Tisha Nicholson didn’t recognize it early on, but she’s been a leader for a while. After entering foster care at the age of 11 and being adopted in high school into a family as the oldest of nine, she learned how to speak up for herself and lead compassionately.
“So many of those experiences taught me that I was already a leader,” Nicholson says.
Nicholson graduated from High Point University and taught high school English before earning a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership and management. Today, she supports foster children and families as founder and CEO of Fostering Matters, a High Point-based nonprofit. She advocates for foster parents and connects them to services, so they can better support the kids in their care.
Nicholson recently honed her leadership skills even more through the NC Rural Center’s Homegrown Leaders program.
“I am always looking for ways to develop my leadership and get a little bit better,” she said. “Once you think you are good where you are, that’s probably trouble.”
Homegrown Leaders offered little and big lessons on how to approach leadership and engage with others. From the class candy bowl, she valued the uplifting quotes such as, “You are amazing,” printed on the candy wrappers.
“We don’t even think about something as simple as that changes your perspective,” she said.
A session on emotional intelligence helped her understand the importance of reflecting on both her emotions and those of others. Rather than taking someone’s emotional reaction personally, she learned to pause, consider their perspective and ask what they might need in that moment.
“It helped me to not just know how to communicate better, but to be aware of their emotions and my emotions at the same time in order to avoid conflict,” she said.
For Nicholson, the opportunity to network with other leaders and learn through Homegrown Leaders was invaluable. Rural small businesses and nonprofits play crucial roles in their communities, Nicholson said. When they have the right tools to collaborate, they can better support the broader community, share resources and work together on common goals.
“There was learning, and there was fun,” she said. “But even the fun, you were learning.”