Couldn’t Talk About It, If You Ain’t Live It

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis

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A few weeks back, the top executive of an industry-leading organization set up a camera in what appeared to be his basement. He was poised to deliver a message about racial justice and the urgent need for change in America. In his message, he acknowledged systemic racism, admitted to missteps that he had made on issues of race and pledged significant organizational resources into the fight for justice. He promised to listen to the voices of black members of his organization. His tone was sincere and heartfelt. 

If, after watching his message, you laughed out loud, few would have blamed you, because the leader was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. 

Given the NFL's history of seeking to preserve segments of its fanbases' ignorance of police violence, Goodell's message rang hollow. In conspicuously failing to mention Colin Kaepernick by name, Goodell's mea culpa in effect, served as yet another insult to a man whose career was sabotaged for demanding that America recognize the humanity of black people. There is no way that Goodell or the NFL can credibly lead on this issue.

The deluge of public statements, financial commitments, and internal task forces to address racial injustice have been unavoidable in our organizational, civic, and commercial lives. But what comes next? As our organizations and teams move forward, leaders must prepare to take action to address internal issues of racial inequity and remain attuned to their credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of our teams. While many leaders are ready to address racial inequity within their organizations, others are likely to miss this opportunity. I suspect that many of our organizations are on the verge of a legitimacy crisis that will threaten the tenure of individual leaders and destabilize the health of their organizations. If you look close enough, the makings of this legitimacy crisis and its potential outcomes are in plain sight. 

Leadership is about followership

The first thing to understand is the nature of leadership. As Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall write, leadership does not exist without followership:

“This is the true lesson in leading from the real world: a leader is someone who has followers, plain and simple. The only determinant of whether anyone is leading is whether anyone else is following. This might seem like an obvious statement, until we recall how easily we overlook its implications. Followers—their needs, their feelings, their fears and hopes—are strangely absent when we speak of leaders as exemplars of strategy, execution, vision, oratory, relationships, charisma, and so on. The idea of leadership is missing the idea of followers. It's missing the idea that our subject here is, at heart, a question of a particularly human relationship—namely, why anyone would choose to devote his or her energies to, and to take risks on behalf of, someone else. And, in that, it's missing the entire point.”

Leaders would do well to interpret the line—"why anyone would choose to devote his or her energies"— as such: why should top talent work at your organization rather than your competitors? As skilled as we may be as leaders, the team of people that work with us enable us to succeed. We are unlikely to achieve our mission to the extent that we are unable to attract, develop, and retain top talent. A leader's credibility and legitimacy support the establishment of team culture and trust—they contribute to why that drives our teammates' performance, dedication, and effort. 

The adage that "people quit bosses, not jobs" is instructive as we consider the potential outcomes of the emerging legitimacy crisis.

Give it to the young to carry the wave

The necessity of leader credibility to ongoing followership provides part of the picture of what is likely on the horizon. To bring the rest of it into focus, you have to ask why every major brand and your organization have spent the last few weeks making their stances on racial justice clear. The answer is related to the impact of demographic change in America.

The evidence is clear that racial attitudes among both Millennials and Generation Z differ from the older generations of Americans. Younger Americans are more likely to view systemic racism as pervasive and in need of redress by public and private institutions. This trend is particularly noticeable among college-educated, white professionals—the kind of folks that a) have the discretionary income that consumer brands seek to capture, and b) reside in our major urban areas, which are hubs for industries and talent.

Also at play is the increasing racial diversity of the workforce and evidence that points to the positive impact diversity has on organizational success. While systemic racism continues to limit the number of people of color who enter the professional class, and undermines the career prospects of those who do, their importance to organizations is more evident than ever. 

Skepticism about appeals for racial justice is warranted (especially from less than credible messengers), but in context, it is not surprising that organizations or brands in the market for both customers and talent are comfortable making public appeals for racial justice—it's in their interest to do just that. 

The coming legitimacy crisis

Insofar as leadership is derivative followership, and leader credibility sustains followership, shifts in the racial attitudes of younger professionals create the potential for legitimacy crisis at many of organizations. Younger professionals are more likely to expect their organizations to act consistently with their values. In this context, they are looking for leaders not only to speak in favor of racial justice in the world but also to address issues of racial injustice internally. The public statements and internal memos in response to the murder of George Floyd, will be the basis many will use to evaluate organizational leaders' credibility in the future--internal examples of racial bias or another televised murder of a black person will prompt people to look back on those promises and statements. 

What will happen then? Retraumatized, staff of color are likely to feel resentful and gaslit by yet another round of commitments, memos, and statements. Devoid of credibility, leaders will face internal criticism from staff of all races, decreased morale, and, in some cases, their removal. A second-order consequence will be the reduced capacity of the organization to attract younger, more diverse talent. People talk, networks matter, word will get around about organizations that are expert at releasing well-crafted statements, which ultimately result in little to no action on internal issues of racial inequity.

