Recently, I was asked thought-provoking questions that made me reflect on leadership as a Black woman and femme: 1) What do I mean by “leadership”, and 2) If I have a framework or philosophy to my work. These questions sparked some real reflections that I want to share.
Redefining Leadership
Your title means nothing when it comes to actually leading. Your jobs will change, but who you are at your core, your goal and purpose to make the world a better place won’t. We are taught a lot of the time that we can only call ourselves a leader if others call us that or if we have a title that marks us as a leader. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Leadership comes from the gut feelings we get to act, to speak up, to plan. Having a strong pull within you to achieve a goal and to achieve that goal in a particular, human-centered way makes you a leader. There is no mention of a specific title. Leadership comes when we speak up because we have courage to share our ideas or we just feel our ideas are worth considering, even if that feeling isn’t backed by confidence. As a coach, I want the ideas that you want to explore, the ways you need and want to lead to feel safe enough in this space to be seen. Here there is no judgment, no guilt, no shame.
My Philosophy of Love and Freedom
My guiding philosophy is the Love + Freedom tagline I use for my business. When I think about leadership, I think about how we must love our own unique way of leading. For that love to come, we have to get clear about what our unique way of leading even looks like. We have to put less weight on the leadership advice of popular leaders like John Maxwell and other folks’ leadership books and principles. Their advice has value, but we’re often too caught up in imitating others that we forget to tap into what makes us uniquely powerful leaders. It’s those special qualities you bring to the table that help shape our organizations into spaces where Black women and femmes can flourish as themselves. I want us to lead in a way that inspires love for our leadership because it shows the world a full picture of who we are at our core. When we get clear about what qualities we bring to leadership, we are free to have the life and impact we want to have. Even if we aren’t in our dream position, those unique qualities will carry us until we get to where we want to be.
Remember: We are not leaders so we can talk about leading on LinkedIn. We are leaders because we show up in our own unique ways to help our teams and organizations accomplish their goals.
I’m curious, what’s your philosophy about leadership?
Blog edited by Chiugo Akujuobi
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