My Leadership Development Plan

May 4, 2019

Here is what I’m up to creating for myself, family, and community. 

Leader + Leadership Development Plan

  • Having a purpose
    • Latin Diversity and Inclusion
    • Urban Youth — Career Preparation
  • Courage
  • Being in awe
  • Doing the right thing
  • Speaking for the voiceless
 
Lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity:
 
The desire to continuously learn is key to my intellectual development. I have noticed as I reflect on my life that I stay intellectually curious and I’m open to educational experiences that I can learn from that foster my growth and are in alignment with what I’m up to creating. I’m currently working on my mission and vision for my life to align my intellectual development with my goals and ambitions. I recognize that learning is a lifelong process and I am committed for life. Online educational content has changed the game in my opinion. I have learned so much from YouTube videos and online educational platforms like Udacity, Udemy, and Pluralsight. I plan on continuing taking online courses on these platforms to continue increasing my technical acumen for Kubernetes, DevOps, Python, and Java. As more businesses adopt cloud native technologies, it is important that I have a strong foundation on cloud technologies and programming languages that are used inside of those environments. 
 
I will continue reading books about business leaders to take the key lessons and experiences they went through and apply them in my future leadership positions. Currently I am reading “Winners Dream, A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office” by Bill McDermott. I recently checked out “Cracking the Coding Interview” from my local library to stretch my brain and get better at solving coding challenges/algorithms. I keep up with financial news and technical analysis of stocks to capitalize on opportunities, short term and long term. In the past month, I was able to 4x my brokerage account by being disciplined with studying and applying different trading strategies. However, I’ve been trading stock options and following the market for 4 years now and I have learned a lot. Like the market, I’ve had my ups and downs. 
 
I follow people on Twitter that are constantly sharing their knowledge about wealth creation, leadership, and inspiring others. I believe that there is no excuse for me not to grow my intellect. Information is abundant and available at my fingertips and some of the problems I’m looking to solve have already been tackled by others. For me, its important that I stay focused on the information that is going to foster my growth and the growth of my family and community. To keep my motivation and inspiration alive, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks by people like Tom Bilyeu, Les Brown and Earl Nightingale. 
 
I’ll broaden my intellect by being of service in communities like Career Karma, where I respond to questions for people getting started with coding and provide resources to help them on their journey. I’m planning to get involved with communities that help underserved communities. I am also starting to produce video content. This is a two-prong approach. On the one hand, I do it at work to secure more meetings and grow revenue but eventually it will be to spread Noblevator talks. Being noble and authentic is very important to me and I keep myself in check when I am not acting or showing up in accordance to my values. The places I would like to visit as part of my development include New York, LA. the Bay area and Santa Cruz. These places are dear to my heart and allow me to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going. 
 

Maintaining discipline and stress management:

My plan for healthy eating includes resisting chips to only a few times a week and in small portions. I want to eat more fruits and veggies every day and continue eating chicken and salmon more than red meats.

My personal exercise plan is to go to the gym or on a walk/run at least 4 times a week. Ideally, I like to seep 6-7 hours a night. To manage stress, I like to sit quietly for at least 20 minutes in a day; 10 minutes in the morning and 10 in the evening when I’m on the work shuttle. I go on a walk with my partner at least twice a week. We go to the gym 3 times a week. I am putting basketball on hold for now because of a knee injury. I am starting to do yoga and stretching with my partner at night before bed at least twice a week.

I pray every day even its for a few minutes. I’m constantly reflecting throughout the day. I listen to a mindfulness podcast for 20 minutes every other day. I talk to my partner daily, express my excitements, disappointments, and feelings. I talk to friends via text primarily talking about the stock market and trading opportunities everyday or every other day. I talk to friends and mentors on the weekend.

I listen to music in the morning and on my train ride home. Sometimes though, I stop the music when I’m feeling anxious and just focus on my breathing and calming down. I recognize that anxiety isn’t going to go away. I simply have to acknowledge it and I recognize that part of my anxiety comes from wanting everything at once. I accept that I have to be more to earn more. As I continue to expand my capacity, I will receive more. I am starting to listen to more classical music which calms me significantly. I don’t watch TV or go to the movies during the week. On the weekend, I’ll watch basketball, golf, and catch a Netflix movie or show with my partner.

Personal reflections:

To be reflective or introspective, I focus on my why and having a purpose driven life. I listen to motivational speakers on Youtube or on the podcasts app for 30 minutes a day, sometimes an hour. I focus on my optimism for life and how my great attitude will help me accomplish whatever I set my mind to. I also go to church on Sundays, which is an opportunity for me to reflect on the blessings I have in my life and ask for strength to live my best life. I’m planning to volunteer more of my time on the weekend to organizations that give back to the community.   

Building relationships:

The most important people in my life are my fiancé, my parents, siblings, grandparents, and close friends/mentors. I feel I can be completely open with my partner. When I’m distressed, I turn to prayer, my partner, and mom. I’m grateful that I have mentors like Troy, Matt, Freeman, Scott, and Alex that have helped me along my journey to being my best self. The friends I turn to for counsel and professional advice include Pete, Brian, Phil, Matt, Alex, and Troy. I network with professional colleagues through the Toastmasters club at work, social events, tech meetups.

