Interview Questions:

EL: What/ who most influenced you in your development as a leader?

Aaron: Actually I have a person who most influenced my development as a leader and a "what" as well. The "who" that influenced me the most would have to be my family - specifically my dad. Neither of my parents finished high school nor went on to college. They pushed me to strive to do a little bit better and to be a good role model to my siblings - a brother who is 17 and a sister who is ten years of age.

The "what" that most influenced me is my music. I began choir in the ninth grade. I have found out how small things can inspire me - such as parts of a musical piece and the tranquility and emotion that can come from listening to music. Also, I have worked with many people from all cultures of life in my church music. I am a big proponent of diversity and I have learned so much from different cultures and race. My music teacher taught me a great lesson; we were only as good as our weakest link. We must involve all voices. I also learned the importance of smiling. The choir was my first chance to be seen in a performance. I never realized how much a person is judged by smiling - you can feel the music through your facial expressions! I used this when I went on to competitions in DECA and my smiling paid off well.

EL: What is the key to motivating other young people to be involved in a leadership role, in their community - to give of themselves in time and dedication?

Aaron: I can speak to this personally because in my leadership role I have been put in positions where I was working with uninspired young people - they did not want to get involved. What I learned from them is they had a sense that they could not make a difference. They are only one person and they seemed overwhelmed by projects and goals. The biggest key to getting young people involved is to have other teens serve as role models so they can see that others can do these things. Let them see the benefits through experience. As an example, I recently had a chance to work with juvenile diabetes and it definitely changed in my own attitude as I met people afflicted with juvenile diabetes. I saw value in my work by seeing whom I would directly help.

People are so diverse today in their likes and dislikes that we need a big pool to draw to meet the needs of this diverse group. Sometimes smaller localized projects are better than trying to complete a huge project that seems overwhelming.

Also, there is certain selfishness; we feel our generation has had more struggles and we are living tough lives. It is the "hip thing" to come from adversity and struggle to succeed. As an example, our generation has one of the highest divorce rates in our families and this marks us as "struggling". Drugs are huge in our generation - it is a popularity element and hard to overcome to draw young people in to doing good, but don't overlook the fact that many young people in my generation are eager to serve and give. It just needs to be done differently today.

EL: How do you plan to apply your experiences as DECA national president in the development of your future goals and career?

Aaron: My DECA experience occurred during my growing and changing years and I tell my "DECA story" through a 4 step cycle: I began as a sophmore - new to the group and excited by participating in my first conference. I then went on to being an experienced member my second year. Next was my role as a state officer, thinking I knew everything about DECA and then my fourth step was a national role where I got to apply what I learned. I began to meet people from all around the world. I saw others who had a sense of wanting to better themselves, no matter the way we spoke, our accents or our race.

I learned how to be poised and how to act in different situations. In the past, I only had the experience of acting out with my friends and this was very different than from how I was expected to act in a group of business people. I have taken a little bit from each experience and tried to share these experiences with my own friends - to help them develop.

A big part of my experience with DECA was how to set goals and how to carry through on those goals. I use a daily planner now and I would have never thought to use such a tool before. I have completed Franklin Covey training and I can't imagine myself not continuing to use this tool for the rest of my life. I now call my planner my "brain" and it helps me follow my goals and my values. I am more organized and therefore more professional. I make value in every minute of my day.

The Seven Habits Training was wonderful - all seven national officers are now certified to teach "What Matters Most" in time and organizational issues. We also met with other high school chapters and put them through a shorter version of the training. I learned so much more from teaching the program than I did participating. My learning curve has been huge and wonderful! - The best way to learn something really well is to teach it. That also goes back to being a stronger leader.

EL: What have you taken from this program that you can directly apply to leadership?

Aaron: What I can directly correlate from the training would have to be some of the principles I have bought into. Being a leader means managing your time and managing yourself. As an example, Synergy where 1 + 1 = 3. Rely on other people who are strong in your opportunity (weaker) areas. This is a very strong component of leadership and I have applied it as National DECA Student President.

EL: How did you handle the challenge of serving as a long distance leader with your regional vice presidents?

