Leadership That Lasts Beyond You

I have been quiet here for almost a month.

Three conferences in five weeks will do that to you. So will watching something you helped build finally stand on its own.

That’s what happened at the Indiana CTO Clinic earlier this month, and I’ve been sitting with it long enough now to write about it.

The more experienced I get in leadership, the more I think the real test of a team, a system, or a professional community is not whether one person can hold it together.

It’s whether the mission survives leadership transition.

A Little History

The Indiana CTO Clinic didn’t just happen this year. In many ways, it was rebuilt.

After COVID disrupted so much of what made professional connection possible, a small group of us were charged with bringing it back. And not a virtual event, a real conference with a stage, keynote speakers, and hundreds of leaders in attendance. Technology leaders in Indiana schools needed a space to think together, learn together, and be honest about the realities of this work.

So we rebuilt it, making changes each year until we finally had to find a larger venue. We built it intentionally, gathering feedback from educators and partners alike. And for a while, that meant a lot of responsibility landed on a very small number of people. Ken Benich, Nick Williams, and I poured our hearts into it.

But this year felt different. Sure, attendance was bigger, the energy was louder, and the stage production looked like a rock concert to go with our “EdTech Leadership, Amplified” theme. But it felt different because the leadership expanded. New board members stepped forward, new committee leaders took ownership, new voices shaped the experience, and new people carried the vision.
I still had involvement as the outgoing Chair. But this year, the real work belonged to a new group of leaders.

And it showed.

What Stepping Back Actually Looks Like

There is a particular kind of pride that doesn’t get talked about enough in leadership circles.

It’s not the pride of standing at the front of the room or being “in charge.” It’s the pride of watching someone else stand there, confidently, capably, and authentically, and realizing the work no longer depends entirely on you.

That’s what I felt watching this year’s Clinic come together. At the end the event, I literally passed a toy microphone to the incoming Indiana CTO Council Chair as part of our rock and roll concert theme. Everyone laughed.

But underneath the symbolism and the humor was a leadership lesson I’ve been thinking about ever since: healthy communities are not built around one person carrying everything forever. They are built around shared ownership.

Passing the Mic

At the center of this transition is Matt Modlin, the new Indiana CTO Council Chair. Matt and I came into leadership through similar paths, educators who learned over time how to translate between instruction, systems, operations, and people. Leaders who realized the technology itself was never really the point.

The people always were.

Watching Matt step into this role has been encouraging because he brings the kind of leadership our profession needs right now: technical credibility, relational intelligence, humility, and genuine investment in the people around him. The mic is in good hands.

What This Has to Do With Leadership

There is a version of leadership that becomes afraid to let go. It mistakes proximity to the work for ownership of the work. It confuses being needed with being effective. It quietly believes everything will fall apart if one person stops carrying it.

Most leaders have felt that tension at some point. I know I have. But leadership that depends entirely on one person eventually becomes fragile. Healthy leadership multiplies capacity. It develops other leaders. It creates room for people to contribute, challenge ideas, and leave their fingerprints on the future. That’s the real work.

The Indiana CTO Clinic didn’t just hold steady this year; it grew. And the people who made that happen deserve every bit of the credit. That’s not a gracious thing to say. It’s just true

Leadership Multiplies When Ownership Spreads

In Capes Optional, Communication Essential, I wrote that communication is infrastructure. I’m realizing shared leadership is too. Because the strongest communities are not sustained by one loud voice. They are sustained by people willing to keep passing the mic and by leaders willing to trust that the mission will keep moving forward after they step away from it.

If you’re holding on too tight right now to a committee, a project, a program, a role, I want to ask you a genuine question: what would it take to trust someone else with it?

Not abandon it. Trust it. There’s a difference.

If that idea resonates, it’s the longer conversation in Capes Optional, Communication Essential.