Leadership Is Not Always a Title
Leadership is not always a title. Sometimes it is a decision: to stay, to try, to hold the line when things get hard.
Last year, I stepped into a new role as Executive Director of a regional Innovation Hub. I was hired unanimously, brought in to lead with collaboration and equity at the center. I did not walk in to keep the lights on. I walked in to build something new. Something real.
It did not take long to see that the gap between intention and execution was bigger than expected. Early on, I noticed how budget shifts were already starting to impact equity-centered roles and strategy.
When the Process Gets Bypassed
But the biggest challenge came next.
I was invited to participate in hiring my team. I took that seriously: because people shape culture, and culture shapes impact. I brought forward names, offered perspective, and was ready to build a team grounded in shared values. Unfortunately, one committee member ignored the process and moved forward with a hire that had not gone through full review. That person was not right for the role. And the ripple effects were immediate.
The team never quite landed. There was miscommunication, confusion, and tension from day one. A board member later told me, candidly, that it felt "doomed out the gate."
Still, I did not check out. I stayed in the work.
I showed up every single day with clarity and care. I sought guidance from HR, mentors, and trusted board members. I created space for hard conversations, listening, and repair. I tried everything I knew to make it work.
Eventually, the staffer left. But so did I.
Power-Sharing as a Design Principle
Over the past 20 years, I have worked across sectors: from global event production to equity-centered entrepreneurship. Whether through earlier digital community builds, the Portland Metro Innovation Hub, or my work with Business 4 Good, I have built programs where women of color, LGBTQ+ leaders, and grassroots entrepreneurs access tools we have often been denied. These efforts were not side projects. They were the strategy.
Inclusion is not something you add on later. It is something you embed from the start. That is why I center lived experience. That is why I dismantle competitive frameworks. That is why collaboration is not a value on a poster: it is how we build.
The Matriarchal Model
If you want to know where this leadership style comes from, you have to go back.
I was raised in a multigenerational home filled with loud, expressive, deeply loving women. In that house, your voice could be swallowed or shine: depending on how and when you used it. My grandmothers, aunties, and mama taught me to lead with kind assertiveness. To speak up when it mattered. To keep showing up even when it was hard.
That kind of leadership: quietly powerful, radically rooted: guides me still.
Equity Is Not a Buzzword
Inclusion has never been a checkbox on my to-do list. It has been the foundation of my life and work. As a queer, neurodivergent Sephardic Jewish woman: and the first in my family to graduate from university: I walk into every room with stories behind me. Stories that were not always heard. Stories that shaped my fire to ensure others are.
And while I know the value of my own voice, I do not treat it as the only truth in the room. Leadership, to me, is grounded in listening. Especially when the answers are not clear. Especially when systems need rethinking.
What the Hard Chapter Taught Me
That chapter did not end the way I imagined it would. But it taught me more than any smooth run ever could. It taught me that collaboration is not a bumper sticker. It is a muscle. One we strengthen when things do not go to plan.
It reminded me that relationships matter more than hierarchy. That ego is the first thing that has to go if we want systems that hold. And that leadership: real leadership: is often invisible. It happens in closed-door meetings, in careful edits, in the pause before the reaction.
I had to let go of my own expectations in order to stay grounded in what mattered most: integrity, equity, and innovation. Not as buzzwords: but as the framework for every decision.
Leadership is not what you build when everything is smooth. It is what you protect when everything is cracked.
I am not in that role anymore. But I am still doing the work. Still building teams and systems that center shared power and human dignity. Still showing up with kind assertiveness and a steady hand.
And for me? That is not just a lesson. It is a life practice.
Explore how collaborative leadership connects to the flywheel model, or read about building a future rooted in equity.
