Kelli King-Jackson, ACC

Coaching for Black women leading in white spaces.

black at work

Leading Like Our Ancestors: 5 Myths Juneteenth Helps Us Bust

I remember the first time I felt free as a leader. I had been hired to take a project from a concept/proposal to full implementation. The person who had written the proposal fully trusted me to implement based on my expertise. I had never felt so creative in my career! It was wonderful and overwhelming at the same time.

Juneteenth was a moment in history where folks also likely felt conflicted. Can you imagine being ecstatic to be free from enslavement while also being overwhelmed about learning how to navigate the world on your own? Or being joyful about the end of slavery but enraged that the news had not been shared with you for two whole years? Still, from early on after enslaved folks in Texas learned of their freedom, they established Juneteenth celebrations, including buying the historic Emancipation Park. In the spirit of Juneteenth and our collective freedom, this post shows what Emancipation Park, a living symbol of freedom, offers us today.

1. The Myth of “Ready” Leadership

Myth to Bust: Good leaders wait until they’re completely prepared

Our ancestors show us that we don’t have to wait for permission or the perfect conditions to lead. The leaders who bought the Emancipation Park pooled their resources to make the purchase. No one person or family could afford to buy the land on their own. Can’t you see the Black women cooking food or knitting items to sell to help raise the funds? From Mama Sojourner to Mama Coretta Scott King, we have consistently seen ancestors show us what it means to lead in even the most impossible circumstances. When we wait for this idea of ‘readiness’ it can keep us playing and leading small. Self-doubt and negative self-talk because of imposter syndrome are examples of how this plays out for many of the Black women I work with.

What is one area of your leadership that you’ve been holding back because you don’t feel ready? Is there one step you can take to move forward in that area this week?

2. The Freedom to Fail Forward

Myth to Bust: Strong leaders never show uncertainty

It took more than 150 years for Juneteenth to gain global recognition. Even here in Texas our celebrations have ebbed and flowed. Emancipation Park, though purchased by Black folks, hasn’t always had the capital needed to be the home of Juneteenth celebrations. Those years where there weren’t enough resources to maintain the park or expand the vision were long and hard. At times, there was critique and criticism of the leadership of the Park. But still, the Park remained. In 2017, the Park was rededicated after several capital investments brought to life a reimagined vision. Today, the Park has a beautiful campus that operates year round offering programming in a historic Black community and welcomes people from across the world.

Who has invested in your leadership during a time of difficulty? How did this investment help you ‘fail forward’ toward where you are aspired to be in your leadership?

3. Leading Through Complexity

Myth to Bust: Good leaders have all the answers

In 2021, when Juneteenth became a federal holiday in the U.S., we were in the midst of a significant, though short-lived, racial reckoning. Today, in 2025, the current leader of the country is already insinuating that he’s ready to take that federal holiday away. As the U.S. continues to debate the need for equity, inclusion and belonging in the public sphere, Black folks remain focused on leading through uncertainty. We don’t know what will come but we know the work must get done. Staying focused on our goals, our strategic plans, and on our communities despite all the difficulties swirling around us is a superpower we inherited. We hold the complexities of joy, anger, uncertainty, and resolve like our ancestors before us.

How do you show up as a leader during times of uncertainty in your organization and/or the world? In what ways do you show your team and community that they can count on you to keep them moving forward?

4. Community Over Perfection

Myth to Bust: Leadership is about individual excellence

In the U.S. we celebrate individual accomplishments almost at the expense of collective wins. In many organizations, individuals will be acknowledged for how they’re perceived or how well they’re liked at the expense of the team that was needed to fully execute the work. No one person can save a project, family, or community on their own. Even if one person had an outsized influence, it is rare to say that only one person did everything. Community and collective efforts are messy. They come with challenges both interpersonal and systemic. When we can decenter individual excellence in service to the work of the group, so much more is possible. More ways of seeing and being. More hands and feet to do the work. Emancipation Park would not exist without the collective. Even if one family gave or raised more money than the others, the story that we tell here in Houston is that these four came together to purchase the park. It’s a significant reframe to think about leadership as how well we’re able to bring people together for a common purpose or goal.

In what ways can you prioritize collective progress over individual perfection? How can you normalize community and the messiness that comes with coming together?

5. The Radical Act of Rest

Myth to Bust: Strong leaders never stop, never slow down

Burnout and overwhelm are so common today we have books and workshops to help our teams recover from the work cultures we’ve created. Often, I have clients say they’re in five or more back to back meetings a day. No lunch breaks, barely taking breaks to use the restroom. Logging into work after a long commute home and tending to their households. This way of working is one of the most negative things to come out of the global pandemic of 2020. Freedom, or emancipation, is something that the Park symbolizes for us all. We know that freedom ain’t free, so there is often a cost to our liberty. The truth is that having boundaries around work and capacity is dangerous for many. Boundaries have been weaponized against clients who were subsequently skipped over for promotions because they were no longer seen as being ‘all in’ (which was code for working late nights and on weekends). This is why Ancestor Audre Lorde said that rest is an act of political warfare. If necessary, we have to be willing to fight and sacrifice to get it.

