Leading Questions: Brett Wigdortz

What kind of work experience did you do when you were younger?

When I was a teenager I was a football referee for six years and a lifeguard in New Jersey for five or six summers. I worked as a teaching assistant in a kindergarten a few times and did some other odd jobs when I was younger. After university, I worked as a journalist in Asia for a while. Then I worked as a researcher before becoming a management consultant.

What lessons did you take from those experiences?

A great lesson from my time as a referee was to know when to ignore criticism. As a ref you’re constantly being criticised and learning how to handle that criticism is a really good experience. I think that is a really important leadership lesson that sometimes you just have to do your job. You have to understand when the criticism is accurate versus when it isn’t – you can’t take it all personally.

Similarly, when I was a lifeguard, I had a bit of ‘life or death’ responsibility at a young age. Those jobs taught me the importance of responsibility early on, and that – in some cases – people’s lives can depend on your work!

Was it important to learn these lessons young?

I think so. It ensures you take your work seriously. As a referee, you have to take it seriously; you can’t mess around on the field. People watch what you’re doing, you’re under scrutiny and you have to be comfortable making quick decisions. I think those are really important for any leadership role, and life in general.

What has being CEO of Teach First taught you about leadership?

I’ve learnt the importance of having a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve and of having clear values around what you’re working towards.

What advice would you give to an upcoming leader?

Have the confidence to make mistakes. I remember the time I first started as a referee, a senior ref told me: “Don’t worry about making mistakes. Any mistake you’ve made we’ve made a million times already.” It’s that confidence you need to make decisions. If you have a clear direction and a clear value structure that people respect, then you just need to make the decisions basically – and the people you’re leading will want you to make those decisions.

What would you say to your younger self?

Enjoy the process a bit more. Try and be less stressed. There’s something about being open to making mistakes. Good leaders aren’t the ones who are the smartest – the best ones are those who work through failure and the ones who are calm when things aren’t going well around them. I think that’s a really important trait of a leader.

What’s the hardest decision you’ve had to make in your role?

The toughest decisions are usually around people. Strategic decisions can sometimes be easier because you just make a decision based on fact. Teach First has been growing each year – and with that growth comes change – and we’ve had to let people go along the way. Wonderful individuals who care deeply about our mission and worked in leadership roles when we were smaller, but these roles have changed as we’ve grown into a bigger organisation. Making decisions around people is personally challenging and always difficult.

Can you teach leadership qualities?

You can teach a lot of it! Not everyone is going to be Beethoven, David Beckham or the world’s best leader. But most people can get pretty good at most things, actually, and can definitely learn lots of aspects of leadership, like simply working hard or not giving up. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, who is from New Jersey where I’m from, said: “Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”

Is there such thing as a ‘born leader’?

Some people are born with more innate skills like charisma, but so much can be taught and so much can change your life. People are born with more, or less, leadership skills – I think that’s true – but people also place limits on themselves too much.

Do teachers need to be good leaders in the classroom, or do leaders need to be good teachers in the boardroom?

It’s a core belief of Teach First that the main aim of a teacher is to be a leader. Certainly what we’d say is great teachers are great leaders in the classroom! If leadership is about inspiring and leading others to get to somewhere that they themselves didn’t know they could get to on their own, then that’s exactly what teaching is. A teacher doesn’t just present material – a robot could do that. Great teachers lead 30 young people to improve themselves. So, for me teaching is absolutely a leadership role.

What has been your best day at Teach First?

The day we launched 15 years ago was fantastic. When we finally got permission to launch I knew it would be successful and that it would work. There have also been a number of school visits, meeting young people who we've helped, especially at schools I knew were in really bad shape and have improved a lot over time. Seeing the effect we’ve had, with kids getting into top universities, and knowing we had something to do with that is really exciting.