Parting Words to the Sapphire Leadership Academic Program | Speech

Note: During the final week of my time as an Overall, I penned this speech for our weekly newsletter. Giving parting words is an annual Sapphire tradition for outgoing leaders.

The day is here — who can believe it?! I remember my first day meeting the Overalls of Sapphire in 2019 and thinking to myself, “I would love to play a part in the leadership of this Program one day.” Between that early pronouncement and “Day 1” as an Overall alongside Chrisly, it is doubtless that I had to do a lot of growing: some of it organic and some of it brute-force.

I owe many votes of thanks to so many.

First, to my cherished collaborator Chrisly Li: your unrelenting energy, your insistence on making all parts Sapphire adhere to the highest standards of excellence, and your detail orientation were tremendous enablers to the success of our team this year. I’m grateful for you.

Second, to the lovely folks on the Sapphire Advising Team — Dr. Solo, Dina, Evan, and Pauline — for every vocabulary word I used, stereotypical-consultant-whiteboard-illustration that I drew, and ‘initative’ that I dreamed, thank you for supporting my growth as a leader and allowing me to partake in the important work that this Program is charged with doing.

Third, to the Sapphire Leadership Team: together, I believe we left our imprint on the history of this Program. We worked toward a vision of Sapphire that was as-of-yet unrealized and it is clear that the trajectory of our Program is decidedly pointed upwards because of the things you all did behind the scenes and on the front lines. I thank you for that. To the new Leadership Team, we cannot be more excited to entrust to you all of the progress we made over the last year because we know you will carry us into a vibrant future. You have our full support!

With my parting words, I would like to say this — I think that leadership development, at an individual level, is like a black box. In it, we collect the hard knocks of failure and setback, the wisdom of our mentors and role models, the artifacts of past triumphs and achievements, the record of experiences had and forgone, the abbreviated biographies of people we encounter over the course of life, and the notes of our own reflections, dreams, and ideals. While we cannot see how these things sort themselves inside that black box, we continue on to accumulate more and more inside. Finally, I believe, we arrive at an opportunity or position of leadership that requires us to make full use of all that we have collected over time. It is in that moment that the black box becomes less of an arbitrary collection of things and more like an armament of tools, ready-made and useful for the moment, the opportunity, or the role in front of you.

Being an Overall was that role for me, validating all the growing, failing, and experiencing I’d done these last three years. If you know what that “thing” is for you, I can’t wait to see the impact you make. And, if you’re not there yet, keep on “collecting” and the right time will come — just be patient.