The agency of millennial leaders: No one needs to give you permission to lead

In a recent New York Times article, Megan Rapinoe stated, “What kind of person do you want to be for yourself, but also in the larger context of the country and in the world?”

And do you know who I thought of first: our teachers.

Not just any group of teachers but those teachers that take the leap from the professional their contract tells them to be, to the professional they know they are capable of being.

At a recent international conference I had the joy of speaking with teachers from all over the world. One of the constant themes: my leaders are more worried about control than empowering great change for kids. One participant said, “Jody we are suffering from old-white guy syndrome and they are unfortunately teaching our young leaders how to act. Sadly many of our older female leaders are playing along.”

Here’s what she was referring to.

In years past we had a career progression in education: be a teacher, be a coach, be a vice principal, be a principal, maybe work at the district level and maybe be a professor. You had to be invited into the leadership club and approved before you had a chance of mattering to the organization.

Today our millennials are doing…