We don't have to look further than Facebook or The New York Times to observe leaders who had long ago lost credibility on this particular issue, struggling over the last several weeks. Their prior statements and espoused values are nakedly inconsistent with their actions in the eyes of their staff, resulting in organizational turmoil. It's also why Democratic mayors who fashion themselves champions of social justice, were able to sustain stay at home orders for eight weeks, yet were unable to get citizens on board with curfew orders. 

Leaders who do not use this moment to examine the racial inequities in their own house or fail to use their power to enact concrete policy or personnel changes will erode trust on their teams, undermine their credibility, and ultimately hasten their own departure--a fate that can happen to both white leaders and leaders of color. America's history tells us that the fight against racism will last beyond this moment— we will bear witness to smaller instances of racial discrimination and even uglier tragedies. When that dark hour comes again, if the promises made today were not followed by concrete internal action to remedy racial equity within our organizations, future declarations will ring as hollow as a Roger Goodell anti-racism tweet. 

This is America

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis

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This is an adapted version of the message I shared with my team following the murder of George Floyd.

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In the hours after the second night of protest over the murder of George Floyd, we invited a student to speak with our staff during our now virtual morning meetings. I asked the student to share her reflections after submitting her final paper for the AP course she participated in this semester. As is our routine, we started our meeting in small virtual break out rooms, to answer the day's prompt: "What is something you are proud of? 

I shared a group with the student and the teacher who had taught the AP course. In response to the prompt, the teacher stated, "I am proud to be alive." Next, the student shared a similar sentiment, "I'm proud to see another day because a lot of people aren't seeing another day right now... I'm proud my mother can provide for me." 

The teacher, a black man, who only days earlier had shepherded a class of juniors through their first AP Course, was "proud" to be able to breathe. The young woman, who only a year ago, doubted her intellectual prowess, had persisted through her toughest academic challenge, yet was "proud" to have sustenance. The only words I could muster were, "I don't hear no white folks saying they're 'proud' to be alive."

It cannot be that the bar our children hold for themselves is breath or that the elders who stand up to inspire them are thankful for their existence.

This is a moment to examine power. Police violence will bring death to black bodies until those with the power to end it, act. It really is that simple. Quoting Dr. King's appeals for unity is popular at times like this; however, I'd like to offer his reflections on power:

"Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic change. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best, is love correcting everything that stands against love."

As we demand better of those with the power to end police violence, we must examine how we might direct our own power in service of racial justice. Not our power to tweet, hashtag, circle up, or offer thoughts and prayers. Rather a reflection on the power we hold over black and brown children every day. 

In her reflections about the AP course, we heard what real pride sounds like: "I felt good about myself after submitting it. It had an impact on me. I learned that just because I'm scared of failing, I just can’t stop. Whether I fail or not, I know I gave it my all." Our children should be proud of achieving their goals, not the acknowledgment of their humanity. 

Yet, as happy as I was about her achievement, I had to examine how I had used my own power. Yes, I had used my power to bring AP courses to students who were not traditionally afforded such opportunities— at her prior school, she would not have had that chance to demonstrate her potential. Yet, I had also used my power to limit participation in the course to students who had reached proficiency on previous state assessments. I made this decision because of my fear that students might fail or be overwhelmed—racist ideas that had captured the mind in my own black body. Whatever my intentions were, it is the consequences of our use of power that matter. In this case, my power had denied other black and brown children the opportunity to say, "Whether I fail or not, I know I gave it my all." 

My fear allowed a racist policy to live in our school. As we've discussed before, racism is not about prejudice; it is about policies that yield and sustain racial inequity:

"A antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups."

Loving our kids without intentionally using the power inherent in our practices and policies is an "anemic" response in the effort to bring justice to the communities we serve. We must merge our love with power: through the choices and policies we make in our classrooms, grade books, curriculum, and relationships with students. How are you using your power right now to produce or sustain racial inequity or equity between racial groups? This moment demands nothing less, than using our power in service of racial justice.

For my part, I will use my power to fight for and enact a policy of offering the same slate of AP courses to all juniors next year, regardless of prior academic performance, because all students deserve the opportunity to feel pride in their intellect and innate resilience.

Do not think that because the headlines of the day are about police violence, that this is not a moment to examine your own power. Do not think that you do not have the power to create racial justice because of your station. Do not think that eliminating racial inequity has nothing to do with you. It may be that police violence, set upon a black body—only when captured on video as it were—has the power to arouse America's moral consciousness. But let's be clear that racist policies in education, health care, housing, and financial services are midwives to racial inequity and are of a kind with the police violence that has called our fellow citizens to the streets. As proud as we might be in our roles as public servants, there are no participation medals in the struggle for racial justice. There are no "race neutral" actions; therefore, there is no pass for a public servant or nonprofit employee who fails to use their power towards racial equity. We won’t always get it right, but each of us is accountable to continuing to reflect on how we use our power in service of justice.