What commitments can you make to increase your ‘rest’ at work?

  • [ ] Add at least 15 minute buffers between meetings
  • [ ] Take a daily non-working lunch break
  • [ ] Limit after hours work to emergencies only (i.e. loss of money, life, health, housing)
  • [ ] Give feedback and offer solutions to supervisor about the work culture

What can slowing down to rest open up for you? For others on your team/in your community/in your family?

Conclusion: A Juneteenth Leadership Declaration

I believe that today, freedom in leadership for Black women looks like healthy boundaries, collective care, and unspeakable joy. Yes, we will continue to show up during times of uncertainty and challenge, but we will do so while centering our humanity and wellbeing. Never forget that our ancestors claimed their freedom through collective action, well before they were ‘established’ or respected outside of their community. They stepped forward with boldness to create what our community needed to remind us of who we are and what we can accomplish. It’s my hope that every client and reader will be free to lead with the same clarity of purpose.

Ready to embrace your own leadership freedom? Download the #LeadFree Leadership Guide to start dispelling myths that are holding you back.

Want to go deeper? Join us for our June 27 Quarterly Review where we’ll focus on leadership freedom – reflecting on where you’ve been playing it too safe and creating space for more authentic leadership. If your household has been impacted by the nationwide layoffs of 2025, reach out to receive a special code to attend for free.

Black at Work: Sameness is the New White

The date is April 20, 2025. I don’t normally date my posts because that limits the ability for evergreen content (IYKYK). However, we are at a period in history that must be documented for the next generation. When they look back on what leadership was like for Black women in 2025, I want them to know the truth.

Sameness is the new white.

Over the past three months, the administration of the 47th President of the United States has launched a war on the efforts to truly democratize this country. Policies and practices that had been put into place over the last five years have been control-alt-deleted overnight in many cases. This erasure has not just happened at the federal level, but has also steamrolled its way into the workplace.

Companies that had finally started tracking and sharing data on inequities in hiring, promotions, salary, and procurement took that data down in the midnight hour. Programs designed to finally expose and explain hidden pathways to career opportunities for women, people of color, disabled folks, LGBTQ folks, veterans and more were ‘opened to all’ under the pretense of fairness.

You see, sameness has become the new white.

The efforts to decenter whiteness, maleness, straightness, and ability were crushed under the weight of the narrative of ‘being left out.’ I say narrative because the data on the ‘gains’ experienced by the aforementioned groups had already largely been erased. McKinsey’s most recent Women in the Workplace report showed that any gains that Black women made to addressing systemic inequities at work are long gone. In the nonprofit sector, funding to BLOs and other groups had already started to decline.

So here we are in a season where we’re told to treat everyone the same and change our language so everyone feels included. This call is really code for making sure those who have always had power and privilege are treated the same as those who had finally been seen at work.

If you’re a Black woman or femme in leadership, April 20, 2025 likely feels like hustling backwards. Like you’re working extra hard to treat everyone the same so as not to offend, knowing full well that this same effort was never extended to you. It’s especially concerning given that it will mean more and more of your peers will struggle to get fair wages, promotions, or other opportunities.

So what are you to do?

Here are my top recommendations:

  1. Show up. Continue to mentor, even if informally. Continue to share the codes and dispel myths for folks on your teams who don’t know or understand all the hidden codes and pathways in your organization. If you’re a values-driven leader, check out this LinkedIn Live called Just Following Orders? It’s a Question of Leadership.
  2. Pay attention. Monitor your promotions, annual evaluations, salaries and bonuses. Encourage other historically excluded people to do the same. Don’t just let things go but make sure you’re tapping into the systems in place to address your concerns (i.e. HR, your Union rep, or an HR attorney, if needed).
  3. CYA. Document everything for yourself and for your team via your work management tool(s). ****One my favorite tools for documenting with your supervisor is the ‘Repeat Back’ email (aka takeaways email). Here’s a good guide on how to send an effective repeat back.
  4. Pay attention. (Re)familiarize yourself with key documents. Revisit the organizational handbook and any important policies and strategic documents. Know the difference between the policy and how it’s practiced in your organization. Review your job description and work plan and pay attention when you start getting pulled into directions that don’t align with them.
  5. Give folks the dignity of their own experience. This means no more doing for others what they can do for themselves. Focus on what’s in your work plan and let your supervisor be responsible for ensuring the rest gets done. Don’t let leadership gaslight you with the ‘going above and beyond’ rhetoric if it never benefits you or your career. And if you’re the supervisor, it’s time to check the team work management tool to review it for bottlenecks and outstanding tasks and bring that to the team meeting.
  6. Build your endurance by slowing down. Franchesca Leigh shared a dope TikTok on the importance of us all to learn how to strategically wait. This moment in history requires us to be able to play the long game. If you don’t know how to stay hopeful or what to do while we wait for the work we deserve to emerge, check out the video. I’ll let it speak for itself.

