Just Got Promoted? Here’s What REAL Leaders Do First.

2 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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This content was created by Leigh Thomas Brown. This content was uploaded by Leigh Thomas Brown. This is a YouTube video titled "Just Got Promoted? Here’s What REAL Leaders Do First." (created 2025-07-02) featuring a single speaker delivering leadership advice for newly promoted officials. The speaker outlines three immediate priorities for long-term success: 1) read bylaws, policies, and committee minutes to get up to speed; 2) listen at committee, membership, and board meetings to learn what has been happening; and 3) be prepared to change your views as you learn. The excerpt is a monologue-style how-to guidance aimed at new leaders.

Chapters

Congratulations, you've just moved up the ladder. What are the first 3 things you must do right away for long-term success? Number 1, read. Read the bylaws, read the policies and procedures, read the minutes from every committee meeting, and get yourself up to speed. That way, if you encounter a challenge, you will know how to prepare to fight it or support it in the right way. The second most important thing to do, listen. Go to every committee meeting, forum, membership meeting, board of directors meeting, wherever there are people meeting, go. Don't talk. Get yourself in the gallery and listen. What you may find out is that things were happening behind closed doors to which you are now privy. So get yourself educated as quickly as possible. And that's going to lead to the third thing you must do when you are newly elected. Prepare yourself to change. You may have come into this position with one set of ideas, and then you learn a whole lot more. Don't be married to an idea just because you ran on it. Find a way to teach yourself bigger things because the best leaders grow as they go.