What I’ve Come to Learn about Leadership
By Brad Weiger, Director of District Consulting at EducationSuperHighway
Throughout my career at EducationSuperHighway, growing into a stronger leader has been at the core of my professional development goals. However, working in the nonprofit space has redefined what a strong leader looks like for me, as demonstrated by my co-workers who share my commitment to making America’s schools more equitable.
This year, our leadership team decided to break tradition and chose to recognize a major annual milestone by providing us with an opportunity to visit the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice. In lieu of another staff celebration event, my coworkers and I boarded a plane to Montgomery, AL, unsure of exactly how this trip would be relevant to our jobs.
Though I didn’t fully realize it at first, the spirit of the trip fit in perfectly with the tradition of our organization to create space for our staff to reflect on and engage with uncomfortable truths. I believe every citizen of our country needs to experience these uncomfortable truths in an effort to claim our history. We must fully realize how racism and violence toward people of color did not end with the abolition of slavery and did not end with the Civil Rights Act, but still exist today in the form of a broken criminal justice system and have the potential to evolve into yet unknown forms of systematic oppression.
One particular moment at the museum resonated with me as I reflected on our mission at EducationSuperHighway. In the museum, there was a video that featured formerly incarcerated people at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, AL, a notoriously violent, overcrowded, and poorly run facility. Of all the contributing factors that made life so horrible for the incarcerated individuals, poor leadership was the one that struck me. I wondered how much violence could have been avoided and lives saved if there was stronger leadership at the facility.
I believe that a sign of strong leadership is the willingness to confront any uncomfortable truth head on, and the bravery to actively correct the resulting inequities. This trip has given me a greater appreciation of how important it is to maintain an active dialogue about equity — not just through the Diversity & Inclusion Council at EducationSuperHighway, but also through our entire mission to bridge the digital divide in public schools.
The uncomfortable truth we are confronting at EducationSuperHighway is that America’s public schools do not create equal opportunities for students, due to many forms of inequities in today’s society. Our trip to Montgomery gave us that sobering reminder and renewed our sense of purpose as we continue to follow through on our commitment to bring digital equity to our country’s public schools.