One final reflection from Dr. King:

"Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. There is no other answer. Constructive social change will bring certain tranquillity; evasions will merely encourage turmoil."

Influence, People’s Instinctive Travels, and the Paths to Equity

Seeking equity? Start with influence

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis

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I've been preparing to onboard a new member of my leadership team. Beyond thinking about how to support her in the technical parts of her role, I've been considering all the other stuff, too: What does she need to know about the culture of our leadership team and the way we do business? What will her direct reports expect of her as leader? How do I want her to feel about our relationship? As I listed thoughts about each question, I noticed how much alignment there was, which shouldn't have been surprising. We know that a team's culture, for better or worse, is an outgrowth of its leaders' influence on others. How does this come to be? What implications does this have for our leadership? And can it help us reach our aspirations for equity and justice?

To be a master, you must submit to a master

One of the frequent items on the lists I generated was the idea of "servanthood" and "servant leadership." Servant leadership is a foundational component of my leadership practice. From this view, my purpose as a leader is to support others in actualizing their innate potential, which in turn increases our capacity to achieve our organization's mission. How did servanthood become central to my conception of leadership?

It didn't take long for me to recognize that it came from one of my mentors, a former manager, who has had a tremendous influence on my personal and professional life. In many ways, we were different: I was a twenty-something black kid from East Harlem beginning my leadership journey. She was an Italian woman from Long Island, looking ahead to a semi-retirement filled with grandkids and ritual Sunday dinners. In time, she became not just my boss, but a mentor and a friend.

For her, the idea of servanthood came less from her study of leadership theory, but from her deep and abiding faith. Although we spent very little time talking about faith or religion, we talked a lot about leadership, which she taught me was about acting in service of others. We didn’t just talking about servanthood in the abstract. It was reflected in our relationship: her pushing me to pursue my ideas, giving me hard feedback as often as I needed it, and over time, systematically de-centering her voice, so I could grow into my own. Through our relationship, I grew as a leader—honing my skills and developing my confidence—but I also recognized who I wanted to be as a father and partner. 

And so, she is without a doubt one of the most influential people in my life. But what does it mean to have influence? Dan Rockwell recently wrote: "Influence happens when your example shows up in someone... long-term relationships seep into your bones". In my case, the actions and values of my mentor—which were grounded in her faith and taught to me as servant leadership—influenced how I lead today. Those values shaped my leadership practice, and now, by extension, the culture of my team and how they have come to lead as well.

We should understand that our relationships are conduits of our influence and opportunities to share our values with others.

Relationships for equity

The challenge for leaders is to align how we act in our relationships with the outcomes we want to see in the world. Our impact on those we lead cannot be understated. The relationships we form with them are likely to influence their development and trajectory, and ultimately the way they will influence others in the future. Leading at an organization whose mission is to improve the world is only one part of the equation. At times, the work, product, or outcomes we are leading our teams towards, do not outlast the influence we've had on people, and the influence they might have on countless others down the line. Indeed, the organization where my mentor and I worked together is no longer in operation! The folks we lead and influence today, will lead and influence others tomorrow. What kind of cultures will they create? Leaders committed to contributing to a more just and equitable world must form relationships that are consistent and congruent with those aspirations. For example:

• If you believe in empowerment, how are you empowering one of your direct reports currently?

•  If you imagine a more democratic world, what structures exist for shared decision making on your team?

• If you believe in diversity and inclusion, how is that reflected in a relationship with a team member?

• If you think that our communities have the answers, to what extent are smaller teams allowed to decide their path within your organization?

Relationships are much more than how much we enjoy each other's company. Viewing our relationships through this lens connects the adaptive leadership and equity pillars of the leadership in color framework. Relationships are the sum of the ongoing dynamics and actions that exist between people. When one person is the leader, manager, coach, and the other, the learner, employee, or mentee, influence is an intended outcome. In these relationships, leaders establish culture; share values and practices, which all become lessons learned for others to carry forward and enact. Consider then, is your leadership practice and management style aligned to the world you want to see? Is the influence you are having on others inspiring them to carry that vision forward?

Equity in a Crisis: 7 Questions for Leaders

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis

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No one could have predicted (Everyone could have predicted) 

It should surprise no one that the health and economic impact of COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color.  Legacies of injustice and inequity, are colluding with the virus to lead to higher rates of infection, hospitalization, economic distress, and death among people of color. 

