Copy the Leader: Caleb Bobo

How do you practice leadership at your job?

Early in my career, I had great managers who gave me opportunities to display knowledge and skillset, which ultimately opened up a lot of doors for me. Since transitioning into a leadership role, I’ve tried, and continue to try, to do the same for those on my team. I think there is a natural tendency for some to hoard opportunities for themselves, but I have found that the more opportunities you create for others the better the outcomes are simply because no one knows everything about everything. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, being intentional about supporting others’ professional development creates stronger personal and organizational ties, and hopefully, encourages people to always give their best effort.

What makes a team or group successful?

As someone who has a bit of a perfectionist mindset, I think the best teams start projects understanding that failure is a possibility and don’t run from that. I think there have been times where fear of failure kept me from taking professional and personal risks, but that unfortunately hinders one’s opportunity to grow. So as of late, my hope is that the teams I lead/am a part of understand that trying something and it not making it to implementation is okay because there are real benefits to simply going through the idea creation, development, and proposal phase.

How can leaders in your industry help their organizations adapt to change?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about messaging and brand management. In a time where there is so much information, so much consumer/custom choice, and frankly, so much skepticism, how institutions communicate clearly and concisely the rationale behind their work and/or decisions I think matters a lot. Doing so, I believe, will ensure that as change occurs, internal and external stakeholders will have the information needed to adjust and ultimately, move with the organization instead of moving in spite of the organization.