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You Can't Lead a Community You Don't Know

There's a difference between having a title and being a leader.

Most of us learn to lead inside a building. We learn to manage a team, hit a number, run a department, keep the thing standing. And we get good at it. That's real work, and it counts.


But leadership doesn't stop at the door of your organization. The people you lead live somewhere. The people you serve come from somewhere. And if you don't understand the place they're coming from, you are leading with half the information.


This is a positioning problem, and it's one I see constantly. People do excellent work and stay invisible outside of their own four walls. They have influence in one room and none in the rooms next door. They care about where they live but have no idea how anything in it actually gets decided, so when the moment comes to weigh in, they don't, because they're not sure they've earned the right to.

You have. What's usually missing isn't permission. It's knowledge.


That's the work of Leadership Greater Bridgeport, and it's a program I'm genuinely proud to lead.


Nine months. One full day a month, at locations throughout the region. This is not a panel from a stage. You are in the room with the people running our schools, our hospitals, our courts, our development projects, our arts organizations, our public safety. Close enough to ask the hard question and get a real answer. You start seeing the history underneath the decision, the funding structure behind the program, the tradeoff nobody says out loud.


And somewhere in there, usually earlier than people expect, something shifts. You stop seeing problems and start seeing systems. That's the moment you become useful.

I could keep describing it, but I'd rather let the people who've done it describe it instead.


Cathy Huda put her finger on what most participants name first: "What I gained most from Leadership Greater Bridgeport was perspective. The program encouraged me to look at our community and region through a variety of lenses and helped me better understand the many people, organizations, and systems that all play a role in shaping it. It reminded me that there is always more to the story than what we see on the surface."


That perspective shift happens even, maybe especially, for people who already know this place. Jahaira Burns grew up on the West End and lives in the North End now. She told us: "I didn't know all of the rich history it held and now that I do it gives me more confidence to advocate for this city and the future of those we are raising." Calvin M. Jones II said much the same thing from a different angle. He came in with real knowledge of the city and its history, and still found that the program added substance to things he'd only had a narrow perspective on.

Confidence to advocate. That's positioning. That's the whole thing.


Then there's the room itself, which I can convene but cannot manufacture. Colleen Morrison left with "a new network of professionals, a better understanding of myself in my leadership role," and clarity on how she wanted to grow into higher-level roles in the community. Erin Sudbey built new partnerships for her organization out of the relationships in her cohort, strengthened her leadership, and stepped into a promotion at The Child & Family Guidance Center. Cyn described gaining access to spaces, organizations, and conversations she would not have experienced otherwise, and called that exposure one of the most valuable parts of the experience.


Malcolm Wilson named the leadership growth directly. The program taught him "to listen more, ask better questions, and think about how I can serve the community in a bigger way."


And then there's Kevin Gonzalez, who came into Cohort 37 with a decade of leadership behind him and more than twenty seminars, training, and development programs already on his résumé. He wrote to me afterward: "Without question, this has been the most impactful leadership experience of my career." He was balancing the program against a demanding job and doctoral studies, and he said it gave him a renewed sense of purpose. He also said his cohort had become like family.


I don't take credit for that. The region does the teaching. My job is to open the doors and make sure the right people are in the room when it happens.


Here's the honest part. This asks something of you. It's nine months and it's a full day each time. Every person who has ever come through this program was already busy, running organizations, growing businesses, raising children, some of them in school on top of all of it. They made the room for it anyway.


If you've been waiting for a way to stop watching from the outside and start leading where you live, this is it.


Come learn the community you're leading.


Natalie