We are still muddling through the initial phase of the crisis, yet as leaders, we’re called to look ahead. Unaware, as some of us may have been about the toll a pandemic would have, we know enough about what is ahead to consider how leaders of color must act going forward.  

The worst is yet to come

There is little reason to expect that what is to come will be better than where things are today. We may have succeeded in flattening the curve in the short term; however, the medium and long term outlook is still to be determined. It is unclear how soon therapies and potential vaccines will be available to the general public. We do not know when our testing capacity will scale to the levels necessary to preempt future outbreaks. It remains an open question, to the extent to which practices such as contact tracing are likely to be adopted given American cultural norms. This level of uncertainty surrounding the prerequisites for a return to normalcy means that the health and safety of communities of color remain at considerable risk.

Equally as concerning, is the economic crisis that the pandemic has precipitated. Despite headlines to the contrary, the economic security of many families of color was precarious before COVID-19. The Great Recession eliminated wealth in communities of color at alarming rates, while the anemic economic recovery that followed left many people of color behind. Only recently, had Black America begun to experience “recovery” from the Great Recession. Meanwhile, younger people of color who entered the workforce during the Great Recession, are experiencing what has been termed “The Great Affordability Crisis.” Rising costs of housing, health care, and student debt are blunting the positive impact that a college education has historically conferred to young professionals and their families. 

As unemployment is skyrocketing, private and public institutions are unfortunately preparing to engage in recession inducing austerity measures, as if nothing was learned from the Great Recession. The public and private sector “belt-tightening” will prolong our economic misery. The downstream impacts will hurt the most vulnerable American families, as well as young professionals who were getting a foothold in their careers. 

7 Questions to Promote Equity

Given the potential impact of communities of color, we need leaders of color to thrive in this time of crisis. The third pillar of our framework—equity—must guide the work of leaders as we move forward. What does leadership in color look like in a time of crisis?  In this context, equity requires us to act first mitigate and then to remedy.

Mitigate the Harm 

Much of what is happening is beyond our control. Yet there are opportunities each of us have as leaders to mitigate the consequences of the health and economic crisis. When seeking to mitigate, consider the following questions: 

• How is your organization working to support local communities that are most impacted by COVID-19? 

• Securing the fiscal health of your organization may require pay reducutions, layoffs, and other measures. Will sacrifices be made equitably across race and gender?

• Crisis necessitates rapid decision making. Expect a period of fluidity as circumstances and contexts may change daily. Speed does not mean that our teams have to sacrifice their values. How can you ensure that decisions are values-driven?

Remedy

The decline in movie going, increasing adoption of remote work, and the reassessment of the role of standardized exams in college admissions, are just a few examples of how the scope of the crisis is accelerating long-simmering trends in our culture and political economy. While the extent of change may vary, we can expect all of our organizations and industries to undergo a period of change and reform. The result is an opportunity for leaders of color to reshape our organizations and their work around principles of equity and justice. As your organization begins to look forward, consider the following:

• The crisis has prompted many organizations to make policy changes regarding the flexibility of work hours/location, benefits, and paid time off. What, if any, policy changes prompted by the crisis should be made permanent? Who would benefit from them?

• What has the crisis revealed about the most vulnerable members of your community or organization? Are they thriving right now? If not, what factors predate the crisis? Can those be addressed moving forward?

• Individuals and communities of color will suffer disproportionate economic hardship as we move forward. What steps can your organization take now to adjust talent sourcing and hiring practices?

• To what extent has the crisis revealed a gap in your organization’s mission? Can the promotion of racial equity fill that gap?

Leadership in Color, now more than ever

As the first chapter of the crisis comes to an end, we know that what is to come may further entrench racial inequity. It does not have to be this way. Leaders of color who lead skillfully, with courage, vision, and values, can chart a better path forward. Leadership in color matters now more than ever. 

Is Racism an Adaptive Challenge?

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis | Reading Time: 7 mins

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Ron Heiftez and Marty Linsky describe a problem as adaptive when its solutions are not readily knowable or existing within our current capacity. True adaptive challenges require people and organizations to adopt new modes of thinking and action, or as Heifetz and Linsky put it, in adaptive challenges “the people are the problem.” To the extent that the change that is required is systemic, it will require changes in the people who constitute, enact, and maintain the system.

How does racism manifest as an adaptive challenge in our organizations? To ignore the persistence of racism and bias in our organizations, and their deleterious impact on people of color, is to be willfully blind to the clearest reading of America’s past and present reality. 

For leaders of color, framing our encounters with racism as an ongoing and unique adaptive challenge offers leaders a powerful lens and tool for survival and success.

Racism is an adaptive challenge

At times, some may reduce racism to individual acts of bigotry or bias. A better definition, pushes us to understand racism as a system designed to perpetuate racial inequalities. Ibram X. Kendi describes how racism produces ongoing racial inequity in society:

What is racism? Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities...A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.”

