Learning to lead with purpose, not just plans
Late-night Instagram scrolling isn’t usually where leadership breakthroughs happen, but for Lindsay Agbalokwu, a School Director in Training (SDiT), that’s exactly where one started.
“I saw a clip of a football coach telling his players, ‘Mediocre players hate excellence, and excellent players hate mediocrity,’” Agbalokwu shared. “I thought about how I am working to show up as a values-driven leader in all that I do.”
And it hit her. If she wanted to lead with excellence, she’d have to start by asking herself the hard question first: Is this mediocre or excellent?
That quote resonated deeply because it reflected two years of steady, challenging, and growth-filled work in the SDiT program—a program designed not just to prepare future School Directors, but to develop values-driven leaders ready to create a lasting impact.
For Agbalokwu, that work meant building systems, coaching her team, and staying relentlessly committed to growth.
“If I am not leaning into that value with conviction, I drive away excellence by being ok with mediocre,” she said. “I have to monitor and stay with it all year. An excellent system in Q1, but not 2, 3, 4 is actually mediocre.
A pivotal part of Agbalokwu’s development came through the mentorship of her School Director, Briana Mesa. “I’d walk into her office full of big ideas, and she’d ask, ‘How are you going to monitor this? What does the bar of excellence look like, and how will you get people there?’”
It turns out, excellence doesn’t just happen because you launch a new initiative at a staff meeting. With Mesa’s guidance, Agbalokwu learned how to bring those big ideas down from the clouds—clarifying expectations, giving feedback, and avoiding the all-too-common “initiative graveyard.”
That kind of intentional support is what defines the SDiT experience: powerful mentorship, high expectations, and a community of leaders all committed to learning, not just for themselves, but for the students and staff they’ll serve.
“As I look ahead to becoming a School Director someday, I know I’ll carry this with me,” Agbalokwu said. “Before I push others, I’ll look in the mirror and ask: Is this excellent? Am I avoiding the courage to push the team beyond mediocre? That’s the lesson I’ll take forward—and I’m so grateful to have developed it here.”
Lindsay will join DSST’s community of campus-based leaders this summer at Leader YOU, continuing her journey of purposeful leadership through four days of development.