Editor’s Note: Leadership Mountain View (LMV) prepares adults who live or work in the city to take on a wide variety of leadership roles in the community. Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the program guides 32 individuals through a nine-month program each year. Over 400 persons have graduated from the program since it began in the 1989. The profile below is one in a series that will run periodically to highlight the accomplishments of LMV graduates.
Keith Moody
His glittering Super Bowl ring may be the most famous of his achievements, but it is Keith Moody’s recent appointment as Mountain View High School principal for the 2006-07 school year that speaks to his remarkable leadership.In 2005, when he signed up for Leadership Mountain View, Moody saw it as a “tremendous way for an educator to connect with the corporate sector and the community.”
What he found during the seminar series was all he had hoped for and more. Moody speaks highly of the “positive alliances” and networking he was able to accomplish by meeting and developing relationships with individuals working in the private sector, at MVHS’s feeder schools, the Mountain View Police and Fire Departments, and even Shoreline Amphitheatre.
Now, he says, when his job brings him into contact with such an organization, it’s “not just an agency, but an agency with a person attached to it.”
His experience has also given him the opportunity to let others “hear where [he’s] coming from” as well as learn “what [others] feel and hope that education is doing.” In the end, he says, “LMV has made a powerful difference in creating good relationships, which are important in any community.”
The leader that Moody most admires is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., because “during a turbulent time in this country … his platform was to unite, work together, listen, cooperate, and create relationships so that we could move forward.” He feels that the making of an outstanding leader “starts with listening” and that “a leader who has trust and respect from followers will be successful.”
Moody’s advice for budding leaders boils down to taking risks. An aspiring leader must start small, taking on responsibilities and letting skills like communication, collaboration and goal-setting come with practice. His favorite saying about assuming leadership is, “you can’t jump up stairs, you have to go step by step.”
MVLA School District Superintendent Rich Fischer says that Moody “has tremendous leadership qualities, including the ability to focus on the most important thing: the students.” He describes the future principal as “an excellent listener and a real problem solver,” and adds, “We’re very fortunate to have him.”
To learn more about Leadership Mountain View, call (650) 968-8378 or visit www.leadership-mv.org. Applications for the next class will be accepted through mid-June.
