How about leading with courage in 2021?

Let’s take a collective deep breath, simply exist in this space, and settle into the presence of this moment. We are setting on a new cycle in our collective journey, the start of a new year, and as we move forward, there are some learnings we will be wise to take from the incredibly challenging year we leave behind. What is the learning you are taking with you?

Before I tell you about one of the learnings I am taking with me, I want to introduce myself. My name is Ana (Aw-nah). I am a complicated human being with a skill set emerging from courage, wonder, curiosity, and existing with many more questions than answers; a person with a deep sense of responsibility for the well being of our community, especially members rendered most vulnerable by the racist and oppressive systems that immerse us. I am a human in search of answers for how we can individually and collectively heal in a time imbued with such hurt, hate, and brokenness.

The Stockdale Paradox* by Jim Collins tells us that "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." The spirit of this paradox is one of the learnings I am taking with me. Why? Because leaders, especially leaders in the realm of serving the public interest must contend with the true meaning and practice of courage as we lead in a time where systems, truths and realities have been designed to be so disjointed, complex, and distorted that a perfect or right answer appears elusive. We must be comfortable in the discomfort of two paradoxically opposing perspectives and have the ability to witness them both as equally valid. Then, we must develop lenses to measure which takes precedence over which. I hold that we must develop our decisions through the lens of social equity and anti-racism, which must be rooted in justice.

(You can watch Jim Collins speak of the Stockdale Paradox on YouTube on our online version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvWWO7F9kQY )

I remember being introduced to the concept of “shooting yourself in the foot,” which was rather effective in helping me to understand the ways in which we harm ourselves and others. This is a concept that comes to mind when I observe other leaders make decisions that are harmful to themselves, their teams and sometimes entire communities. We are all interdependent, and when we are acting from a position of leadership, consequences have even bigger ripple effects. I think back to the beginning of 2020, and the many ways in which the COVID - 19 global pandemic has called on many leaders to make some of the toughest decisions they have probably had to make, and also the many ways in which leaders “shot themselves in the foot” and by default entire communities because they were not stepping into their leadership with courage, nor were they centering or using a measurement that centered the people they needed to center most.

The utter lack of courageous leading and policy making during this time, I argue, stems from fear rooted in privilege. What are leaders afraid of that keeps them from drafting policies and changing systems to protect people rendered most vulnerable by the systems themselves? I am hard pressed to believe that our leaders are not making equity-driven decisions because they simply don’t care; to reduce them to this absolves them of their responsibility to become courageous policy makers and decision makers. Rather, the question to ask is this: What are leaders so afraid of? Why are they intent in protecting the status quo, which is rooted in racism, oppression and violence, and which hurts all of us? We will be greatly served by understanding the profundity of the responsibility inherent in the privilege of leadership, and holding our leaders accountable. We are all active participants in our communities, and we all should have the opportunity to lead if we choose to, especially when our leaders choose to protect their privilege before protecting our communities.

Here’s to 2021, a year where we have ample opportunity to hold our leaders accountable, and where we create spaces for new courageous leaders to have the opportunity to lead because courageous leaders know that the only path to walk right now is the path toward justice.

* [The Stockdale Paradox:

James C. Collins related a conversation he had with Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during his period in the Vietnamese POW camp. When Collins asked which prisoners didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:

Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

Collins called this the Stockdale Paradox.]