Finding Your Leadership Soul, with Courage
The third event in the Courageous Leadership Series, a wire-side chat between Carlos Moreno, co- Executive Director of Big Picture Learning and Dr. Tameka McGlawn, CCASN’s Executive Director, explored the value of love, care and vulnerability in leading for transformational impact, influence and change. Introducing the event, Dr. Tameka noted that “these are the tools we must use to help young people make their way in the world – and dare I say to help all people make their way in the world.”
Featured Highlights:
- In his book Finding Your Leadership Soul, Carlos’ storytelling connects readers to the strength and humanity of the young men who taught him so much about leading. There is power in telling stories, to advocate, catalyze, or be a vehicle for others to tell their stories.
- Talking about love, leadership, youth, loss and mistakes is facilitated by having protected space in a community that values being kind to ourselves. Leaders need to be nurtured and cared for while being vulnerable including the ability to say no to something to say yes to oneself.
- “There is no way to get where we want to be as a world, or as a community as long as we are operating alone.”
- Power does not define leadership, but acting in community with love, care, and vulnerability, and embodying ethics and morals, defines a servant leader.
- It is one thing to espouse those principles, another to embody them. The curriculum of life can wear down, strip away, or diminish one’s soul.
- Reflection is critical in our work. Too often we don’t take time to reflect on what we are doing, how we are doing it, it’s impact and success, or its impact on us – what we learned.
Highlights from Responses to Participants’ Questions:
- Why is courage needed? Speaking ones’ truth, sharing one’s journey, or creating space for others to do that is risky, especially in times such as these. At any moment someone could weaponize that truth to do harm. Consequences at Big Picture Learning have included loss of funding and opportunities. Being in community in alignment with values is essential.
- Stepping into leadership soul – what to release? Sanitizing appearance in certain spaces and places, walking on eggshells and mincing words. But being authentic meant folks then heard it differently.
- What catalyzes courage to move away from fear of speaking up and out? An encouraging community. At the heart of being a courageous leader is doing what is true to you and in service of those you have been called to serve.
CCASN extends our deepest gratitude to Carlos for joining us, and for his courageous leadership of Big Picture Learning (BPL). BPL is committed to Robert Greenleaf’s tenets of servant leadership and is celebrating 30 years as a formidable network centering students with love, care and vulnerability, and acting as a coalition builder, model and beacon.
