Welcome to Leading-Within Wednesdays. Once a month, I will share a little bit about one of the 10 competencies introduced in the book, Leading Wihin Systems of Inequity in Education: A Liberation Guide for Leaders of Color.
I’m changing it up this time around. Giving you just 2 examples of each competency. A personal one and one from one of the leaders that I interviewed.
First up….
Demonstrate self-awareness.
I recently found my old writing portfolio and in it, I found newspaper articles, fiction, non-fiction, and poems that showcased what I was thinking in my college and early career years. It also showed that I’ve been interrogating myself for a long time! One poem titled, “Choices?” It is clearly a response to the judgment I was feeling from those within and outside my culture. It’s a little long so I won’t put the whole thing here but here are the last lines:
Black women are not only loud but proud.
Full of success and survival.
My culture has overcome slavery
My culture hasn’t overcome me.
Reader,
Do you understand?
My culture is already a part of me.
So one way I have and continue to demonstrate self-awareness is by journaling, writing, and reflecting on my interactions to see if I’m showing up as my full self or what is expected of me- which can be based on my gender, race, title, or position.
When I think of this competency I also think of Lisa, the former equity officer of a large district in Virginia. We spoke about the fact that we didn’t get to where we are professionally without knowing how to expertly navigate white supremacy. So her strategy is to ask herself a series of questions:
What am I doing?
Why am I doing it?
Is this some form of collusion with white supremacy?
She explains, “I think you have to collude in some cases but you need to know in your consciousness that you're doing it and why you're doing it.”
A reflection question for you to think about this competency:
What practice have you developed to regularly demonstrate self-awareness?
More explanation of this competency, how to practice it, and additional reflection questions and resources are in Chapter 3. Two study guides are also available on the ASCD website - one for leaders of color and one for white co-conspirators.
See you next month, when I give a brief overview of Competency #2: Operate outside your comfort zone.
How to Continue to Support Leading-Within:
Go to Amazon and rate or review the book there! Reviews are a great way for others to see that this book is worth the time to read.
Post about the book on social media using the hashtag #leadingwithin. Even better if it includes a picture of you WITH the book!
Host a book club with your affinity/ERG group. Two study guides are also available on the ASCD website - one for leaders of color and one for white co-conspirators that are perfect for starting a group conversation. For book clubs with participants who have purchased and committed to reading the book, please reach out to me so I can support your journey!
Connect with me to speak to your organization or group about topics covered in the book, like ‘practicing love and rage’, ‘building a coalition’, and ‘taking a stand’.
If this is your first time reading, please go back and read my Introductions post.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. If you like it, please share it with your network!