Women,
leadership
and sharing
our story
Our leadership and life
stories hold promise
and power.
18
Leadership
“Always remember that you are ab-
solutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
– Margaret Mead
Recently, I sat at a table with a
few site administrators. We were grouped
together at round tables and a facilitator
was leading us through some thoughtful
professional development. A young female
administrator turned to me after I shared a
short anecdote at the table. She was express-
ing her sense of surprise that I too, a “sea-
soned” superintendent and leader, had also
experienced life struggles. It was a reminder
to me that sometimes as leaders we show
the world our shiny, competent, capable and
“arrived,”persona and forget that the people
we lead and the emerging leaders watch-
ing us also need to know about our battles,
struggles, and scars so that they can see that
we are, in fact, just like them.
As a woman on the cusp of the baby
boomer generation I can sincerely say that
we were conditioned and counseled that
we could have it all and be it all. We could
‘bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and
never ever let him forget he’s a man’ (if you
don’t recognize that commercial, well – I’m
definitely aging myself). We were catapulted
into a cult of perfection across all of the roles
now possible for us – and I think it is our
daughters and granddaughters who may
now be making strides to break down those
unrealistic expectations.
According to Brene Brown, “Authentic-
ity is a collection of choices that we have to
make every day. It’s about the choice to show
up and be real. The choice to be honest. The
choice to let ourselves be truly seen.” Maybe
for you this statement elicits an “of course”
response. For me, I often have felt that I
have spent most of my leadership journey
trying to bury my beginnings, my story, and
my many falls and failures. Brene Brown
would call those years and those efforts ‘hus-
tling for your worthiness’.
Our ever-changing digital world has
added to the “hustle”. In this age of social
media, we present our perfectly manicured
selfies – our best and brightest smiles – find-
ing that angle that shows the world only the
very best of who we are. Our highlight reel
is highly edited to only show the world what
we want it to see. In a recent Huffington
Post article the author quoted a 2015 sur-
By Cindy Petersen