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Reflection 1: Why do I Lead the Way that I Lead?

Ari Raymond Colondres

Benerd College, University of the Pacific

EDUC 368: Leading Complex Organizations

Dr. Renalto Almanzor, Ph.D.

January 22, 2021

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Success

A leader is successful, but not necessarily in the limited way society conditions us to

believe. Growing up in East Oakland, California, in abject poverty to a single parent with a

severe mental illness, success was defined as material wealth. The car one drove, and the clothes

one wore were more important than the relationships one fostered or their virtues. Now, I believe

success is emancipatory and defined by the quality of my relationships, the family I helped

create, and the acts of service I conduct. These beliefs guide my leadership.

To help me better understand my "success," I read the book The triple package: how

three unlikely traits explain the rise and fall of cultural groups in America, by Amy Chua and

Jed Rubenfeld. In this book, the authors explain how a combination of certain character traits

may explain particular cultural groups' overall success in the United States. The characteristics

are superiority complex, general insecurity, and impulse control.

As a Jewish man, I identify with all three of the authors' traits. My cultural heritage and

religion hold that "we are G-d's chosen people." Growing up, I always believed I was one of the

smartest people in the room and that I could think my way out of any problem. Learning and

questioning are both integral in Judaism. I was a good reader and an excellent writer. I got good

grades (mostly), and I had high emotional intelligence. Ironically, being a Jewish man also meant

that I grew up with a boding sense of insecurity. Most Jewish holidays are somber events as they

recall times of persecution. My family lost many relatives to the Holocaust, and its effect on my

mother was profound. Growing up white and Jewish in Oakland, California, meant I never really

fit in (I got into many fights as a kid). Finally, as the child of a single mother in abject poverty, I

learned impulse control since we never had a safety cushion to fall back on. Understanding how
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these traits manifest in me helps me better understand my biases, and in this understanding,

become a more compassionate and effective leader.

Know Thy Self

Leaders understand that to know someone; they need to know themselves. Questioning is

an integral part of Judaism. It is not uncommon to see a family sitting at the dinner table,

engaging in inquiry and discussing complicated topics. As such, I was always seeking

knowledge. I also grew up in the poor and high crime area of East Oakland, which limited my

access to practical experiences. There were no urban farms, safe playgrounds, or opportunities

for apprenticeships. The public schools lacked the funding and resources needed to provide

enriching activities and experiences. All we had were old textbooks. Rote memorization of facts

was valued as that was how grades were determined. College was billed as the great opportunity

maker and equalizer. Therefore, I would often peruse and read the books in the local library's

reference section, hoping to learn all I could to better my odds of attending college. Learning was

a means to an end. A college degree was what was most important.

Although I believed that a college degree was valuable because of the supposed doors it

would open, I always felt that learning in itself was a worthwhile goal. Thinking back during my

high school and undergraduate experiences, I remember struggling to balance memorizing facts,

which seemed to be of utmost importance to my instructors, and real deeper understanding. The

more facts I memorized, the less I understood. Nothing illuminated this struggle more than my

wife's contrasting experience in undergraduate school. She had an incredible ability to remember

facts and ace exams. As such, she enjoyed the status and privilege that comes along with

maintaining a perfect grade point average. However, she would often say that she retained little

after leaving school. When we compare our experiences, she often says that I was smarter
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because I learned. The irony of this is that I did not get good grades in undergraduate school, and

I regretted this fact until recently.

Universal Truth

Why is learning gleaned from books more valuable than learning gleaned from practical

experiences? How is it that Americans wonder why companies like Apple build their hardware

abroad and not domestically? Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has gone on record stating that finding

enough highly skilled workers to make complex products is not currently possible with today's

labor force (Rose, 2015). Influential leaders know that there is no such thing as a universal truth.

There are multiple ways of knowing, and people have different gifts. I have been conditioned to

value learning gleaned from books and demonstrate knowledge through the written word.

However, I have begun to question the notion that people only have one learning type and that

intellectual work is the most prized. My atypical son struggles in a mainstream school where

book learning is valued. He has no interest in knowing who discovered electricity, but he can use

critical thinking skills to build complex electronic devices using diagrams and ingenuity. As a

leader in education, I am pleased that the Common Core state standards and the Next Generation

Science Standards emphasize critical thinking skills, which is a step in the right direction. The

next step would be to codify that there isn't just one way to view learning and understanding.

