22/09/2024
Grateful for the opportunity to speak at the inaugural Black Leadership Summit at Virginia Commonwealth University today 🙏🏾😎
To be a leader is to put oneself at risk of praise and persecution in the pursuit of guiding others to a strategic direction that isn’t always clear.
To be a leader layered by identity is to carry the risk of leadership while also measuring the social capital risks of identities at the mercy of social value systems that consciously and subconsciously challenge the presence of otherness against the preference to “whiteness”.
It is the weight and joy of
leadership that I, a black male leader, am blessed and burdened to ponder as I rise and stumble onto the platform always aware about how I am perceived and perceiving myself as a leader grounded by the humanity of my soul.
I am a black male leader who faces perceived and real risks to hold space in leadership to shine my light while ensuring that light shines on the gifts of others.
I AM.
Thank you Lucy Hudson, Ed.D. and Sharron McDaniel, BSW for the opportunity to share and connect with fellow black faculty, staff, alumni and students. The event was exceptional 🙏🏾🙌🏾🎉 Thank you Stephen Kouevi for taking photos and capturing the moment 📸👊🏾 VCU Alumni VCU School of Business
