for two days, in a room where growing together in our ability to lead ourselves and others is the goal.
I've been shaped by this summit. I believe you will be too.
Join me. Register for GLS today. https://www.leadwichita.org/wichita-global-leadership-summit