The first time I ever thought about leadership was in 4th Grade. I decided to run for SCA President. I had no idea what it entailed but I knew that I wanted to be someone to take responsibility, make decisions, and help others. Campaign flyers and stumping for constituents was not my forte but when the time came to give my speech in front of the school, boy were my butterflies in a frenzy. Excited and nervous, I went up there and told everyone what my qualifications were and described who I was. While having good grades and performing well at basketball camps during the summer aren’t the qualifications that’ll land you a leadership position at N2, the person I was and the values I had, remain the same.

The ability to have power and influence over others is not given but earned. Power in the sense of responsibility and caretaking. Influence in the way that you can be there for others and uplift them to greater heights. A leader is not someone who has control over others but someone who empowers people to strive for a common goal and achieve greatness together. The role of a leader is to help by showing others the way and inspire passion to do the right thing in order to achieve our goal. One person cannot do it alone. Together we are greater than the sum of our parts. But the leader can be the heartbeat of this superorganism.

When I was hired at N2 a little over a decade ago, I was excited to just be a designer. But then I saw the leadership group that had meetings in the lunch room at the old office and thought, that’s where I want to be. I want to be part of that group. To collaborate with others, share my ideas, continue to grow the company, and help create something even greater than what it was. Time went on and I grew within the company to different positions and small leadership roles. I moved back home to Virginia to start a family and became just a designer again because at the time remote team members couldn’t be leaders. It was difficult because I was sacrificing my dreams for others. But with the birth of my son a new leadership role came to me.

Through the almost 7 years of being Tadzio’s Dad, I have grown and learned so much with him that I feel extremely confident in my skills and abilities to lead others. Becoming a dad was given, but being a leader to him was earned. Having the trust of my child and the ability to help mold him has been the greatest aspect of teamwork I’ve ever been a part of.

Compassion, empathy, understanding, togetherness, positivity, trying our best, and doing what heroes do, are some of the things that I would love to bring from Tadzio to N2. The passion for leadership that little me had in 4th Grade has only grown and gotten better over the years.

Recently I’ve been able to train 5 tremendous designers and even better people. It’s been a joy to share my wisdom and learn new things from them. When training was over, 3 of them became my team members and I have been able to continue mentoring and guiding them along the way with 1on1 hangout sessions and constant feedback. Being able to share life and work with them has been wonderful and feels like I’ve already become a leader in my own little way, but really feels like a little family.

I’ve maintained the relationships with my other apprentices and other leaders have even reached out to me for guidance. It’s been a blessing to share with others. Collaborating feels like a musical jam session where everyone’s ideas and feelings are valued. And lucky enough, that happens to be one of my favorite things.