Tamara Springs on how JustLeadershipUSA helped her find her voice and empowered her leadership

Tamara Springs (Leading with Conviction™ 2024) says, “I had never heard of JustLeadershipUSA before my manager mentioned it to me. I was aware that another colleague was involved, but I didn’t know much about it at the time.

[Leading with Conviction] not only helped me refine my leadership and advocacy skills, but it also guided me in finding my voice …

“My manager at the time believed it would be beneficial for me to network with individuals engaged in advocacy work. When I joined the organization, one of my main goals was to find my voice after being wrongfully convicted and sent to prison. I wanted to discover meaning and purpose in my experiences. I expressed this to her during our goal-setting sessions, and she thought JustLeadershipUSA would be a great opportunity for me.

“At first, I hesitated to apply for [Leading with Conviction] because I believed it was primarily designed for individuals just beginning their leadership journeys. With over 20 years of leadership experience, I worried that the program might not be suitable for someone at my stage in their career. However, I’m so grateful that I took the leap. The selection process was competitive, with around 400 applicants and, ultimately, just 31 of us in the graduating cohort. I discovered that the program welcomes participants from all levels of experience, reinforcing the value of ongoing leadership development, no matter where you are in your career.

“The program not only helped me refine my leadership and advocacy skills, but it also guided me in finding my voice, which has been incredibly empowering. Being able to channel that newly founded voice into active advocacy for causes that are important to me was a main goal for me. I’m grateful for the connections I made through the program; it opened my eyes to the fact that my situation wasn’t an isolated incident. There are many people who, like me, have been unjustly impacted by the legal system and have had to rebuild their lives from scratch. …

“I feel like I have a voice that I can now use in areas of advocacy that are really important to me. And I think for me it’s about figuring out what that looks like, but I do believe that I was able to find this voice as part of the fulfillment of my purpose in life, to advocate for change and to use my voice in a way that impacts a larger sort of concern.”

Read Tamara’s full Q&A at CEOworks.org.

(Photo above: Tamara Springs, center)