Perspective

There are experiences in one's life that are so profound they can alter one's life trajectory.

Leaders harness these experiences gaining valuable perspectives. I had such an experience, and I

remember being aware at the time that my life would never be the same. I was sixteen years old

when my life turned upside down. My mom moved my two brothers and me into a domestic

abuse shelter. I had to leave everything I knew behind, suddenly having to change high schools
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and make new friends. After the shelter, we moved around a lot. I attended a total of three high

schools in three different cities. This was a lonely and scary time for me, and I found myself at a

crossroads. Down one path, I saw a future similar to my mother's; opportunities limited by a lack

of education. I realized my only way off that path was to excel in my studies.

Education served as a beacon of hope for a boundless future; thus, I decided that I would

succeed no matter what happened. Consequently, I am the first person in my family to graduate

from college. This was my path, but it isn’t necessarily a universal path. Tim Cook made a case

for a domestically trained, highly skilled workforce. This alternative perspective is no more or

less valid than my own. Influential leaders know this. Instead of only trying to build people who

share their values and resemblance, they embrace and foster excellence in the talents and values

that people already possess.

My talents and values were centered around teaching. I always seemed to have had a

knack for breaking down big concepts and explaining things to people so that they could better

understand. Even when I was a child, I remember the joy and personal satisfaction of tutoring

elementary students and when I got older of mentoring campers at a sleep-away camp. I have

seen firsthand how influential a teacher can be. After all, it was a middle school teacher who

believed in my writing and told me I had real talent that fueled my desire to write and give back

to my community as a public middle school teacher.

Vision

I fear that politically speaking, the United States has little desire for meaningful

educational reform. People give lip service to teachers, expounding how noble the profession is

and how important it is to educate children. However, whether through ideology or biology,

people's desire for quality education stops with their children. As such, schools work for a
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limited subset of Americans. The podcast by the producers of Serial, titled "Nice White Parents,"

explored the outsized influence of white parents in policy, funding, and curriculum selection at

the k-12 public school level in New York (Joffe-Walt, 2020). As an educator for over ten years, I

have seen how many decisions that affected teachers' work were decided by non-educators,

"someplace far away."

I remember always wanting to get my doctorate as my ego, for better or worse, demanded

that I be the best. As a transformational leader, my purpose will be to help young people by

empowering other educators throughout California and leading by example. Teachers and other

educational practitioners need the help of allies at the state and district level. My vision as a

leader is to create equitable and non-traditional education policy and bring to light the many

entrenched biases and inequities that our most vulnerable students and families face daily.

Lead by Example

A leader must lead by example, aligning their values with the lives they lead. Reflecting

on my journey, I now feel phony and unauthentic, saying that school is one of the best pathways

of opportunity for young people. How can I still say that education in k-12 public school is the

only pathway for success? Schools don't work, at least not in the way most people believe they

do. Just as there are no universal truths, there isn't one pathway to success. If I genuinely

embrace teaching to the whole child, I must lead by example. It was in the desire to align my

values and beliefs with the life that I live that I decided to move my family to nature so that my

son can flourish in the non-judgmental embrace of nature.

Conclusion

Leadership is not a title. Leadership is action. True leaders know that success must be

emancipatory, and they do this by fostering positive relationships and aligning their values with
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their lives. To lead others, one must be reflective, truly unpacking their unique perspectives and

biases to understand that there are no universal truths. Vision is integral to effective leadership. It

is important not to lose sight of one's true north. Lastly, leaders must lead by example as that is

the only proper way to inspire others and foster buy-in. The good news is that it is never too late

to become a better leader.

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References

Chua, A., & Rubenfeld, J. (2015). The triple package: how three unlikely traits explain the rise

and fall of cultural groups in America. Penguin Press.

Joffe-Walt, C. (2020). Nice White Parents [Audio blog post].

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Rose, C. (Correspondent). (2015). Inside Apple (Season 48, Episode 14). In A. Bast, M.

Radutzky, G. Rochkind (Producers), 60 Minutes. CBS Interactive Inc.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-apple-tim-cook-charlie-rose/