Monica Henderson-Devore

My grandpa, Kenneth Keltner was one of my earliest examples of leadership in my life. He was the superintendent of schools for Weaubleau. He was also a coach, teacher and a farmer. When he passed away, I was amazed at how many people showed up and talked about how much they loved him and what a great leader he was. They confirmed what I already knew about my grandpa. He always led by example. He was strict but you also knew exactly what he expected of you. He was well respected. He was kind and he was part of the community, and he would always help those in need. Everything he and my grandma had they worked hard for. He did whatever it took to take care of his family. And his family extended to his students and athletes. 

One of the most important characteristics of a leader is always following through with what you say you are going to do. People need to have trust in you to be a good leader. This comes down to always being honest no matter how hard that is and treating people the way that you want to be treated. This means setting boundaries and making sure people respect those boundaries. 

I also believe that when you lead you should never ask for anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. You need to be kind and respect those you are leading. You need to be willing to step in and help and go the extra mile. 

When my dad, James Henderson, was the store manager at Sears, I constantly saw him not only lead his employees, but also always saw him out on the floor on Black Friday running registers, helping stock merchandise or whatever needed to be done. He always led by example. I think it is key that the ones you lead know that you are there to help when things are crazy and that you have their back. 

One thing that we have seen recently is a change in our staff’s priorities. I have seen our owner, Mark Burgess, adapt and make changes to help keep our staff happy in a changing world. It has been a good lesson to me to always keep in touch with the people you lead and their priorities. If you keep people happy then they will work harder for you. 

As for my legacy, I would hope people would say that I always try to go the extra mile and that I wasn’t afraid to pitch in and help even if it “wasn’t my job”. I would hope they would say that I lead by example. I would hope that they say that I am kind and care about people. 

A lot of my leadership comes from experiences I learned from athletics and coaching. I always believed I would be a coach when I grew up. I had the great opportunity to be an assistant basketball coach for a year in college and it taught me all sorts of lessons that translate to the professional world. I also owned my own company, Ozarks Entertainment. It taught me many lessons in managing people and running a company. I try to use this experience at OzAir. I try to always remember that owning a company is a giant responsibility and I should treat OzAir with the same respect as if it where my own company. I should do my best to make sure that we have great customer service in everything we do and give everything 110%.