Did you see Bad Bunny鈥檚 half-time performance at the Super Bowl? Not the next day on social media, but truly watched it when it was happening? Did you watch it with open eyes or with a mindset of criticism because most of it was in Spanish and you don鈥檛 speak the language?
Music is the universal language of love, and Bad Bunny鈥檚 half-time performance was a celebration, resistance, and a call to action that focused on loving our neighbors and ourselves. Additionally, the performance offered a case study for leaders in schools and districts, because it offered numerous lessons that we can all learn as leaders and use starting today.
If we treat leadership as performance, we鈥檒l miss the point. This was leadership as invitation. An invitation to widen who belongs, whose language counts, and what love looks like in public. School leaders do this same work every day through what we spotlight, what we tolerate, and what we choose to protect. Before you judge a community, ask what you鈥檝e truly tried to understand. Before you 鈥済o neutral,鈥� ask who neutrality harms. And before you speak for others, make space for them to speak for themselves. This week, pick one lesson below and act on it鈥攖hen collect evidence of impact.
Here are some of those lessons:
Know your story. The setting was beautifully done. From the beginning of the performance, Bad Bunny shared his story, and that story continued all the way through the performance. He knows where he came from, has not forgotten it, and shared it in the most beautiful way. As a leader, how often do you share your story? How often do you share the story of your school in ways that will last days, weeks, and months after you tell it?
Embrace your community. Bad Bunny stopped at a wedding and different business along his route to the football field during his concert to highlight his love for Puerto Rico, which is very much a part of the United States. How do you, as a leader, embrace the different parts of your community in ways that make them smile when they see you coming?
Celebrate diversity. So many people had an issue with the performance being mostly in Spanish. First of all, music should have no boundaries when it comes to language. Many of us listen to music that is non-English, and it adds to the richness of our lives. The United States is a diverse country, and so many Black and brown people saw representation during a time when the presidential rhetoric around the diversity of culture or sexual orientation is not just unkind but cruel.
Do you celebrate diversity or did you cancel diversity, equity, and inclusion for your school? If your immediate reaction is to say that your school is mostly white, then that is part of the problem. Too many white Americans are afraid of diversity and believe the negative rhetoric because they haven鈥檛 been exposed to diversity in authentic ways that can help educate them.
Highlight the voices of others. Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga, a small version of Bad Bunny receiving a Grammy from Bad Bunny, a couple actually getting married, and so many others. The performance was not about shutting down voices but raising them up. How often as a leader do you celebrate the voices around the table and raise up those that often feel silenced?
Honor students. That moment, when Bad Bunny took time to hand one of his Grammys to a younger version of himself was one filled with great hope. So many students within our schools need a Bad Bunny moment from you as a leader.
Choose unity over divisiveness. We need not spend more than 10 seconds on social media or watching television without being exposed to countless messages of hate. Whether it was being supported by numerous people holding flags high and proud, spiking a football that says, 鈥淭ogether, we are America,鈥� or the Jumbotron that said, 鈥淭he only thing more powerful than hate is love,鈥� he delivered a message that is contrary to the one others want us to believe. Some want us to believe that we are divided and should continue to be so, because it means we buy what they are selling. Bad Bunny said otherwise.
Call out the inequities. Climbing up on the utility pole to highlight the inequities when it comes to building a stable infrastructure in Puerto Rico. As a leader, are you aware of the inequities within your school community? Do you call them out?
In a world of conflict, as leaders, we should be more like Bad Bunny.
