What Is Leadership? (Part 1)

Leadership is different for everyone and who makes a good leader also falls into that category.? The answers we get don’t seem to be universal. When you ask a young child who is a leader it will be a much different response from an elder's answer.

The reality is that leadership is fluid and while the answer to what is “leadership" turns into the complex and complicated, what seems to resonate universally is what leadership and leaders are not.

As an AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Immigrant Woman who is currently serving a third term as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC-a volunteer hyper local elected position that represents 2000 residents) it’s a question that I have been mulling over for the last 24 plus months.

ANC 2A represents over 18,000 D.C. residents-one of them being the President of the United States (no matter what that is actually cool). When elected in 2018 to represent single member district (SMD) 2A03 I shattered the bamboo ceiling. I was the first AAPI to represent my SMD and I was the second Indian-American woman to ever be elected city-wide.

Being a trailblazer or the face of a movement (that story is for another article) isn’t cut out for the weak. The pressure to never mess up or make a mistake is intense and can be crushing to your soul.

Thus far I’m not telling a narrative that makes you want to jump up and say “pick me pick me as your leader.”? Honestly I don’t want to sell you or anyone on a false promise of what leadership is and hasn’t been as my experience and perspective are unique and it is through my own lens.?

I studied “Leadership” and “Leaders” voraciously either for Academia or for my own intellectual curiosity–even got a badass Leadership Couch for a hot second. In the duration of my tenure of serving on the dais I have served alongside five “chairs” (title given to the head officer elected).

Three of those Chairs I would say would be the very definition of good Leadership/Leaders.? The “Three” would be all leaders who exhibited the traits of fairness, compassion, grace and equanimity. All of them gave respect and had earned it from colleagues-there was friendship, affection and mutual adoration.??

Two of the “Chairs” while having the title of Leadership and had been given the recognition of Leaders were not good leaders.? The “Two” utilized their position and felt they needed to control colleagues, no regard or respect for outside lived experiences/perspectives, and the nail in the coffin being retaliation and retribution in the form of bullying, harassment and alleged physical assault (criminal charges are pending).

Starting my third term this January just felt exhausting and draining-I know you’re all screaming “WHY THE F*CK DID YOU RUN AGAIN!?”??

Many of the goals I’d set out to achieve when I first ran had now been accomplished in spite of the hostile environment I was in–and perhaps it was the foolish fantasy of if I could have a brand new slate of colleagues it would be like it was once before.

Initially I’d kept quiet about the ugly and the nasty (big mistake in hindsight) for the sake of the “Commission” and after all I was showing up and showing out, to hearing after hearing and producing resolutions that offered “great weight” in advising on city-wide issues.??

Electeds and candidates were reaching out to me saying I need your voice on this issue or how do I put my best foot forward to win an election.? I was becoming an “influencer” which would make you all think I’d scream with JOY—NOPE I was having IMPOSTER SYNDROME.

On the outside I was getting “my flowers” and having so many colleagues saying how they admired and respected me—and it just made me feel worse— I was a martyr to an institution that was failing me and others.

Many ANC’s didn’t run for re-election this past election cycle-some resigned before the term finished-many seats were left vacant since no one filed to run.

Colleagues city-wide started to have deep introspective conversations about the reality of the positions we were elected into and what we as ANC’s need if this institution is to survive.?

The question others were asking is the same one I spent my entire second term asking “WHAT DOES LEADERSHIP LOOK LIKE?”

I’m one of over 400 ANC Commissioners and each of us have different answers to that age old question.?

Are the answers right or wrong and at bottom who decides what is right or wrong in terms of Leadership/Leaders?

All I know is that I’m still trying to figure out that answer but what seems to resonate for me-Leading/Leadership styles are unique and authentic to the individual and their own lived experiences.

We’re all learning and growing on this journey and while I don’t have the ultimate answer(s) I’d love to connect and hear your thoughts on leadership.

Feel free to follow and message me :-)

#dayone

TwitterHandle: TruptiANC2A03

Leading Uniquely and Authentically,

Trupti