The only way to ensure we don’t go back to the days of old (aka pre-2020) is for us to be in loving accountability with each other and our workplaces. If we do that, I believe we will swing back to a middle-way of being both equitable and inclusive of everyone. The future of work will require it.

To be clear, I don’t think any one group should be privileged over another. Nor do I believe Black women should continue to be the workhorse for organizations. Those days are gone and we aren’t going back. If companies want to keep Black women in leadership, then they’ll have to figure out how to pay us what we’re worth and give us the titles too. Otherwise, we’ll continue to move with our feet and go where we’re appreciated.

And that’s that on that.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we move through this period of sameness to get back to a place where whiteness is being actively decentered to make space for other ways of leading and experiencing work.

Redefining Boundaries: Black Women’s Path Forward

“There’s no normal to return to, there’s only what we do next.” When I heard Tad Stoermer say these words on a recent IG video, I stopped in my tracks. In the video he goes on to say that when we tell folks to stay calm and trust the system, we’re adjusting to what’s wrong instead of fighting for something better. When I thought about my professional and personal networks of Black women, I thought about how this statement is playing out for us. Here’s what I’m seeing:

Black women are organizing other Black women – this is not the season of Black women putting their lives and careers on the line to save democracies or workplaces. Our work in this moment is to make sure our communities and networks have what they need to survive the challenges that lay ahead.

Black women are taking care of themselves and other Black women – where this is working out, finding a new therapist, or saying no to overworking and producing. For the first time in a long time, I see across my networks, Black women prioritizing their wellbeing like never before.

Black women are getting their financial houses in order – we’re paying off debt, building new streams of income, and doing our best to find ways to make up for decades of under-earning. This has also meant spending time to better understand how money works and how to make it work for us.

Black women are leading with boundaries. The idea that we will continue to be the mammies of the workplace is no more. We’re making sure to CYA and hold folks accountable to the policies on the books in our organizations. I won’t say too much about how I see this playing out because IYKYK that this is our Celie moment where we’re saying no more.

Black women are preparing for the future of work. They’re signing up for coaching. Applying for leadership programs and fellowships. They’re looking for roles that will honor their skills and expertise in environments with healthy cultures. To that end, aren’t making big moves right now. They’re staying put and watching to see where organizations will land and stand after the first year of this current administration. Think: very mindful and demure.

I don’t know how long this season will last. I do know the way I’m moving as a leader right now is with intentionality and deep care for my sister circle. So my question to you is: what’s next for you in your leadership? Are you hoping to go back to the ‘good old days’ or are you working to build something new?

In 2025 It’s Time to Fortify

My word of the year was supposed to be radiant. I planned to go with the theme ‘Shine Bright Like a Diamond’ (think RiRi in her Anti era). I was already working on my vision board when my new word found me the week before the inauguration – Fortify. I tried my best to resist this word but it kept coming up. So I decided to stop fighting and accept the message that was being sent – it’s time for me to fortify if I want to thrive in this current moment in history.

Let’s dig into it. Here’s the definition of fortify:

for·ti·fy ˈfȯr-tə-ˌfī

transitive verb

:to make strong: such as

a: to strengthen and secure (a place, such as a town) by forts or batteries

**b:**to give physical strength, courage, or endurance to

c: to add mental or moral strength to : encourage

d: to strengthen or enhance by the addition of some substance or ingredient

As I read the definition, I was crystal clear on why the word chose me. The universe decided that I would be a person in leadership in 2025. I don’t believe in accidents so I decided to pay attention to what this might mean. I quickly concluded that the best way for me to fortify is to focus on what’s in my locus of control. Myself, my people, and my clients. I can’t control what’s happening in the White House or Congress. However, I can use my gifts, talents, and skills right now to serve across those three domains. I can show up there.

I’d love to invite you to join me by thinking about what’s in your locus of control. Here’s what that looks like practically.

Myself/Yourself

Gratitude lists and affirmations

Being mindful of what I put in my body – eating regular meals, hydrating, regular movement of some kind, limiting news consumption and doom scrolling.

Taking lunch breaks every day even if it’s just to move your body or get some fresh air

My/Your People

Make sure everyone has an updated ID

Check the expiration date on all passports

Plan that check-in call or text and keep a pulse on how folks are doing

My/Your Community

Check in with your charity of choice to see how you can lend an extra hand or make an additional donation

Sign up to be a voter registrar and start engaging with folks around the local elections in your area

Strengthen your community relationships by reaching out to a colleague or someone you’ve always admired from afar

My Clients/YOU

I’m sending emails about your traction report to remind you to spend time in your leadership each week

I’m offering quarterly planning sessions during the weekday to make them more accessible to more people

I’m offering probono strategic advising hours to current nonprofit and philanthropic partners being negatively impacted by this current administration

I want to hear how you’re doing. What feels like it’s in your locus of control right now? If you focus your leadership on your locus of control, what can change for you?