Horizontal Leadership & the Potential to Transform Society

What is the power of effective leadership? What is defined as effective and do we have it in this country?

'A leader always leaves a trail to follow' ~ Qoute in the peguin picture

As I build the BIPOC Sustainable Tiny Art House Community I am being called to reflect on my leadership especially as a woman of color, a maker of art, a mother of creation, a heartfelt magician of transformation, and a diligent curioust of all things. What does leadership mean to me? How can I utilize my leadership skills to leverage power to lift up those in my life especially those open to learning, to growing and excelling as a collective towards the common good of all beings? Those ready to listen, to understand, and to grow together without judgment, without assumption, open to the liminal space between this or that? Seeking to be both &?

In the past few months, I have been seriously looking at my leadership style and how it affects those around me. I have come to notice that it is difficult for me to lead when I am overworked, not meditating, or simply just out of energy. I have come to understand that in order to lead I must not block love, I must not block blessings due to fear, or due to feeling like I must have all the answers. Understanding my intuition in a different way has also led to the examination of what I call the courage to lead. How do I speak up when I witness uneven work-life balance in others? In myself? How do I gain the ability to 'stand' for myself and ask for help when I can't see the forest for the trees?' In structuring an organization into a horizontal leadership format I am being called to truly 'give up' perceived power to disseminate it horizontally amongst the many skill sets on our team and trust that others have the ability to lead, encourage and see things that I can not. In doing so I feel I am stepping into uncharted territory. In this country, we are taught from the time of birth to NOT rock the boat or to hand off our power to a hierarchical structure of leadership which states there is a structure of command and power so you better just go along with 'it.'

I have never been one for 'just going along with it.'

As I gain strength in my ability to follow my intuition, I am learning that 'just going along with it' makes more sense when there is a 'collective understanding' of honest intention followed by swift positive action, which IS something I can trust. But when it comes to following rules for the sake of following the rules, I beg to differ. Just going along with it, just doesn't cut it. In the current paradigm of our time when leaders never have my best interests at heart and make promises they never keep, not once, not twice, but for decades on end, just going along with 'it' seems counterproductive to not only my lively hood but the livelihood of generations of Americans and animals on the planet.