A conversation with Melissa Reade of Leader Valley
Melissa Reade can spot a Leader in Me kid from across a room. She was recently at a community event, something with no connection to her work, when a young girl walked up to say hello. Firm handshake. Steady eye contact. Melissa asked if she went to a Leader in Me school. “Well, yes I am. I’m at Orchard Hill Elementary.”
That handshake is what nearly 15 years of work looks like. Melissa has served as Executive Director of Leader Valley since the very beginning, and on a recent episode of the Cedar Valley Podcast, she discussed where the organization has been, where it’s headed, and what actually makes a leader worth following.
Changing Lives Through Leadership
If you haven’t crossed paths with Leader Valley yet, here’s the short version. The nonprofit exists to change lives through leadership, and it works with two very different audiences to do it.
The first is students. Through the Leader in Me program, Leader Valley currently partners with 31 schools across 11 districts in the greater Cedar Valley, building school cultures where kids find their voice and learn to lead themselves.
“Why do we wait until adulthood to figure out how to be effective?” Melissa asked. “There are so many things our kids are learning right now that I did not learn, and I certainly did not learn the easy way when I became an adult.”
The second audience is the region’s workforce. Leader Valley offers one-day leadership accelerators, custom programming built alongside individual businesses, and Elevate Leadership Academy, an eight-month cohort experience that takes a deep dive into leading yourself and leading others. The academy spends real time on the human side of leadership, the emotional intelligence work that rarely shows up on a job description but shapes every workplace.
That workforce piece matters to the whole region. As the Cedar Valley works to keep talented people here, Melissa points to a simple truth about retention. People stay where they are developed. “Being part of an organization that values development and will invest in you,” she said, is something Leader Valley can help every local employer offer.
What makes a great leader
When Melissa was working on her doctorate, a final essay asked her to describe what great leaders do. Her coursework had been full of frameworks, three things here, four principles there, seven habits everywhere. A paint-by-numbers approach to leadership.
She pushed back.
“My leadership style can’t be your leadership style,” she said. What great leaders share isn’t a checklist, it’s character. Integrity. Doing what you said you’d do. Humility, the kind that knows it doesn’t have every answer. What she calls a loving edge, caring about people deeply and personally and wanting something bigger for them. A willingness to learn, take risks, fail, and do all of it out loud where people can see. “Leadership is a choice, not a position. We’re so focused on title, rank, authority, power. You can have all of that positionally and people still won’t follow you.”
Katy picked up one thread in particular. “We build up in our minds that leaders are people who get it right all the time, which makes it really intimidating for people who don’t see themselves that way,” she said. “To be realistic about the fact that we’re all growing and we don’t get it right all the time is so important.”
For anyone still hunting for their own style, Melissa offers three places to start. Notice when you feel most like yourself as a leader. Get clear on what you actually believe about leadership. Then turn those beliefs into commitments that you’ll do every day.
The best advice she’s ever gotten fits on a sticky note. “You have to lead yourself first before you can lead others.” Take care of yourself, manage your emotions, show up as your best, and do all of that before you ask anything of anyone else. Easy to say. Hard to live. Worth it anyway.
Katy had a piece of her own that she shares often. Get uncomfortable. “The only way we really grow in life is when we do things that get us outside of our comfort zone,” she said. “We do things we’re uncertain about, and we potentially fail, or we miss, or we don’t do it exactly the way we wanted to. But it’s there that we find strength and courage and the drive to go out and do the next thing that moves us forward.”
One Cedar Valley
The Cedar Valley Podcast closes every episode the same way. Asking their guest, what do you love most about the Cedar Valley?
Melissa surprised herself with her answer. She expected to talk about everything there is to do here. Instead, she talked about abundance.
She sees it in the educators across those 11 districts, who share ideas freely because they believe every student is our student, no matter the school or city. And she sees the same spirit growing across the region as a whole, the pursuit of one Cedar Valley, something greater than any single community or neighborhood.
“I don’t think we’re there yet,” she said, “but I think we’re working hard to create that one big, great Cedar Valley.”
Katy landed on the same word Melissa did. Abundance. “There is enough for all of us,” she said. “If we work together and support all of the great work happening here, the outcome will be really special.”
Thank you to Melissa Reed and the entire Leader Valley team for investing in the young people and the workforce of the Cedar Valley. To learn more about Leader Valley’s programs for schools and businesses, visit their website: leadervalley.org or listen to the full conversation on the Cedar Valley Podcast.
