What Kind of Leadership Do We Need?

OK - as a Gen X-er I have absolutely no vested interest in an intergenerational dialogue: I'm too skeptical, independent and don't have the critical mass for it matter anyway (both the Baby Boomer generation and the Gen Y generation are each double the size of the Gen X generation).

But a sunday plenary on leadership at the National LGBTI Health Summit - and where our movement needs to go on leadership - this MIGHT be interesting. Yeah, I'm facilitating it and I'm skeptical. I'm a great salesperson, right? But I'm throwing myself into it in an effort to make it something I'd want to go to. I don't know if it will be that. But I'll be working in that direction. And I'd love yall's input on it.

I think very often grassroots movements don't think intentionally about leadership - what style we are using, who we are inviting to the table, how we are structuring decision-making/vision-setting, all that kind of stuff. And how we can get leadership to be across communities (and generations) and organizations. In Chicago, we are can be petty. We fight for our piece of the pie, get lost in 30 year old feuds, and turn out crispy and bitter before we even started (or worse, with cancer).

So, while I'm not idealistic enough to think that we can change this shit overnight, thinking about how times when we've seen successful leadership and leadership stuff we don't like, are places we can start.

And I think one of the steps in this direction is making this concrete: we can all be doing this stuff, regardless of the role we have.

I'd love yall's thoughts on this: what are good leadership actions you've seen? What are missed opportunities for good leadership actions you've seen?

I'll start: Good leadership I've seen modeled for me are friends I've not known so well reaching out to me to meet for coffee or cocktails and talk about our work - and having great conversations and friendships come out of it.
A missed opportunity is me not reaching out soon enough to my panelists for a conference call. The conversation could be richer - and more collaborative. (I'm really hoping its incendiary at the very least.)

Other folks?