Leadership Is Always Teaching
Note: This article was published in the High Point Enterprise, February 21, 2026
I have said for years, in conversations, small groups, boardrooms, and fellowship halls alike: what you do and what you say matters. I believed it when I was running startups. I believed it when I was teaching. I believed it when I shifted to nonprofit management years ago. I believe it now more than ever as I lead an expanding regional organization. Because here is what I have learned (and relearned) over time: leadership is always teaching, even when you are not trying to.
Every decision, every reaction, every silence, every interruption, every name you remember—or forget—communicates something. You are teaching.
Most organizations have beautifully framed mission statements. Most leaders can articulate their values. We say we believe in equity. We say we believe in opportunity. We say we believe in belonging and safe spaces. But culture is not built by what we declare. It is built by what we consistently demonstrate.
Staff watch who gets promoted. Young people watch who gets corrected, and how. Board members watch whose voice carries weight. Donors watch who gets access. The hidden curriculum of leadership is not written in the handbook; it is revealed in patterns. And patterns teach.
This is where the conversation becomes more personal and more uncomfortable.
Implicit bias is rarely loud. It does not typically announce itself. It shows up in micro-behaviors: who you instinctively trust, whose idea you repeat in a meeting, who you assume is “ready,” whose mistake feels like a pattern and whose feels like a one-off.
You can believe deeply in inclusion and still default to familiarity. You can champion equity publicly and still, without meaning to, create barriers privately. Bias is not always a character flaw; often, it is an unexamined habit. But unexamined bias becomes someone else’s adversity. And if we are serious about reducing adversity for the next generation—not just talking about it—then the work begins with us.
In the South, many of us were raised on the words, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:16). Not by their slogans. Not by their branding. By their fruit. That passage has always struck me as deeply practical. It assumes something simple and profound: what is inside will eventually show up outside.
Leadership is no different. If we value dignity, it will show up in how we speak to the executive assistant. If we value opportunity, it will show up in who we stretch and sponsor. If we value belonging, it will show up in who feels safe enough to disagree with us. What you do and what you say matters—especially when no one is looking, when it costs you something, and when the easier path is silence.
Culture compounds. Small signals become norms. Norms become systems. Systems become outcomes. If leaders model humility and curiosity, people lean in. If leaders model defensiveness, people grow quiet. If leaders admit blind spots, others feel permission to examine their own. If they do not, culture calcifies.
In this season of expansion and change, I find myself returning to a simple discipline: alignment. Do my behaviors reflect what I claim to believe, not occasionally, not when convenient, but consistently? Because young people are watching. Staff is watching. Teams are watching. Communities are watching. Whether we intend to or not, we are forming them.
The most powerful leadership statement we will ever make is not delivered from a podium. It is delivered in patterns.
So, before the next social media post, the next speech, the next strategic plan, or the next initiative, perhaps the better question is: What am I teaching right now?
Because leadership is always teaching.
And what you do—and what you say—matters.
High Point Enterprise - February 21-22, 2026