Aaron: It has been a challenge. In my case, I have been so fortunate that my best friend is also on our national management team - a vice president and we live in the same community. Our team wanted to emphasize using the Internet to stay in touch. We use AOL Instant Messenger for weekly chats. We set aside 30 minutes and discuss items of business. I will have sent out an agenda at least one day before the conference. We handle what we can in an electronic platform - we have time differences to deal with and some of our officers are now faced with the responsibilities of full time college schedules. Also, the regional VP's will call me weekly and catch up on items we can then condense for the conference.

EL: How did you really get to know your management team so that you could work together so independently throughout your year of service?

Aaron: We were elected at the national conference and had about a day to get to know one another. Then about 60 days later we had a 15 day national officer training. We set our mission statement and took what we learned the first 12 days as a group and then the last 3 days we facilitated a session for a "State Officers Leadership Institute" - 150 state officers from throughout the country. We had help from a professional leadership group so the development effort was excellent. We knew each pretty well about 12 days of intensive training and then three days of facilitating as a team!

EL: How did you quickly establish yourself as the leader of this group in such a setting?

Aaron: I quickly realized that there was a lot of talent in this group and that any one of the national officers could quickly step in to my shoes and fill my spot easily. I also felt that I could do their jobs so it was leadership by committee. I always volunteer first to show I am willing to participate and instead of one exceptional leader, we really had five exceptional leaders! Quite frankly, I step aside and take the role of follower where there are areas I don't know a lot about and then when there are areas where I excel, as an example the Internet, I step back into the lead. It works well and I would imagine it would work well in any business environment if a leader will set their ego aside.

EL: What has been your leadership style: Participatory, Top down, The Team, Service, Hands On?

Aaron: Participatory is clearly my style. Through this style, our team was able to find a blend between DECA expectations and the mission we wanted to accomplish. We synchronized effectively. I feel a group is always more powerful than any one individual!

EL: Have you completed a personality profile that helps you better understand your style and how it correlates to leadership?

Aaron: Yes and while I don't recall the actual terms used, I know I am a creative thinker - expressive. I have an artistic form - I am very open. This shows through my acceptance of cultural and physical diversity. This has been extremely helpful as I lead this team nationally.

My leadership style has changed. I used to be commanding and demanding. This year, I realized my team was strong and that I had many other type "A's" and if I did not modify my style, there could be conflict not positive results. I quickly saw the value of group leadership. I have learned to be persuasive - and how this can work well!

EL: Has DECA provided a structure (guidelines, processes) that made it easy for you to navigate as a leader or did you create as you went along? Is a structure important for a leader or is the creativity element more important?

Aaron: Yes, DECA provided structure, but permits a lot of creativity regionally. DECA provides the tools, the person provides the power!

EL: What advise will you give to the 56th National President that will guide them in their leadership role

Aaron: I won't provide advice as much as an outline. Just a few clues that are important. The Past President who passed the reign to me gave me a "pass down book" that gave me basic information and presented it in a fun way. But, he did not overlay it with his thoughts or ideas - it was truly my year. The new President will build strengths through their own actions - they need their own experiences. I leave them with one quote that last years leadership specialist passed down to my team: "Leaders make people believe in them - Truly great leaders make people believe in themselves".

EL: Have you done any self-study that prepared you for your role. If so what?

Aaron: I come from Washington state and we have a very storied history of national offices that I could visit and talk with. I learned what to expect in the ins and outs of going from a member to a state officer to a national organization. I also a huge reader - anything that touches on any leadership principle, I gobble up. I read the Seven Habits and the Dale Carnegie book "How to Win Friends and Influence People". I constantly reinforce through reading and learning.

EL: What lessons have you learned in this past year that you would do differently, if you could?

Aaron: Most importantly, would be to thank people who have impacted my success. My Grandmother used to get up early to get me to the airport at 8:00 a.m. so I could fly off for trips I take in my role as National President. One day I was in the Hallmark store getting a card and I caught myself thinking "when was the last time I thanked my Grandma for all she has done?" Without a lot of little things, I could not have gone on and had such success.

EL: What after school activity had the biggest influence on you as a leader?

Aaron: Yes, football. - It had a big influence on my life. I began playing in 9th grade. This was a turnaround year for me. I grew 7 inches and transferred from one school to another and went from having a negative outlook to a positive outlook because I was having some successes. This was a year before DECA. Football allowed me to channel my efforts in a positive way. I learned I could have other positive experiences. I would like to leave emergingleader.com with one last thought from Aaron Crotty - I light one candle in DECA and they go on to light the candle of others!

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