Romeoville Mayor Urges King Student Council to 'Work Together'

Submitted by Valley View School District:

Leadership is all about teamwork.

That’s what Romeoville Mayor John Noak told Irene King Elementary School Student Council members Tuesday in a special after-school gathering.

“You don’t always know everything,” he said. “You need to take the time to listen to other ideas. Listening is a very important skill.”

In addition to listening, students came up with several other qualities they felt were important for a leader including paying attention, being honest, and being independent.

“It’s not just being honest with others but being honest to yourself,” Noak said, adding “You’re right, as a leader you can’t always follow the crowd. Individuality adds to your overall success as long as you keep it in context with the other leadership skills we talked about.”

Noak talked about continuing to educate yourself because “the world is always changing and you need to be able to adapt” and also discussed the need to plan ahead.

“Work together to be successful,” he said. “It’s about bringing everyone together to build a coalition.”