To the extent that any organization reproduces and sustains a culture that disproportionately concentrates power in white leaders over time, we must acknowledge that the systemic racism that permeates our society is actively at work within the organization.

There is nothing wrong with leaders of color

"There is nothing wrong with black people," has been the opening refrain at Dr. Kendi's recent public speaking engagements. This seemingly banal statement disabuses us of the stories we concoct to explain the persistence of racial inequity in our society. If we truly believe there is nothing wrong with any racial group, we can only explain racial inequities as a result of larger structures that shape the experiences and outcomes for individuals within racial groups. 

I want to join Kendi, in saying that there is nothing wrong with the leaders of color in our organizations. Therefore when we observe ongoing racial inequity on leadership teams, in promotions, salaries, and other metrics, the only conclusion we can reach is that there are systemic dynamics at play within the organizations that are sustaining racial inequity and protecting whiteness. This only changes if leaders of all races join together to challenge and shift the mindsets and actions of the people we lead. 

White Fragility as a form of resistance 

White fragility is a common response to attempts to disrupt racial inequity and biased practices.  The concept of white fragility has been recently popularized by Robin DiAngelo. White fragility and its associated behaviors protect and sustain racial inequities within our organizations by shutting down attempts to name or change how racism is operationalized within our relationships, organizational culture, and practices. Given this, how should leaders of color engage white fragility? 

Adaptive thinking primes us to expect, prepare and succeed as resistance arises in the change process. People resist change even when the status quo has not met their goals or ideals. Those seeking to change the status quo in regards to race in their organizations will inevitably encounter resistance, hence the centrality of adaptive thinking to the leadership in color framework.

Resistance can be particularly hostile when the status quo works for a select group of people, regardless of the positive impact that change would bring to others or the organization's goals writ large. This danger is especially salient when leaders confront the manifestations of racism within our organizations.

Leaders of color must plan for the emergence of white fragility. First, white fragility can be triggered by the mere existence of a person of color in a leadership role, even before any specific actions to remedy the causes of racial inequity are implemented. White fragility is a defensive countermeasure--it is a weapon to resist change and defend the status quo. As an active measure of resistance, leaders must deploy more proactive measures to neutralize the impact of white fragility. 

The concept of "temperature regulation," from adaptive thinking, can be of use when challenging racism in organizational settings. When leading adaptive change, leaders must know when to “turn up the heat”—i.e., bring conflicts to the forefront and push for dramatic changes. These are moments when challenging beliefs, behaviors, and structures that perpetuate the status quo are likely to make stakeholders uncomfortable, off-balance, and uneasy. Inducing periods of disequilibrium is a necessity in the change process, as it creates opportunities to disrupt and rethink ingrained ways of doing business. Adaptive thinking also teaches us that we must, at times, “turn down the heat”, by focusing on technical parts of the problem or slowing the pace of change--turn up the heat too much or too fast, and the resistance to change can "take out" a leader or their agenda. What does this look like in practice, and in the context of confronting white fragility? Consider the following scenario:

After a recent round of performance reviews, you notice that people of color were less likely to be moved into more senior management roles or received smaller raises than their white counterparts. You decide to “turn up the heat.” In a meeting with other leaders, you present data that highlights your findings of racial disparities in promotion and salaries, as well as ways in which white managers may be engaging in bias when reviewing talent. After the meetings, you begin working with a group of managers tasked with recommending changes in promotion and talent review processes. Meanwhile, you start engaging white co-workers in conversations about how the attributes they praise in “high performs” align with white cultural values, while areas of growth for people of color are often framed in language grounded in stereotypes. At this moment, you are both pushing for systemic policy changes and creating opportunities for team members to shift their mindsets. The inevitable resistance begins to emerge: some of white co-workers you've engaged about their mindsets cry in meetings. At the same time, other recently promoted managers say that the recent policy review has led others to question if they “deserved” their promotions. However, the initiative moves forward because you’ve built a strong coalition for change. 

Meanwhile, you become aware of practices in hiring that are limiting the number of candidates of color entering the talent pipeline. You consider adding this to the scope of policy recommendations, but chose to “turn the heat down.” Instead, you decide to bring talent pipeline issues to the forefront after the committee's recommendations are widely adopted across the organization. Is this the right call? Are you now protecting whiteness? You don’t feel totally right about it, but decide to prioritize holding together the coalition of stakeholders you've built to tackle the promotion policy. You conclude that there is risk in turning up the heat too soon, as those resisting the initiatives will weaponize a push for additional policy changes as opportunity to argue that revisions to the talent sourcing will create “too many priorities” for the Human Resources department to tackle this year. They will use this narrative to undercut and derail any policy actions from taking hold.

