| But if we really want to change the world, we will need a lot more people stepping up to take initiative. The more initiative we each take in our work together — the more skills we learn and hone — the greater our collective capacity will be. Building our capacity means increasing what we are capable of achieving together. It means building our collective power. And building up our collective power is one of the most important challenges of grassroots organizing.
We need to build a culture where we're all invited to step up. That means stepping up in ways that also make space for others to step up — where others feel invited to step up and take initiative too. Stepping up can mean actively listening and learning from others. Stepping up can mean taking time to reflect on how different people can be socialized differently around leadership. For reasons that often have something to do with socialization around our genders, "race", age, economic class, or other aspects of our identities, some of us are predisposed to speak confidently and to take on more visible leadership roles. While others are often predisposed to speak less in the group, or to take on less visible roles. So, stepping up can also mean recognizing and valuing many different forms of leadership in the group. And it can mean looking for leadership potential — for strengths within the group that are latent, waiting for the opportunity to become active.
If we're all leaders, we can also take leadership by stepping up to support each other and hold each other accountable in our work together.
But if we stay in the framework of thinking we should have no leaders, why would we be inclined to seek to develop more leadership in our movement? If all leadership is viewed negatively, we may develop a "circular firing squad" group culture, where we tend to cut each other down and we hold back because we're afraid to stick our heads up.
We need a movement where we are constantly encouraging each other to step into our full potential and to shine as individual leaders who are working together collectively for a better world.
So, let's all be leaders. Let's step up and do this. |
