Leadership beyond borders

What is your go-to literature for leadership guidance? Do you stay inside your field or venture outside of it, and can you see the benefits of either approach?

I have found that going outside my field is tremendously helpful in several ways.

As an educator, honestly, reading educational leadership materials results in very strong emotional reactions—critical comments, anger, and agitation—when I’m looking for curiosity. It’s equally difficult to listen to educator influencers or consultants because many of them have left the field.

So I study the leadership styles of people in other professions. For example, when the coroner came to our school and shared details about her job, she explained she was responsible for working with the body. When a police officer visits for various reasons, I think about them having to show up at a crime scene or car accident and deal with the aftermath. Managers and GMs of sports organizations fascinate me. If you’re an NBA or NFL coach, you literally have segments on a daily basis where commentators analyze and criticize you, either praising you or calling for you to be fired.

This cross-disciplinary approach helps me in two ways. First, I can ask myself: if faced with a similar situation—not identical, but similar—how will I handle it? Second, I observe the mental makeup required to approach a high-pressure job while tuning out constant outside distractions or managing ones you can’t simply dismiss. Though I don’t encounter the specific situations these professionals face, I recognize patterns in how they handle crisis, criticism, and complexity that translate directly to my work. Studying leadership beyond education grounds me—it reminds me that the challenges I face aren’t unique to my field, and the resilience required to lead well exists across all professions.

What leadership lessons from outside your profession have shaped how you lead today?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​