We are the leaders we have been waiting for.
With another civil conflict started, the deep feelings of big feelers and heart led leaders like me are beyond words. My guess is, you can relate.
From relatives fighting each other across borders to family members on opposing sides of longstanding conflicts, it is ever more clear to me that new leadership around the world is not only a good idea, it is required. Dynamic and longstanding issues have clearly not been and will not be solved with warfare.
Looking closer to home here in the United States, we have had our own civil tensions brewing with school shootings, mass casualty events, and a deep fracturing of civic trust. We just do not call it what it is because that would be, dare I say, uncomfortable. But we all live on this planet together even if divided. And in this entry I hope to inspire you, dear reader, to change just 1% to help in an effort to unite our humanity because we are not ok. We are not ok as a human collective. We are not ok as a planet.
New Leadership Is Required
I will not trick you via a toxic positivity tempo. What I am calling for is a rebuild and reboot of systems led first by women so we can realign community through a more collaborative model and eventually come back into balance, integrating a healed way of leading into an evolved form of governance we have not yet seen.
Let's be clear: building up and supporting collaborative, women-forward leadership does not mean men get less. In fact, I suggest things get better for everyone. The opposite of Patriarchal order is not simply Matriarchy. A collaborative order does prioritize the structural inadequacies that patriarchy ignores, and it also does not leave out male leadership or men.
Empathy as Infrastructure
We are now more globally connected than ever through technology and, may I suggest, empathy. We will not be able to aptly evolve business, technology, or humanity if we do not recognize this interconnectedness; if we want to live and even more, if we want to thrive. It will not matter how much money you make, who you share a bed with each night, or who wins what election if we do not lean into our shared empathy.
Bell Hooks writes exactly that the patriarchy does not only wound women. It harms men by not allowing them to live their full lives as well because of the constraints of such a top down system; a flawed system that most certainly makes very little room for any gray area of any kind. You are either "with us or against us," "black or white," "gay or straight." The gradients of life are screaming for us to recognize the spectrum of our shared existence.
The Power of Women-Led Systems
When leadership styles are studied, many psychological studies indicate that collaborative, empathetic leadership models produce better outcomes for everyone. And yet "women who behave in a more feminine, collaborative, empathetic manner might be less likely to be elected or appointed to lead."
And I am here to say forget that. We can be fierce, hold the line, build great business, create compelling tech AND not throw fists over it. Of this, I am convinced.
We Must Be Techno-Optimists
We are told to be angry, bitter, and resentful about technology. But I am here, once again, to disrupt the narrative and bring the good news. I have got my Rose-colored glasses on and I am raising the technology flag for everyone.
So what if our shared technology, our common tools to distribute information, to move money, to check in on friends and family, to open more resources towards equity, what if all of this technology also centered our human condition and not just the bottom line? Well, it would have to be built with everyone in mind and with many more voices in leadership and step away from colonial expansion models.
Bloom scroll instead of doom scroll.
What You Can Do Right Now
1. Notice the power of collective action and do not give into doom scrolling. Put your phone down, take a walk, and see how much power you just regained.
2. Take that power to the streets. Volunteer at a shelter, read a new book or article you would never consider, or study your local form of government structure to see how you can activate within it.
3. Host a conversation in your home, on your stoop, or at your local coffee house about civic engagement. The power of community is real and will inspire everyone involved.
4. For the overachievers in the crowd, come build with us. We are building the thing we keep saying needs to exist. A global marketplace where women's knowledge becomes equity and collaborative leadership is the default, not the exception.
As a world, we desperately need new models of leadership. And it is clear that technology is never going to leave us as a human species so we are smart to embrace it and get involved in its build, usage, and implementation. When we use #Tequity and build with women leaders, we will see a more equitable world.
The old masculine models of leadership through top down structures that the patriarchy requires are broken. We can do better. You can do better. I can do better.
Love,
Rose
