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To Excel as a Leader

Each year, our seventh-grade boys and their fathers or father figures gather for a special evening event at school: The Father/Son Book Talk. The evening features a distinguished speaker/author who delivers an inspirational talk related to our school mission or theme. This year’s theme, “excel,” was the perfect fit for our featured speaker, Ms. Carla Harris. 

Ms. Harris is Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, where she has managed and executed billions of dollars of equity and equity related transactions, a successful Gospel recording artist who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater, and a popular public speaker. In 2013, she was appointed by President Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council. She is also the author of Expect to Win (2009), Strategize to Win (2014) and Lead to Win (2022). 

Inspired early in life by her grandmother’s advice to "give her all" to every endeavor, no matter the size, and her father’s loving exhortation to “make sure you go for the A,” Carla described her journey from Port Arthur, Texas, to Wall Street, the recording studio and concert halls, and as the author of three books on leadership and winning. Interestingly, she shared how she had always hated to write, only to discover she was good at it, and that writing was a great way to share the things she knew with others: “I write when I think there is something to be said that can help people.”

Lively, positive, and inspiring, Ms. Harris' message focused on believing in oneself and drawing upon the foundation provided by school and family for a winning leadership mindset, strength, and confidence. 

Our boys and their dads thoroughly enjoyed her talk, and during an extended Q/A session, the boys enthusiastically asked Ms. Harris about leadership, what it means to win, and how to handle setbacks or moments of self-doubt.

All present will most definitely remember many of the wise takeaways Ms. Harris offered, in particular what she termed her three "pearls":

- Authenticity is your distinct competitive advantage. People will trust you if you bring your authentic self to any environment. 

- Leaders need both performance and relationship currency to succeed, but as you get more senior, the relationship currency is more important. 

- Fear has no place in your success equation. It is the "sneaky thing that stops us from going forward and trying new things."

Our gratitude to Ms. Harris for sharing her story and her wisdom with our boys and their fathers, and to Pedro Morales, Victor Franklin, and Peter Martin for helping to make this evening possible. We define leadership broadly at Saint David’s - and most especially note that leaders lead most by example. Our boys had a great example of a leader before them in Ms. Harris, as they have each day with their parents, teachers, and all who guide their life’s journey. Ut Viri Boni Sint. 




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