The adaptive mindset as a tool for survival 

The leadership in color framework embraces adaptive thinking, as a critical component for leadership seeking equity in our organizations and communities. Adaptive thinking allows us to reframe how we view racism and bias in organizations and complements the power of our personal narratives as tools for survival and change. In some cases, adaptive thinking gives us the ability to transition from being recipients of the weak sauce that is white fragility towards an orientation of orchestrating and planning for the predictable acts of resistance to challenges to racial inequities. When we claim this position, leaders of color are more likely to survive attacks on our leadership and lead our organizations away from practices like white fragility that sustain racial inequity, both internally and the world at large. 

The work of becoming an anti-racist organization--as well as an environment where leaders of color will thrive--requires an approach that recognizes that what matters most are not diversity metrics, but the hearts, minds, and relationships of the people in your organization. The change many organizations seek is a transformation of culture, not an improvement in metrics--it is truly adaptive.

Why do leaders of color need a personal narrative?

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis

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In celebration of Black History month we'll be publishing a series of blog posts and podcasts exploring exploring the Leadership in Color framework. Each week we'll focus on a different aspect of the framework through writing and conversations with other leaders of color. This second article explores the the first part of the leadership in color framework and makes the case for the importance of developing your perosnal narrative.

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No matter where you go, you are who you are playa

Before we begin to lead others, we must have a solid understanding of how the moments, places, and people that we have encountered along the way impact us today. In thinking about our past as a story—or collection of core stories—we can construct our personal narrative.

Through investing in uncovering our personal narrative, we can start to unpack how key moments or decisions have revealed something profound and lasting about ourselves and the world around us. It is through this process that we find the values which animate our leadership and ultimately influence the organizational culture we drive. 

For leaders of color, this is of particular importance. At times, we are called to lead in environments where the salience of our racial identity may lead us or others to question our worth or competence. A firm grounding in your personal narrative can be critical for developing both internal and external confidence in your leadership. In the end, personal narratives are assets to leaders and their organizations. 

You can try to change but that's just the top layer

Reflecting on how my personal narrative connects to my leadership practice, I often return to my educational experiences. First, through grounding myself in my own experiences, I gain an appreciation for my past and insights on how those experiences may aid or limit my current thinking and perspective.

A few examples that have been top of mind recently: the experiences of being one of the few black and brown boys to graduate from my predominantly white high school and secondly my decision to attend an HBCU. The first impacts the way I think about equity at my school. I often wonder, would my friends who did not graduate have thrived at the institution I lead? This question is usually a gut-check moment for me as I make decisions and evaluate our outcomes. In asking myself and my team these questions, I can center and communicate with others a core value that I hold: justice. Similarly, as I enter conversations about my school’s strategy for supporting students through the college application process, I return to my college selection process. Knowing that it resulted in me selecting a college that turned out to have not been the best fit for me, I am pushing our school to execute a robust system for matching students with colleges. 

I have returned to both of these core stories as central tenets of my personal narrative at various points in my personal and professional lives. Whether in job interviews, graduate school applications, or in chatting with my nieces about their futures, these core stories and my personal narrative influence what I bring to the world. Interestingly, while the core stories of my personal narrative have remained mostly consistent over time, my reflections and takeaways about their meaning are always evolving, as I encounter new contexts and experiences. Our personal narratives are ever in the making, but the values which they reveal are the bedrock of our leadership practice. 

The power of values based leadership

Grounding in our core stories and personal narrative doesn't just help us gain clarity on our values; it prepares leaders to share and invest others in those values and, by extension, their leadership. Because leaders drive culture, our values inform how we make decisions, and most critically, the extent to which those we lead invest in our choices. 

As our organizations become increasingly complex, the decisions facing leaders exist on a continuum of risk and impact. The “right” choice is often hard to determine, forcing leaders to make decisions with the best available data and, ultimately, their values. Professor Harry Kraemer writes:

Becoming the best kind of leader isn't about emulating a role model or a historic figure. Rather, your leadership must be rooted in who you are and what matters most to you. When you truly know yourself and what you stand for, it is much easier to know what to do in any situation. It always comes down to doing the right thing and doing the best you can.

While the long term costs of a poor decision may vary, if members of an organization lack investment in their leaders and/or their choices, the results are always the same: disconnection and discord within the team, which manifests as poor culture, and ultimately a negative impact on the bottom line. Leaders are bound to make the wrong call some of time. What allows your team to stick with you through the fallout are people's ability to connect and resonate with the values that led you and the organization down its path, as it will be those same values that move the organization forward. Given the stakes, how can our grounding in our personal narratives contribute to positive organizational culture and strong results?

