08-05-2026
When Daniels School professor Kate Zipay said she needed an additional speaker — one of our parents, preferably — for the concluding discussion in our Leadership in a Changing World class, I immediately thought of my dad.
Professor Zipay’s class provided many insights throughout the semester and her request allowed me to share my dad’s leadership style with others. In our family unit and in his personal life, his approach shaped what I understood about life and leading others.
The class gave me the chance to dive deeper into how my dad was intentional about his family leadership. For one assignment, I conducted an interview with him which spanned almost three hours — with a pause in the middle for a family dinner. During the interview we discussed the faults in our leadership, and we found that these were pretty similar. But through recognizing our faults we also were able to share our plan going forward of how to make things better.
Leadership has always been a core value in our family. Before I left for school in the mornings my dad would always say to be a leader. I used to roll my eyes, but having guidance about leadership in a changing world allowed me to understand what the term means. From my dad, I learned to treat people with kindness and empathy but hold true to the mission. Growing up in a military family was pivotal for many reasons — seeing how my dad’s Marine troops respected and followed him set a precedent of how to take care of your own people. Troop welfare played into mission accomplishment, my dad taught me. Make sure the mission is completed well and that your people are safely with you when it is completed.
When my dad came to speak at our roundtable, I felt that it opened a new perspective for many. Specifically, that leadership wasn't just being a military officer, a CEO or a team lead, but that you needed to be a leader in your personal life too — a leader for your friends and current family, and eventually for your spouse and children. By easing us into leadership, my dad demonstrated leadership at all levels and created resilient leaders.
Kate Simek is a May 2026 graduate of the Daniels School of Business and an incoming law student at the University of Connecticut.
