Leadership Legacy: Using Insights from Your Past to Build a Legacy of Success

Copyright © 2022 Trinette Pierre.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

-Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8431-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8432-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8430-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022921623

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/20/2022

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Part I:Understanding Your Leadership Journey – How Did I Get Here?

Chapter 1Who I Was vs. Who I Am

Chapter 2How Will My Present Affect My Future?

Chapter 3How do I Embrace Who I Am by Leverage ME into My Future Successes

Part II:What is Leadership (…and What It’s Not)?

Chapter 4Are Leaders Born or Made?

Chapter 5Defining and De-Mything Manager/Boss versus Leader

Part III:Self-leadership – Developing Yourself to Develop Others

Chapter 6Understanding Your Leadership Style

Chapter 7Understanding Your Emotional Intelligence (or Emotional Quotient)

Chapter 8Growing YOU: Building Your Leadership Potential

Chapter 9Showing Up Successful – You’re Always On Stage!

Part IV:Developing More Leaders - Growing Others

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I must thank God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit for entrusting me with these insights. At YOUR Word, I submit this book to the public with the expectation of YOU fulfilling YOUR promise of lives changed, wisdom granted, and purpose realized and fulfilled for all who read it.

I am blessed with a wonderful, supportive family. To my parents, Jerrald and Christine Pierre: You have engrained within me and my siblings the importance of serving God and devoting our lives to HIS Work since childhood. Children cannot ask for a greater gift from their parents than this and we thank you so much for that. Thank you for the support, guidance, and love you have shown throughout our lives. We could not have accomplished what we have without your love and support. We were taught to let The Lord guide us and we pray that this is being carried out in our lives. Thank you for everything you have given. We are successful because of you. We love you!

To my amazingly sweet and equally silly siblings: Carmel Carter, Dr. Sharen Pierre-Waters, and Jerrald Jay Pierre, Jr. – Thank you all for taking this lifelong journey with me. I am blessed to have siblings who love and support one another throughout all of life’s ups and downs and throughout the years that we have shared. It’s been my honor and a privilege to call you my sisters and brother. Thanks for the fun times we continue to have whenever we are together. Gary, Joe, and Britney: I’m so glad that you were smart enough to marry into our family. Haha. You are my brothers and sister and I love you. Thank you. Thanks for being in our loving fam! To my wonderful nephews, nieces, and great-nephews, and great-nieces: Joey, Jefferey, Jeremy, Christyan, Gabe, Jasmine, Gideon, Cami, Zoey, Brooklyn, Jade, Ryan, Kailey Skye, & Chlobug – Tee-Tee loves you very much. It’s been wonderful watching you all grow up and sprout kids and families of your own. Time passes quickly, doesn’t it? Many of you are now in your 20s and 30s, yet I remember you all lying on my lap and ultimately ruining most of my clothes. I would not trade all of the memories and the time spent with you for anything in the world, although, it would be nice if you all stopped permanently borrowing my stuff! To my aunts, uncles, cousins, and our grandparents who are resting in The Lord: Thank you for the guidance, good times, and fun we have shared throughout the years. It was such an honor growing up with you as our guides and supporters. Without you all rearing us, we would not be where we are today. Thank you for embracing and uplifting us from childhood. Thank you for being a wonderful, supportive, crazy family. Thanks for all of the yummy food! Family, you have been my strongest supporters and my biggest inspiration. Thanks for a lifetime of love.

To my girls – Tonya, Wanda, Marcia, Ny’kiel, Monica, Whitney, Ms. Angel: Thank you for your love, prayers, support, and sisterhood throughout the years. God sends us friends who ultimately become family. That is my sentiments towards all of you! I love you all and I am grateful that God allowed you to be included in the story of my life. We’ve had lots of fun together, cried together, laughed together, and were outright crazy together. Thanks for all of it! I could not imagine life without you. You are a blessing to me. Much love to you, my sisters.

To my amazing colleagues and friends on the 5 Medicine PCU Nursing Team at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas: You all continue to inspire me. I think of you daily and I pray that our relationship continues to grow as life moves forward. Thanks for being an awesome team! Thanks for the lives you touch and the people you serve. Their lives are better because of you. Keep leading and keep standing strong. Thank you for your service.

