Not in a survey.
In conversations — 60+ of them, recorded, transcribed, and eventually turned into my book - The Science of GIS Leadership.
The question was simple: what are you most proud of?
I expected to hear about projects. Programs built from scratch. Budgets fought for and won. Systems that outlasted the politics around them.
That is not what I heard.
Every leader I interviewed — without exception — pointed to a person.
Someone they had developed. Someone they had believed in before that person believed in themselves. Someone who went on to lead something the original leader could never have led alone.
