Leadership’s True North
By: Jessica Moy
Tags: Equity, Leadership, Decolonization, Women Of Color, Wellness

Leadership’s True North

POC rising up to stake their claim in change, leadership, and equity for community.

As I sat at my conference table, with our fancy name tags and plant-based breakfast meals, I couldn’t help but feel very alone, and ironically the topic of our conference was the epidemic of loneliness. I was surrounded by very well-known figures in the wellness field. As we sat sharing the usual niceties of “what brought you here?” and “what do you do?” I couldn’t help but notice that once it was deduced that I wasn’t a speaker, didn’t write a book or invent some type of new trending health practice, there was an immediate dismissal of what I had to say. That was also only IF by chance I ended up in their conversation to begin with. Historically, I would label what I was feeling as Imposter Syndrome, this idea that I didn’t belong there, nor did I have anything significant to contribute. In reality, it was a result of what systemically oppressive leadership in business and the wellness industry looks like; spoiler alert — I was probably also one of a handful of people of color so I’m sure you can do the math.

In an industry that is supposed to be built upon supporting others’ well-being and uplifting community, I came to realize that at the root was still a for-profit industry — a trillion-dollar industry to be exact. In today’s era of wellness, one’s capacity to achieve well-being becomes how much self-improvement they can afford and what celebrity gurus they can train with to replicate often appropriated practices that exclude the people it originated from. At the time, I was naive and optimistic about this field I was entering. After all, coming from a background in clinical healthcare, wellness felt holistic and inclusive. However, when capitalistic underpinnings reared their ugly heads, I refused to be disenfranchised with what I saw and instead saw an opportunity for changing the narrative.

What was demonstrated to me was a separation between the leaders and the community; a “power over” structure that said because I am “more well” than you, I am better. These were the people that commanded the room with their intelligence, their eloquent speeches, and their charisma to charm the crowd. However, what I found lacking was true insight into the communities they influenced and their roles in further perpetuating the systems in place that serve to separate, but most importantly the heart that goes along with a true “power to the people” leadership.

To start, we need to understand the colonized mentality of leadership. Colonized mentality in itself is defined as, “the ethnic and cultural inferiority which takes form in valuing the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the dominant/colonizing culture over one’s indigenous culture.” In the culture of Westernized America, how often is charisma, extroversion, and presentation skills synonymous with being a “leader?” However, when you look at leaders in other cultures around the world are those qualities valued the same?

In today’s society, the racial gap in leadership is also often attributed to lack of interest in leadership positions by people of color or lack of skills. However, this completely circumvents the, “unspoken and unconscious biases that prevent those with the hiring power from fairly assessing, recognizing, and valuing their potential.” In a study looking at nonprofit leadership, it was found that 82% of executive leadership was white. This was not because people of color lacked the skills, the background, or aspirations to be leaders, but that the playing field was severely inequitable. Folx of color often faced pressures of representing whole communities and this was common block created by the systems in place.

So in looking at leadership in the wellness space, the same structural barriers can be implied here, but I feel go even deeper. If the ability to lead is based on skills, support, opportunity, why is it that for myself, as a person of color, did leadership feel unfulfilling and draining when I checked all the boxes and was afforded opportunities to lead? It is because I never felt fully seen in the way I choose to lead — from a softer, but still potent place that is community and not metrics-driven.

For those with quiet fires, those that observe and listen before they speak, those that walk to a different beat than the stereotypical leader…it is both necessary that they are given the opportunity, but also that we begin to rethink what it means to lead so that we can reframe the playing field. I think the answer lies not in what we are able to learn, but what we are able to embody.

How are we leading ourselves? Do we believe in the things we project to our community? When we apply what we learn, does it feel authentic?

As I began to decipher the roles we play in either shifting this paradigm of how we lead or how we perpetuate continued inequities in leadership, I’ve come to resonate with three main aspects that authentic leaders emulate. These are people who lead from heart-centered action instead of profit and recognition. They are truly for the uplifting of the community and for the reckoning of the current arena where pioneers for the people are often stifled by their unpopular people-over-profit mentality. My hope is to shine light on a new way of influence to empowers and inspires the leader in ALL of us.