In sharing our values we give our teammates an opportunity to know us on a deeper level, while providing the motivation and inspiration that can propel a team to achieve at high levels. Here I think the work of David Hutchens is of particular use to leaders. Hutchens’ videos and books are helpful guides to develop the skills to craft the core stories of your personal narrative and/or the core stories of your organization into tools that communicate values in ways that resonate with your team and nourish culture. 

You was, who you was, before you got here

I believe the above to be true and necessary for all leaders to be successful, but why are personal narratives critical for leaders of color? Why is knowledge of self the first component of the leadership in color framework?

Let me return to the two core stories I shared earlier from my personal narrative. Both of those stories originate from the decision my family made to send me to schools outside of my home community of East Harlem. Given the quality of educational opportunities in our community, my family thought this was their best option. My mother, like all parents knew that education was critical to my long term success. Unlike many other parents of color, my mother had the opportunity to ensure that I attend an academically strong elementary school downtown. The experience of attending a school in a predominantly white community has forever impacted the way I view race, education, and equity as a young person and now an educator. 

While I might be able to discern how these experiences and my core stories influence my values as a leader, that really wouldn’t go far enough. I have to situate my personal narrative within larger historical and structural contexts. How do the legacies of school segregation and redlining impact the NYC public school system? How did multiple iterations of education reform influence my mother’s understanding of what a “good” school was? How does my story connect to the financial challenges that HBCUs face today? 

To lose sight of how larger structural factors influence our personal narratives is a mistake. The erasure of larger narratives from our personal narrative can lead to some leaders of color taking on racist postures. For example, some leaders of color adopt the mindset of "I made it out the hood, why can't they do it too" and engage in scolding their brothers and sisters for making “poor choices." Leaders of color must acknowledge that we owe our success as much to our ancestors, individual decisions, and talents as much we do to good fortune. Our success happens in spite of systemic oppression and state implemented and/or assisted actions designed to undercut and disrupt the progress of people of color. 

Honing our personal narratives leads us to our values, which first provides us with necessary grounding as we encounter environments not primed to recognize our worth. Secondly, personal narratives enable leaders to communicate our values, which creates authentic connections, feeds culture, and invests people in our leadership and goals. Finally, leadership in color calls for our impact to be in service of equity—therefore, we must continue to interrogate the historical narratives which outlined our journey and continue to shape our paths forward.

What is leadership in color?

By Jared R. Francis | @jaredrfrancis | 7 minute Read

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In celebration of Black History month we'll be publishing a series of blog posts and podcasts exploring exploring the Leadership in Color framework. Each week we'll focus on a different aspect of the framework through writing and conversations with other leaders of color. This first article outlines the framework and makes the case for a leadership practice aimed at achieving equity.

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Leadership is everything 

During a tense meeting, my manager once declared, “leadership is everything.” The assertion came as we discussed why the project I was managing had gone off track and my overall struggles in my new role. What landed with me at the time was that “everything” that was going wrong was my fault, because I was the leader. From my perspective, then and now, things were much more complicated than “everything” being my fault. I didn’t need my manager to point out that things weren’t going well—believe me, I felt that every day— but we did need to come to a deeper understanding of why I was struggling to adjust to my new environment.

Coming out of that conversation and many subsequent others, I was able to first identify for myself what was at play, and later share them with my manager. In short, I didn’t feel confident or comfortable in leadership due to the racial and cultural shock I was experiencing internally. Leading in an environment where I was one of the only leaders of color was having a more significant impact on me than I anticipated.

The gap between the leader my manager and I knew I could be, and my current performance threatened my leadership and the success of the initiative I was leading. So, why did this gap exist? As I reflect on that moment, it is clear to me that at the time, my leadership practice was missing color—that is, it was missing me.

What even is leadership?

How does a leader’s racial identity inform their leadership practice? Before exploring this, it’s important to note that our understanding of leadership is limited. Despite the volumes of books, articles, and podcasts that are released each year that focus on leadership, we don’t have a universal understanding of what it means to exercise leadership. At a recent conference, Ron Heifetz described what we currently understand about leadership as an area of study, rather than a discipline. That is, we generally know the phenomena when we see it, but have much further to go in terms of defining what it means and how to describe and understand how it works in practice. Our lack of understanding is complicated further as we attempt to understand the intersection between leadership and race.

Culture drive results, leaders drive culture

In the years since hearing that “leadership” was everything, I’ve learned that this is only part of the story. These days I spend much of my time placing culture at the center of my leadership practice. Ultimately, I believe that culture is the differentiating factor between failing, good, and transformative organizations. If this is true, then to what extent does leadership matter? It turns out, quite a bit. It’s not just about the decisions that leaders make, it is about the environments which they foster. It is through the setting and upholding of a shared vision, norms, and expectations by which leaders function as central actors in organizational culture. Therefore, a leader’s capacity to shape and influence culture remains inherently connected to an organization’s ability to achieve their goals and fulfill their purpose. So in that sense, yes, leadership is everything. If this is the case, then we must consider what needs to be true for individual leaders of color to thrive within our organizations. As organizations across the country move to diversify their leadership, we must acknowledge that the success of the people of color who bravely step into these roles, correlates to the overall success.

