How to grow your power as a leader

We want systemic and cultural change to happen, like yesterday and we need power to do it.

The problem is that many of us struggle with reclaiming our power, using it for good or growing it alongside others because we see power as evil.

I know this because I've been a social justice educator for years and one of my favorite pieces of the work is to ask folks to define what power is. Often times, the responses have fallen in a few buckets that I have listed below.

#1) Power is the ability or authority to decide what is best for others

As in, overturning laws that protect reproductive rights or neglecting to provide clear water for consumption like in Flint, Michigan or building structures that are accessible to enter and exit.

#2) Power is the ability to decide who will have access to resources

As in, deciding who did and did not have access to COVID relief funds or whether schools have what they need to provide adequate, affirming and culturally responsive education or who will be awarded loan forgiveness.

#3) Power is the ability to exercise control over others

As in, requiring camera's on for the work from home folks or weaponizing police against folks who seek accountability and justice or demanding that your partner not speak to certain people.

I'm not going to sit here and negate the fact that this is the reality of how power is yielded, sometimes against or over others.

Even more than that, power can be messy, complex and difficult to cultivate. Yet, it's the thing I'm most interested in because of it's potential.

There is one definition that has stuck with me throughout the years and is one that often makes folks pause.

Power is the ability to determine reality.

As in, creating something that was never in existence before or organizing an event with the intention of loving up and filling folks' cup or choosing to be speak and treat yourself more kindly because you are valuable.

If this is what we understood collectively as power, would we feel differently about it?

But I don't want to end there, I want to encourage us to use our power for liberation.

Liberatory Power is the ability to determine a reality in a way that sets people free 

Allow me to put this into context:

• When I worked with parents to organize campaigns to keep their beloved child's schools open, we were building power. We wanted a reality where those schools stayed open.
• When my team and I developed data-centered arguments to convince our organizational leadership to not move forward with a decision that would exclude our current client base, we were using our power. We wanted a reality where we were loyal to our clients and we know that the language we needed to speak was a data-driven one.
• When I decided to stop relaxing my hair in college because I felt like I was perpetuating the idea that my natural, kinky-curls did not fit beauty standards, I reclaimed my power. I wanted to live in a reality where I wasn't committed to burning off the pieces of me that didn't fit the norm.

If you're on board with this new way of understanding and cultivating power, check out this "Let's Talk about Power" IG Live Series.

This is where I invited my friends to share what power means to them, what gets in the way and how they cultivate their own power, individually and collectively.

Tiffany Hervas of Resilient Wealth is a Financial Social Worker who’s career has centered on advocacy work and organizing communities for change. She has worked closely with elected officials across NYS, schools and community based organizations on a number of issues to encourage community members to reclaim their voice, take up space and recognize the power in numbers. Today, Tiffany spearheads this social justice movement focused on building wealth and embodied leadership, one individual at a time. 

Check out the video and transcript.

Brittani Sterling at @Professor.ish goes by many names including the Liberatory Experience Guide, Jane of ALL trades and Ivory Tower Arsonist to name a few. She’s grounded in showing people how to get free by living her life as authentically as she can.

Check out the video and transcript.

Dr. Cecily Moore at @DrCecilyMoore is committed to helping Black women unlearn the Strong Black Woman schema as a mental health counselor and coach.

Check out the video and transcript.

 Vania Iscandari at @VeeInspiredCo is invested in leading a global community that champions the talents and power of the African diaspora in three specific ways: Arts & Culture, Nature & Environment, and Ownership & Opportunity.

Check out the video and transcript.