Lead

Like you, we’ve been reeling from the events of the last week and looking for solid footing from which to take the next step. As white women, we work to understand our contributions to racism and the ways our expertise can support challenging the culture that keeps it alive.

Our expertise is leadership, and so we’re looking at the events unfolding in our country through the lens of genuine leadership.

Genuine leadership means influencing others and being influenced by others regardless of your role or title. Genuine leadership is a way of being in the world that can change lives and elevate justice, whereas disingenuous leadership threatens violence to maintain order and abuses power to control others.

In the next few posts, we will be outlining how to take action as a leader in your corner of the world on those things that matter to you most during this painful time.

We’re stunned, angry, sad, and outraged by the deaths of so many men, women, and children. George Floyd is the latest in a long list of people whose life was deemed unimportant by our society.

The question we keep hearing is, “What can I do?” Our answer is simple, but not easy.

BE A LEADER.
In your life, your family’s life, and with your friends.
In your community and in your work.
Influence your world and be influenced by your world.

LEAD.

 
This week, we’d like you to start to lead with yourself.

Take a beat to breathe, pause,
and allow yourself to know the pain of others.

 
This is an important aspect of leadership, as empathy is required for genuine leadership.

Choose something to read from the following list of resources that will build your empathy to the experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in our nation.

Take a breath, pause, and commit to responding in ways that will help to change what is into that which should be.
 

Genuine leadership is called for
now more than ever.

 
Leadership as an answer is simple, but it’s not easy. It requires knowing yourself, learning how to understand others, and finding ways to take action that moves everyone toward a life in which they feel they are valued and invited to participate in the opportunities and experiences that are important to them.