Leadership in Color

The best compliment you can receive as a home chef is, “Boy, you put your foot in this one!” It doesn’t happen every time you prepare a meal for your family, but when it does, you know you’ve done something right. You can always pull your trusted recipe, follow the instructions, and get it all just right. What your family means when they say you put your foot in something is that through that dish, they got a sense of you.

To me, this is a lot like creating the kind of culture that drives extraordinary results. Just like making your favorite dish, you can chop the onions, you can do “team builders.” New leaders can follow the best onboarding plan. In the end, none of it matters. Anyone can follow the recipe for that dish or whatever the latest leadership book tells us is the recipe for building a great team. But the difference is when you put your foot in it. Value and impact occur as you develop the capacity for your authentic self to radiate through your practice and, by extension, the culture of your organization. That sense of you-ness in your dish is the difference between Wednesday night dinner, and grandmas world-famous Thanksgiving yams. The you-ness is the difference between simply holding a leadership position and delivering leadership which yields extraordinary results.

It is here that we arrive at what we call leadership in color. It is harder for leaders of historically marginalized groups to put their foot in their leadership. The legacies of patriarchy, racism, ableism, and heteronormativity deeply inform our conception of leadership. This influence impacts both the leaders of color themselves and their white organizational peers. Therefore, our perceptions of how leaders might look, think, and act, create substantial barriers to leaders of color. It cannot be understated the potentially deleterious impacts our collective priors may have on a leader of color. The outcomes of this are as varied as the leaders and teams they lead, but some common challenges include:

• Leaders of color struggling with imposter syndrome, thus doubting themselves and projecting a lack of confidence externally

• Leaders of color being subject to microaggressions from white peers who lack cultural competence, and act on unconscious bias. This may result in the leader avoiding informal, yet critical, organizational activities where relationships are built and solidified

• Leaders of color becoming anxious about status within an organization, prompting them to act as “gatekeepers” and “sabotagers” to emerging leaders of color, therefore undermining diversity efforts

• Leaders of color being treated as tokens by white organizational superiors, resulting in the leader feeling valued for their race rather than their skills and impact as a leader.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but consider how one, let alone a combination of these, might impact a leader’s ability to “put their foot” into their leadership and thus deliver results. Leaders of any race, gender, or background must be able to speak and act with their authentic voice and be driven by their deepest held values and beliefs. However, this manifests as a unique challenge for leaders stepping into roles that have not historically been inhabited by individuals who look and sound like them. For leaders of color, this means developing a practice which radiates who we are. It means demonstrating leadership in color.

What does leadership in color look like in practice?

As mentioned earlier, leadership is not discipline, so we know much less than we think about what it takes to lead. My current interests rest in exploring how leaders of color can realize their full potential through speaking and acting from their deepest values in service of achieving a more equitable world. Currently, I think leadership in color manifests when the following are evident in a leader’s practice:

1. Knowledge of Self:  The leader has articulated and examined their personal narrative to achieve clarity regarding their deepest held values and beliefs. The leader has connected their personal narrative to broader societal factors such as racism, sexism, and other historical injustices.

2. Adaptive Leadership: Leadership in color demands that the leader be well-practiced in adaptive leadership. More so than most other leaders, leaders of color know that “to lead is to live dangerously”. Leaders of color recognize that they are always at risk of being marginalized within their organization– in particular when they’re tasked with challenging the status quo. Leadership in color requires us to embrace the challenges we expect during change: understanding one’s political context, building coalitions to drive impact, and managing threats to the change process.

3. Equity: Individual leaders must commit to an agenda that drives towards creating a more equitable society. Whether in the private, public, or nonprofit sector, there are numerous opportunities for organizations to stand on the side of equity and challenge the status quo. Leadership in color is realized by contextualizing one’s practice and efforts within our society’s larger journey towards justice.
   

It’s for equity

Why is this important? Ultimately it’s about equity. It would be folly to expect the same systems and cast of characters which have created the world as we know it, to create the world as we might imagine it being. A more equitable world will be the result of a more diverse set of leaders across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors acting in concert to drive equitable outcomes at the societal level. It begins with a more diverse set of leaders at individual firms, governmental institutions, and community-based organizations leading in color within their spaces. Equity will be possible when these leaders are not isolated but part of a community of committed to leadership in color. In the end, the promise of equity is not only to remedy historical marginalization and oppression, but to bring all us closer to a society that yields opportunity and justice for all.