What is your leadership legacy?

I am thinking a lot about leadership as faithful readers know, and assuming you are, too, given that we, as citizens of a democracy, are electing our most important leaders over the next two weeks. I’ve written a lot already in this weekly post about the historic nature of this US election, and I felt that profoundly last week when I voted with my 18-year-old granddaughters who are first-time voters.

They commented afterward how great it felt for them to mark their ballots for a woman for president, and that led us into an important conversation about the different leadership models they have grown up observing — from their family, their teachers, in the church and in the community. Our conversation inspired me to share with you some thoughts about the legacy of leadership — what we observe and learn along our journeys, from 18 years to 80, as I’m still learning — about what it takes to be the kind of leaders that are clearly needed in today’s world of violent conflicts, multiple crises, and deep divisions.

During the morning walk my husband and I make often through Atlanta’s beautiful Piedmont Park and along the Beltline, a walking/biking path that has transformed the urban experience here, we saw a mural painted on a large wall, along with the often present graffiti:

This quote resonated strongly with me. I have been developing the content for this year’s TEDWomen dinner and sessions on the theme of the legacy of leadership, exploring how we take what we learn and observe in our own families and from our communities forward into our own leadership practices — whether we are leading companies or nonprofits, as a volunteer or a CEO, as a teacher, preacher, or parent!

TEDWomen will not be a standalone conference this year, but is defined as a Learning Journey on Leadership, one of six learning journeys at TED’s new conference, TEDNext, convening this week in Atlanta. I curated the TEDWomen dinner and the stage session of TED interviews on leadership with the leaders of GirlTrek, a unique and powerful nonprofit initiative started by two exemplary women leaders, Vanessa Renae and T. Morgan Dixon. Please visit their website for more information about how they have taken the relatively simple concept of walking and talking together — crews of girls and women taking curated walks — into a global community of more than one million very engaged leaders, from all generations, who walk and talk, who create connections and community, who learn together about what is needed to lead, individually and collectively. ?

I met Vanessa and Morgan many years ago at an Omega Institute conference, “Women and Power” and have observed how their big idea has had a very big impact. In 2017 at the TED conference in Vancouver, they gave a talk which elevated the importance of recognizing and honoring the legacy of leadership that begins often with our mothers and grandmothers as a way of ‘grounding’ who we become as leaders. The response to their “I am the Daughter of” TEDTalk led to a global sharing of legacy of leadership stories. ?

Watch their talk on TED.com and hopefully, the conversation we’ll have about how we take our legacies forward will also be on TED.com shortly after the TEDWomen session on Wednesday, October 23.

I am grateful to Morgan and Vanessa for inspiring me to think about my own legacy of leadership and to recognize how my leadership practice is grounded in my grandmother’s early advice: “Honey, if you try and fail, remember, falling on your face is at least a forward movement.” Remembering that lesson about risk taking has definitely informed my leadership journey from early career decisions to now.

I will also be in conversation with Lynda Carter — yes, the original and iconic Wonder Woman who as a popular culture icon, redefined power as a positive force.

She’ll be talking about how using power for good is a leadership quality needed so desperately today. Of course, Wonder Woman had magical tools like bracelets that deflected attacks and perhaps, her most important leadership tool, the “lasso of truth.” I invited Lynda to bring one with her to the TEDWomen stage, because clearly, this should be an essential accessory for anyone seeking to be a leader!

Along with these conversations with these three women leaders on stage, to be recorded and shared on TED’s online platforms for global reach impact, a keynote conversation at a special TEDWomen dinner with the ground breaking leader, Stacey Abrams, is bound to yield some interesting perspectives on leadership.

I’ll also be leading, along with Ronda Carnegie, the Executive Director of Project Dandelion, a TED Discovery session on preparing to lead for solutions to the climate and nature crisis. Women leaders are the ally the world needs to demand leaders take the actions necessary to secure a climate safe future for everyone. Solving the crisis will take all of us, informed and prepared to make changes, to try to decode the complexities of this global emergency, and to do something — individually and collectively, because that is the leadership that will move us forward.

As I’m preparing for these sessions, I am also thinking about how we strengthen each other’s leadership, and how much more we should expect from those who aspire to lead companies and governments. I found inspiration in the words of Darren Walker, the current leader of the Ford Foundation who wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times, that what is needed most is leaders with more courage. Please read his entire essay but as closing thoughts for this week, I'll excerpt some of it here.

“I believe that there is a crisis of courage, where leaders have become discouraged from speaking up and resolving conflicts, doing the hard work to move us all forward. They staunchly maintain neutrality, concerned with society’s collective instinct to shame and our allergy to nuance. As a result, there has never been a more difficult time to lead anything: a corporation, a nonprofit, a public school classroom. So the question becomes: Why try?

In a time of such profound challenges to our democracy, we desperately need bold, visionary leaders with the moral capacity to navigate complexity and stand for progress. As citizens, we must reward the leaders who work with humility and grit in these imperfect spaces. And as Americans, united, we must extend grace to those who summon the courage to lead.”

As we move into the final two weeks of this most important election of all our lifetimes (in my opinion), I hope we are summoning the courage to vote for the leaders who will manifest the values and virtues described above.

Leaders who will stand up for the human rights of every individual, everywhere, and fight for the big changes necessary to ensure a habitable future for our children and grandchildren. Leaders who will create a legacy of leadership that is grounded in compassion and committed to leading forward, with courage, to a more equitable, sustainable and peaceful future.

Onward!

- Pat