I recently read a LinkedIn post about a friend and his daughter who co-presented at a Business Leadership class at Notre Dame. How fun! My friend has worked in the business world his entire 35+ year career, while his daughter is just starting out. As a parent of adult children, I knew what a special moment this must have been for my friend.

“I love this for you!” I commented on the post.

What a surprise it was to read the replies from both he and his daughter, “Where your ears ringing?” and “We talked about you in Lesson 2!”

I don’t consider myself a “business person.” In fact, when I was asked to speak at an investment banking summit a few years ago, my son (definitely a business person) said, “Mom, I love you. But what does your story have to do with investing?” Leadership lesson #1: make sure you have people in your life who love you and keep you humble.

What I learned from my friend and his daughter was that Lesson 2 was about being a Servant Leader and Showing Up. Not everyone who shows up is a servant leader, but every servant leader is someone who shows up.

This too is important, not only in business, but in life.

This morning I received a text from this same friend: his flight to South Bend has been cancelled; he’s not going to make his guest lecture at the Business Leadership class today.

“What are you doing at 2:15pm?” he asked.

I’ll be showing up.
Hopefully I know at little bit more about leadership than I do investing. Wish me luck!