Re-imaging Leadership

Perhaps the time has arrived for truly unleash the real power of leadership: striving and promoting social justice and help the underdogs

I feel like there is something wrong with leadership.

Surely I am not the only one thinking on these lines but perhaps it is now time we started celebrating a different kind of leaders, those who would are defined as “Anonymous Extraordinaries”, the unsung heroes who thrive out of humility and positive values rather than out of visibility and self-aggrandizing.

There are out there on the grounds, from all different backgrounds and stories but all unrelentingly committed to make a difference.

Their cause is an unrelenting belief that the world could change in better, that those who are now the most disadvantaged, can have their lives turned around, unleash their energies and have a shot at life.

They believe in social justice and I call them the civic leaders, those leaders who put an effort in helping those who are the most invisible ones, the persons living at the margins of the society, neglected and marginalized, the underdogs.

There are too many youth out there who do not get a chance.

This happens everywhere, in the developed world as well as where the economies are still emerging and developing.

In the worst scenarios, if these kids are not supported early on in their lives, they end up in jails or they can became victims of illegal substances.

In the best cases, their lives are constantly on the edge of precariousness, fighting on daily basis for survival, wrapped in a vortex of insecurity and entrenched vulnerability.

They do not know what hope means.

They do not believe that their lives could be different because they do not see how they could be.

Here it is where a new type of leadership, a new sense of civic responsibility is desperately needed, where individuals decide to step up and get out of their comfort zones and commit to do something.

Lives can evolve, progress and change and not only for the privileged ones

Those marginalized kids are the underdogs who could potentially become CEOs, lawyers, doctors, engineers, the next inventors and who knows what.

They should have the right to imagine endless opportunities ahead for them but in most of the cases, their lives remain unchanged, “fixed” in a social narrative that do not see potential where instead should be the most fertile ground for it to thrive.

We need persons who decide to step up and start believing that a different story can be written, a different life scenario can be set, that the darkness of life can be brushed away with colors full of energies and passions.

This can happen but there is no magic wand.

You need folks who believe in justice and are committed to do something for it.

There are already many of these people but, considering the magnitude of challenges ahead for our humanity, we need more of them, many more.

Structural inequity leading to pervasive inequalities must be challenged because they can be defeated.

Some care and love, a good school, a good circle of friends, a good mentor, some financial support could lead to different lives’ trajectories for millions of vulnerable youth in the north and south of the world as well.

When we think of leadership, let’s not forget that its primary goal is not about bringing more efficiency and effectiveness for the C-suite or selling more courses or making big bucks with self-help books, not only at least.

Leaving extraordinary times should help us re-imagine what leadership means.

And it all starts with caring and love in what it is should be seen as a true call for social justice.