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Kelli King-Jackson, ACC

Coaching for Black women leading in white spaces.

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Home » Blog » The #LeadFree Approach: A Better Way to Lead

The #LeadFree Approach: A Better Way to Lead

May 27, 2025

The #LeadFree Approach is my invitation to Black women leaders to consider leadership as a tool of freedom. Because we are tired, y’all! We know the old models of leadership have left us incomplete and often frustrated.

Here’s the thing. We don’t have to dominate to be successful, nor do we have to shrink and dim our lights. Our best leadership is when we can honor who we are as Black women and use those gifts to create better systems and organizations.

I often say that I’m not a MyersBriggs leadership coach. It’s not that I don’t find value in mainstream assessments and frameworks. I find them incomplete. They are rarely created with Black women in mind. I believe there is a better way to lead.

Introducing the #LeadFree Approach

The #LeadFree approach has five anchors or pillars that I believe are essential for Black women to be free to love who they uniquely are as leaders.

This image presents the five pillars of the #LeadFree leadership framework in a colorful, structured design. Each pillar is represented by a colored box with a heading and description:  Awareness (red): "Identify where & why you're stuck"  Authenticity (yellow): "Lead how you want to be led"  Accountability (dark red): "Build a reciprocal community"  Abundance (dark blue): "Become an abundant leader"  Alignment (teal): "Clarify your leadership gems"  A dotted vertical line connects all the pillars down the center, emphasizing progression and connection. The hashtag #LeadFree appears prominently in red text at the top left.

In this short video, I give an overview of the approach and how I think about it.

To support your own exploration of the #LeadFree Approach, I created a leadership guide that walks you through each domain via a guided question. I developed this guide to help you unlock a holistic approach to leadership unearth through exploration and curiosity. The domains are not sequential by design because our leadership journey isn’t! You address the domains based on what you need in your leadership at a given point in time. The domains are here to guide you on your journey toward growth and impact in your leadership. Make sure to revisit the approach whenever you’re grappling with one of the key domains.

You can download the #LeadFree Leadership Guide in our online store.

Free Download


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