What does Decolonizing Leadership actually mean?
I spent a lot of time sitting with the phrase “decolonizing leadership” before I started using it out in the world. I wanted to be sure that it both accurately reflects the work I am doing and that as a white settler it is appropriate for me to use professionally. Often, the word decolonizing is used in the context of undoing the damage caused by the colonization of Indigenous peoples. This is particularly true here in British Columbia, Canada, where I live, work, write, and play – on stolen, unceded, traditional, ancestral, lands of the Coast Salish Peoples: the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xwməθ kwəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.
I am very conscious of the importance of not capitalizing on work that belongs to or originates with a group that I am not a part of – so I needed to be very sure that in using the word “decolonizing” to describe my work I would not be co-opting work that should be led by Indigenous people.
Decolonizing is intersectional liberation work
As I delved into the writing on the topic of decolonization, the research and definitions I found affirmed my understanding of the word: decolonization is far broader than Indigenous issues. It is fundamentally about addressing and undoing all of the power inequities created by the dominating culture (aka white-supremacist, patriarchal, ableist, heteronormative, capitalism). As a queer, fat, disabled, neuro-divergent, white cis-gender woman of Jewish heritage and lower socioeconomic status who operates from an intersectional lens, this broader understanding of decolonization is both incredibly important and deeply resonant.
When I first started writing and envisioned and this blog, I imagined that the focus of my writing would be through a professional lens – focused on decolonizing leadership in organizations. I hadn’t yet realized how profoundly I needed to do my own, very personal, work of decolonizing. Two years later, with little yet written, I am finally grasping how insidious colonialism is and ready to double-down and deepen into this work. And so I start here, where I am.
Decolonizing ourselves is an act of emancipation, of liberation. It is an act of rebellion against the power structures of our society; against the stories we have absorbed and internalized about who we need to be in order to be considered worthy. It is also an act of immense courage because in freeing ourselves we are compelled to free others and to relinquish some of the privilege that exists in complying with the dominant culture.
Decolonizing leadership is an act of courage; of standing for something bigger than ourselves. It is the act of peeling away the unconscious biases, of acknowledging and addressing the systemic power inequities baked into our organizational structures, processes, and cultures. Decolonizing leadership requires us to courageously examine everything we have been taught about professionalism – about authority, competence, opportunity, ambition – about the relationship between people and profit.
If you’re still with me, welcome! I hope you’ll join me on this journey.