I learned a great deal about leadership from my high school hockey coach.

Ernie is the former Superintendent for New York’s Lake Placid Central School District. Prior to Lake Placid, Ernie was CEO and COO for the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township in Indianapolis. Ernie serves as the Chair of the CFES board of directors.

I learned a great deal about leadership from my high school hockey coach years ago. He taught us many things, but one of the most important was that we were very important to him as individuals. Everything he did was predicated on the premise that he cared about us.

Leadership is about character and character is reflected in one’s willingness to make tough decisions. It’s about trust and that’s what good leaders do – they care about folks, they care about individuals they work with and they understand they’re going to have to make tough decisions.

My high school coach never raised his voice and his decisions were predicated on principle never on politics. He was a very calm leader.

One of the most important things he taught me was the difference between leadership and great leadership: leadership is when you lead people where they want to go, but great leadership is when you lead people where they don’t want to go but where they want be.

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