By Johanna Rude, Intern, MSBCoach

As an intern with MSBCoach, I was tasked with writing an article, “What Makes A Great Leader” for our Fall Leading Edge Newsletter.

In order to find out the answer to this question, I thought it best to ask the leaders themselves. I chose to talk with leaders who have worked with MSBCoach. I had the pleasure of talking to three impressive leaders in our community: Charles “Chic” Thompson, the author of “What a great Idea!”, (a book translated into six languages and reprinted 21 times), Linda Coogle, President and COO of Clinical Care Options and Gary O’Connell, Executive Director of Albemarle County Service Authority.

After interviewing these three powerful leaders, I found a strong connection of values among them. For Chic Thompson those values are innovation, freedom and creativity; for Linda Coogle, those values are integrity, humility, knowledge and competence; and for Gary O’Connell it is trust, integrity and making a difference in the community. Being aware of your own values and fostering those values is a great strength when it comes to learning your path and understanding your motivation as a leader.

Another factor that emerged as important from my interview with these leaders is their inherited strengths that were developed from years of experience in their field as well as having an inspiring role model. Chic Thompson’s role model was Bill Gore, the founder of Gore-Tex who gave him his first creative job when he was only 20 years old. Thompson was given the challenge to generate new ideas each week.

Linda Coogle’s role model was her father, who was in the military and taught her the concepts of integrity, achievement and discipline. Gary O’Connell’s role model was his father’s best friend, who was also a city manager. Through this relationship, O’Connell was inspired and discovered his future life path in community leadership. Leaders find role models and mentors in order to better understand who they are and who they want to be. Role models show us the opportunities and challenges paired with the wisdom of years of experiences.

I asked Linda Coogle for the best advice she could give young people who aspire to be a great leader some day. Her answer was: “It is ok to fail.” The important thing is to fail, but learn from the experience. Learning about failure in theory is not nearly as effective. Without going through a difficult situation, there will not be growth.”

Another challenge a leader may find themselves in is needing to change the culture of their organization. Gary O’Connell has worked hard to build a leadership team that focuses on trust and a visionary perspective. O’Connell said this approach takes time, but is more sustainable in the long run. He has always been a visionary. When O’Connell was City Manager, he would walk the streets of Charlottesville and meet people at their houses to talk about their personal challenges and ambitions. I was inspired by this story – to find a new way to listen to people, discover their needs and gain their trust.

Linda Coogle makes it her responsibility to build a high performance team. She calls her people “rock stars”. Coogle understands that her responsibility is to have a team of leaders who achieve greatness. Coogle says, “It’s all about my team and when they shine, I have done my job”.

These interviews gave me three aspects of great leadership:

1. Leaders don’t always have to be in the spotlight to achieve great successes. On the contrary, finding the right people to support you and push them to greatness is true success.
2. If you are aspiring to be a great leader, it is crucial to find your path trough understanding your personal values, finding role models and empowering your people.
3. Last but not least, failure is an important part of success and what you learn through failure will strengthen you to be a great leader.

Thank you to Linda, Chic and Gary for their insight. Be sure to check out our Winter Newsletter for more thoughts from other leaders. If you have thoughts or feedback on what it takes to be a great leader please share it with us… you may be my next interview!