Joanne

Seeing My Life through a Leadership Lens
Joanne Shudell

As we started our BECLP journey learning about Equity in Early Childhood Leadership and Transformational Leadership in May 2019, it seemed overwhelming. The other women in this program with me seemed so much more educated and knowledgeable. They showed an understanding of what leadership was and shared experiences of leadership within their lives. As I looked at our first syllabi and reflected on the first weekend’s experiences, I felt sad. I had enjoyed the experience of being around these amazing women and listening to their stories, but I felt like I was a fish out of water. Did someone make a mistake by offering me this opportunity, did they realize I wasn’t a leader and had never been in a position of leadership?

I was soon to find out not only
did I belong among this group,
leadership was in my heart!

The leader within my family

During our first semester, we focused on the leader within. We completed an assignment that invited us to look back on our life concentrating on our biases, privilege, and leadership opportunities. Through this autobiography, I started to see how my journey as a leader had begun. I grew up in the UK in a family of seven. I am the eldest child and the only girl. At the age of 8, I was required to support my mother with my siblings who were 7 years old, 2 years old, and twins who were just born. My dad worked nights and my mom struggled to parent five children alone, one of whom had a heart condition and spent many weeks in the hospital throughout his childhood.

I realized this is where it all
began, a leader in the making!

Over the years these leadership skills overflowed
into our extended family. In the days of children
being seen and not heard, I would round up
my cousins and organize games and activities
during family gatherings, to keep everyone out of trouble.

Leading before I knew what it was!

During my senior year of school, one of my teachers approached me and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t have an answer and inside felt a lack of confidence and limited in the choices available to me. The next day she asked for a meeting with me and she changed my life forever. She informed me that a local school was looking for a student to work with 4 and 5-year-old students for a few hours a day to read with them. She had seen me with my brothers and felt that I would be a perfect fit for this opportunity. I found my way to early childhood by spending 10 hours a week in the year one class with five assigned children.

The beginning of leadership within my community!

Leadership as I ventured into the world

As I completed my four years of college in the UK, a world of opportunity opened up for me. At the age of 21, I came to the United States to be an Aupair for a year (www.aupairinamerica.com). During this time, I was chosen to be on a team of spokespeople for the Aupair group. Our group consisted of young men and women from all over the world, living in a small community in Southeastern Michigan. Together with the spokes team, sponsoring agency, and the families, we used the skills of shared leadership to find opportunities for our AuPair community to engage in. Being part of this group gave me the opportunity to be someone who connected with local agencies and to find resources. We arranged for our international group of Aupairs to attend classes at our local college in early childhood education, learn about the American culture, and to have access to an emotional support group.

Leading with others, before
I understood what it was!

Leadership Learning in BECLP before Covid -19

As I started the BECLP program, I was asked to bring all of these prior experiences with me on the journey. Each month while we learned more about being a leader I looked for opportunities to observe different styles of leadership and their outcomes in my work and community. I experimented with leadership traits within my own jobs and talked to colleagues to find out how they felt when engaging with others in a leadership role. In addition, I tried appreciative questioning to communicate with teachers who I coached, improving my communication skills and strengthening our relationships.

As I gained my own understanding of leadership, I came back to work and shared my learning with my leadership teams in each of my jobs, and introduced them to the five I’s of Appreciative Leadership: inquiry, illumination, inclusion, inspiration, and integrity. As we now aim to incorporate the five I’s into daily practice, the knowledge of the five I’s has strengthened the leadership skills within all of the programs where I work.

Transformational leadership in action!

Leadership during Covid-19

Within the last few weeks, my work has changed dramatically. Our direct supervisor has taken a leave of absence thus requiring the four coaches, including myself, to learn how to work on many tasks that we have not experienced before. The first, and most important, being the Colorado Preschool Program report and the revision of the preschool application to ensure it’s compatibility with our online website. We also need to secure the classrooms for next year’s preschool programs, post positions, and complete interviews. To attain each of these goals our team is having to work together using high leadership capacity skills. We are all working as equitable leaders with other leaders from our district, the local community, and the state to do this work. Within our program, we had previously worked in what felt like a low leadership capacity system where we had one supervisor and she completed the above tasks. As our team takes on these new challenges we are leading across to complete what needs to be done and learning what is required to keep our program alive and well. These last few weeks have not been easy, but it has brought our team closer together while we navigate our new temporary job requirements, in a Covid-19 world.

Leadership creating an equitable and resilient
network for our District Preschool Program!

https://unsplash.com/s/photos/roots?orientation=landscape

During the past few months, I have needed to make changes that are beyond what anyone could have imagined. As a leader, the challenges are unlike any that have come before and I have been expected to step out of my comfort zone to find the way forward. As I embrace the opportunity to work across with my team using the leadership skills that I have been developing and harnessing through BECLP, I am building capacity for my entire life. BECLP has given me the tools, sharpened my ability to be more equitable, and showed me how to network in my approach. I am realizing that there has always been a leader within, and BECLP has illuminated this. As I move forward towards my future in leadership, I am excited about the transformational opportunities that are ahead of me.