Navigating the path toward greater equity and justice in our organizations has always been complex and challenging. In our Evolve program, my colleagues Drs. Brian Arao, Dawn Lee, and I have had the privilege of guiding senior leaders in developing their inner resources, enhancing their leadership capacity, and taking transformative action. Below are 10 key lessons for evolving your equity leadership, we’ve learned from our first two cohorts of Evolve.
1. Social Change Begins with Inner Work
When envisioning social change, it’s easy to focus on how others need to change—other people, organizations, or societal structures. However, true transformation starts with inner work such as clearly and concisely articulating what makes equity important to you personally. This process enables leaders to show up more effectively, consistently, and sustainably in their efforts to advance justice and equity.
2. Recognizing, Reconciling, and Re-Writing
Many participants came into the program carrying equity leadership traumas—past experiences hindering their present leadership effectiveness. The ability to recognize, reconcile, and re-write these traumas was healing, allowing leaders to be more present and impactful with their teams, issues, and themselves.
3. Aligning Personal and Organizational Values
Part of inner work involves cultivating self-awareness, developing inner resources, and becoming adept at leveraging them. Recognizing where your inner purpose and values align with those of your organization can create alignment, clarity, and enhanced effectiveness in your leadership.
4. Leverage Strengths and Lead as a Team
Leaders often discover untapped strengths within themselves that could be more frequently utilized. By bringing these strengths into their roles, they can lead more effectively. Conversely, they may identify organizational needs beyond their expertise, prompting them to expand their capacity and/or lean on their team for collaborative leadership.
5. Prioritize Effectiveness Over Being Right
Equity leadership often models a focus on righteousness over effectiveness. Shifting from a mindset of “being right” to being effective helped leaders become more intentional, conscious, and impactful in various contexts.
6. No One-Size-Fits-All Solutions
It’s tempting to believe there is a single correct answer, solution, or approach to equity challenges. However, leadership in equity and inclusion rarely offers clear-cut answers. Each situation, role, organization, and individual involved is unique and dynamic, requiring adaptive, nuanced, and identity-conscious leadership.
7. Internal Obstacles Can Be Just as Challenging
While external challenges to equity—such as anti-DEI legislation or political pushback—often receive the most attention, internal obstacles like outdated policies, slow processes, and resistant staff members can pose significant barriers as well.
8. Hurting People, Hurt People
Often, those causing the most disruption or harm are themselves deeply hurting. Their pain, although valid, may lead them to rationalize their own harmful actions. Addressing these individuals with empathy, healthy detachment, trauma stewardship, and firm boundaries can be an elusive and powerful leadership skill.
9. Courage and Humility in Leadership
Leading for equity and inclusion demands courage to do the hard things and humility to acknowledge when we’re wrong. Effective leaders are those who can muster the bravery to take unpopular but necessary actions while remaining open to learning, admitting mistakes, and working toward improvement.
10. The Journey from Knowing to Doing to Being
Many leaders find themselves on a continuum of learning: from knowing to doing to being. They start with, “I didn’t know that; this is so helpful.” Then, “I know this, but I struggle to put it into practice.” Finally, “I can do this, but it requires effort until it becomes second nature.” The goal is to reach a point where these principles feel effortless and intrinsic to their leadership.
Evolve Your Equity Leadership Voice
These lessons highlight the ongoing, deeply personal work required to lead effectively for equity and justice. By focusing inward, aligning values, and embracing both courage and humility, senior leaders can create meaningful, transformative change. and embracing both courage and humility, senior leaders can create meaningful, transformative change. The underlined portions above all reference modules within our Evolve Your Leadership Voice program. If you are interested in learning more, let’s connect.
