I am honored and humbled to be able to lead ITE for the next year. My desire to lead began when I joined ITE in 1990 as a student member at the University of Waterloo. I was a third-year civil engineering student and had already discovered that transportation engineering/planning was my passion and career path. The president of the ITE Toronto Section came to speak. I was impressed that someone so important had come all the way (75 miles/125 kilometers, to be exact) to talk to a handful of us. That was when I told myself that I wanted to be that person talking and inspiring others someday. Within this role, I consider it my duty to support the nearly 100 Presidents of ITE
Districts, Sections, and Chapters and the 160 ITE Student Chapter Presidents as they interact with our more than 18,000 members.
I’ll give you a little personal background. I grew up in Montreal first, then Toronto. Early in my career in 1996, I found myself out of work due to a bad economy. I took a temporary position in New Jersey that eventually became permanent. I’ve lived there ever since (although now that my children are grown, I can frequently be spotted roaming the streets of Toronto). I spent most of my career in consulting engineering and eventually ran a traffic engineering department in a medium-sized firm. Nearly nine years ago, I took an opportunity to pivot my career and become a forensic expert, and I’ve never looked back. In this role, I deal daily with the too-often horrific consequences of traffic crashes.
This issue of ITE Journal is devoted to leadership. I have held leadership roles in ITE and other volunteer service organizations for approximately 20 years. In that journey, I’ve learned a few things. First, most effective leaders are not always natural leaders—they learn the craft. Second, within a volunteer organization, a disinterested or ineffective leader will cause others to become disinterested. Most progress in a volunteer organization effectively comes from the enthusiasm of the leaders. As a teenager, the radio station I listened to played Rush constantly. To paraphrase the opening lyrics of one of their songs, “And those who hold high places must be the ones to start to mold a new reality closer to the heart…” (For the Rush purists out there, yes, I changed one of the lyrics to be more inclusive—sorry, not sorry). In other words, leaders need to set an example that others can follow. Here are three pieces of advice I received and/or learned about being the leader of a volunteer organization: 1) No matter how hard it seems, don’t ever complain down the chain (you don’t want to discourage others from becoming leaders someday); 2) no matter how hard it gets, keep smiling—your enthusiasm will directly impact the enthusiasm of others in the organization; and 3) never publicly criticize others behind their back—it will inevitably get back to them. Within ITE, leadership does not just mean an elected position. There are numerous opportunities to make a difference in the organization and hone your leadership skills through councils, standing committees, local District/Section/Chapter committees, and technical projects. To address the ambitious 30 new initiatives in the ITE Safety Roadmap and Action Plan, we will need at least 100 new volunteers, many of whom will be charged with leading the effort. You can volunteer by visiting www.ite.org/about-ite/safety-roadmap/ and scrolling down to “Getting Involved.”
We need members to lead in all these roles—no experience necessary! Believe in yourself, and others will believe in you. Start cultivating your leadership skills!