leadership

Yesterday I was talking about my identity in a small group of friends.

In no certain order: I’m black. I’m gay. I’m a man. I’m at least 80% Christian. I’m an artist/creative.

But in listing those things that I’ve always known about myself, something new showed up.

I’m a leader.

This was a scary admission though. I’ve always known that I was designed to do certain things–to show up in the world in certain ways. But I hadn’t yet accepted that a part of that story was standing in the role of guiding others.

I enjoy encouraging people to grow.

I live for the expression on their face when you let them know that they’ve done a great job.

I’m passionate about making bigger ideas happen.

And the only way I know how to do that is by working with even bigger teams.
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a zebra can’t change its stripes

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I’ve been thinking a lot about patterns—the things we do day to day that make us who we are. We’re molded by our families, our hurts, and our experiences. But as we get older, we always have the opportunity to redefine how we see ourselves. We can be so much bigger than the small boxes we created when we were children. A zebra can’t change its stripes, but we can always change our perspective.