No Need to Lead in Isolation
I have just finished leading a people of the global majority workshop, in southern California (USA). I think it went well.
One thing that I did was extremely helpful to me. I learned it from Barbara Love.[1] She meets several times during a workshop with her leadership team to check on how the workshop is progressing. She asks questions such as
- What is a highlight of the workshop for you, at this time?
- How do you think the workshop is going as a whole?
- Do you perceive any challenges?
Asking these questions, and others, at the workshop that I led helped me in a number of ways:
- I received feedback on whether key issues, learning points, and so on, that I was presenting to the workshop were being received.
- I heard views of others on whether we were headed in a good direction.
- I was able to deal with challenges or issues before they became “big deals” or big problems.
- I stayed open to others’ thinking. (It is sometimes hard for me to hear people’s thoughts without considering them as criticism.)
- I didn’t feel that I was taking the entire workshop on my shoulders. I was able to let others provide thinking, guidance, and leadership in making sure that the workshop went well.
I did not give up my job as the leader and main decision maker at the workshop. I just took in the suggestions and information and made decisions from a less isolated place.
After the workshop, I felt pleased with the work we had done. I did not feel as though it was only my work. I was happy that a group of us had worked together to make a workshop go very well. I felt good! I felt that I had shown up[2] in a big way as a female leader with a team around me. I had made the decision and taken action not to do the work alone.
Thank you, southern California leaders, for your fantastic support. And thank you, Barbara Love, for sharing such a good leadership model.
Rachel Noble
Portland, Oregon, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail
discussion list for leaders of women
[1] Barbara Love is the International Liberation Reference Person for African-Heritage People.
[2] “Shown up” means been present.