To my amazing WestBow Press team – Cameron Adamson, Angie Hibner, Joe Anderson, and the publishing and marketing team: Thanks for believing in me and being patient with me as I took this journey. Thank you for your guidance, your input, your advice, and your expertise. God bless you and I pray we are able to work together as a team for many more years.

To the readers of this book and all who I am blessed to know and love: Thank you for allowing me in your lives. I pray you are touched and blessed by this experience.

With Much Love & Adoration,

Trinette

PROLOGUE

Reflect as You Progress

Who am I? How did I get here? How will I get to where I want to be? What do I need to do to change my present positioning to ensure future success? There are many questions that human beings ask regarding their life’s journeys and the purposes they are intended to accomplish. While all questions may not be answered concurrently, asking and attempting to find answers to such questions shows a passion for more and the drive and initiative needed to move into a greater reality. This may be the case in personal, educational, spiritual, and professional avenues of life. This self-reflection process is one that some leaders use to better understand themselves in the pursuit of their goals and this process may lead to better self-awareness for those who are willing to take on the task.

Self-aware leaders often reflect on how their travels along life’s journey carried them to present day positioning. Self-aware leaders understand that reflecting can be beneficial in understanding what made them who they are and how that understanding can benefit their future successes. Self-awareness is a key component of both business and personal relationships and may be integral to the successful navigation of life.

As we begin this learning process on leadership legacy, it is important to honestly and openly review the journey thus far. As we begin this review of self process, please ask yourself these questions:

• How did I get here?

• How has my past affected my present?

• How will my future be affected by my present?

• Where am I now versus where I aspire to be?

• How can I leverage my past and present beings to ensure I reach my goals in the future?

While you may not have answers to these questions at the beginning of chapter 1, the goal for this learning process is for you to uncover insights from your past and present that will assist you in being a more productive and successful leader. As you navigate through each section of this book, please keep these questions in the back of your mind. Write down your thoughts when you begin and record changes in your thought processes (if any) regarding your journey as you continue throughout this reflection and learning process. This is a learning, growth, and development initiative; therefore, please use this process to grow and strengthen your leadership prowess. I pray this book and this journey is a blessing that will positively affect your outcomes throughout the course of your life. Thank you for allowing me to travel this road of discovery with you.

PART I

Understanding Your Leadership

Journey – How Did I Get Here?

The past and the future are actually not so different. Every past event has a cause or causes that, as we look back and them, typically makes sense to us from our vantage point in the present. Likewise, each past event has implications and influences the events that follow it. It can be a very linear sequence that, again, make sense to us when we look back at them. To me, the future works in the exact same way. The difference, of course, is that we don’t know what will happen in the future. Instead, we have a wide range of possible futures. But, just as with a singular event in the past, the events happening today, will shape the ultimate future. – Mike Ivicak, 2018.

As stated by Ian C. Woodward (2017), "Leadership is a journey – not a destination. This means we do not arrive at leadership and end our journeys. Leadership is continuous. Leadership is an ever-evolving, fluid, and continual learning process. Leaders do not reach a pinnacle and decide to settle in for the long haul. Leaders continue to move forward to build on what was accomplished in the past. This is because leaders know the importance of constant growth, continual development, and the incessant need to evolve in order to meet the ever-changing and dynamic needs of the world around us. This is evident in theories regarding leadership. Leadership theories and theoretical ideas of leadership have evolved, changed, and developed many times throughout the course of past decades. What the world once considered a style of great leadership is now seen as dictatorship. What we may have thought of as a type of take charge and keep control" style of presenting is now considered micromanaging and authoritative mechanisms that turn followers against their intended leaders. Think back 5-10 years to the most popular leadership theory of that time. Many leadership theories have presented after that time and others will continue to bring knowledge and updated expertise to millions in the form of future leadership theories.

Just as leadership theories and the study of pertinent theorists continue to evolve and change over time, leaders themselves also evolve. Think about your leadership journey for a moment. When you began leading others, what was your approach? What was your mindset? If you had to choose a leadership style