My motivations and motivated capabilities:

My extrinsic motivations include buying a house to raise a family, wealth, financial freedom, at least one high-end sports car like a Lamborghini, a Tesla Model X, houses in Santa Cruz and Manhattan Beach. My intrinsic motivations are all about living a healthy optimistic and happy life, help my parents retire, be an exemplary husband and father, help my children reach greatness at whatever they love, make my school and community in Compton proud, be a resource and continuously add value, speak to inner city kids and inspire them, for my grandparents, and be a reflection of God’s glory. I believe that “success is the progressive realization toward a worthy ideal.” Earl Nightingale.

If I had to make a list to rank the order of my overall motivations, here’s what it would look like:

  1. mental, spiritual and physical health
  2. be a resource add value in business.
  3. build great teams in business and nonprofit orgs.
  4. speaking engagements
  5. wealth

My greatest capabilities include public speaking, inspiring others, forming relationships, high emotional intelligence, sales and technical acumen, celebrating/admiring other’s success, dependable, someone you can talk to about anything, my positive attitude and optimism. I find myself smiling because I’m happy to be alive and because I’m striving toward my goals. I’m learning how to control my anxiety. I get so excited about everything I’m up to and sometimes I find it hard to focus. My motivated capabilities include speaking from the heart, inspiring others, uplifting others. The leadership situations that optimize the use of my motivated capabilities include leading Toastmaster meetings, making myself available for friends that need advice or someone to talk to in the good and bad times, giving speeches, giving technical demos to customers and driving valuable conversations that will help them solve problems.

Values, leadership principles, and ethical boundaries:

Here are the values that most important to me in order of importance. (The values that I consider inviolate are marked with an asterisk.)

  1. optimism/faith that everything will work out and that I will achieve my dreams *
  2. spiritual growth *
  3. to be relentless and unreasonable when striving to achieve my goals *
  4. being of service *
  5. being a resource to my colleagues and to other leaders *
  6. continuously learning *
  7. comfortable being uncomfortable *
  8. having my goals drive my behavior*
  9. sincerely wanting to help my customers succeed with the solution that we offer *

The principles on which I base my leadership are doing unto others as I would have them do unto me, listen to be listened to, being purpose driven, allowing goals to drive behavior, being clear on intention of my words and actions. The ethical boundaries that will guide my professional life are always doing the right thing, having compassion/empathy.

Leadership style:

My preferred leadership style is leading by example. I step up to the plate when no one else wants to address an uncomfortable situation. I work hard and drive results to inspire others around me to do the same. The leadership style I revert to under pressure is being passive. I’m constantly working on my communication skills to speak up when necessary and motivate others to get behind an idea that can spur growth and optimize efficiency. I’m developing my ability to use flexible leadership styles by reading books from leaders like Bill McDermott of SAP, following and watching speakers/authors like Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Earl Nightingale, John Rohn, Earl Shoaff. I also engage with content and podcasts from Tom Bilyeu, founder of Impact Theory and Quest Nutrition. I’m developing my ability to adapt my style to the situation I am facing and the capabilities of my teammates by actively listening, reading the room, and gauging the kind of audience I’m interacting with. I aim to volunteer first to encourage participation. I am developing my ability to use my power more effectively by meditating at least every other day for 20-30 minutes. This is helping me channel my high energy effectively and helping me calm my anxiety of wanting to accomplish it all at once.

Leadership development:

The experiences I need to develop my leadership include getting involved with nonprofits and organizations that are giving back to the community. Eventually I want to lead a session through a speech/workshop. I want to speak at my high school.

I plan to integrate my personal life, family life, friendships, and community life with my professional life to become a better leader by incorporating the values and way of life that demonstrate “Noble Gerry” into the workplace. Values like enthusiasm, optimism, doing the right thing, being courageous, authentic all carry over into a leader in the workplace that others respect and want to get behind.

The sacrifices and trade-offs I am prepared to make to achieve my professional and personal goals involve giving up time on the weekends to be involved in the community and working on projects in the evenings after work.

Leadership purpose and legacy:

The purpose of my leadership is to bring out the best in myself and others. I want to inspire people to be their best selves and help others live with purpose and find meaning in their lives. My self-truth is to be authentic and share my optimism with the world to live a fulfilled life. I accept challenges whether they are emotional, financial, or spiritual as necessary to help me grow. As long as I keep my why in my heart, I shall persevere. I’m passionate about technology making a positive impact in society and solving meaningful business challenges. I’m passionate about being active with sports and the outdoors, discovering new trails, places because they keep me centered and focused on accomplishing my goals. I’m passionate about connecting with other people who are authentic and courageous. I’m excited about beginning to help create content that will help shine my light to the world.  

Legacy 

Family

Have the Mercado family be an example of how love, unity, hard work and purpose will benefit generations to come financially. Recognized by organizations we donate our time and money to that helped us along our journey.

Career

A smart, passionate, and charismatic leader that made an impact in different companies and organizations in Silicon Valley and inner cities like Compton, Oakland, San Jose, etc.

Friends

A loving, cheerful soul that was energetic and an amazing friend. I was able to talk to him about anything and he inspired me to live my best life.

My community

Gerry kept his community in his heart as he progressed in life. The donations and foundations he helped fund and create are greatly appreciated.