{"id":16549,"date":"2018-09-27T18:17:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sparkvisionnow.com\/?p=16549"},"modified":"2018-09-27T18:17:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:17:21","slug":"its-not-about-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunneez.com\/sparkvision\/its-not-about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embracing Servant Leadership: It’s Not About Me – Insights from Sue Elias<\/h1>\n

\"\"Sue Elias<\/em><\/b>\u00a0is EVP of\u00a0Parks & People Foundation<\/a>\u00a0in Baltimore, MD and has 25 years working in the n<\/em>onprofit sector as a leader, executive, and volunteer. Reflecting on the experiences and events throughout her career, she witnessed great leadership despite limited resources or adverse circumstances \u2013 and thus, her blog content was born. Sue, a Buffalo native who knows that chicken wings should only be served with blue cheese dressing (never ranch), lives in Baltimore with her husband\u00a0and 3 children. She believes that being a mother of teenagers is her greatest leadership challenge to date.<\/em><\/p>\n

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My first job out of graduate school was community organizing with churches in a small East Coast city. I was the youngest person in my office…<\/span>by two decades<\/span><\/i>. Frequently, I was also the only woman in the room. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was an outsider, and as such, it was easy to pinpoint the flaws of the people in charge. Most meetings I attended ended up turning into gripe-fests about the hardships faced by the leaders of the faith, communities who felt that their work was thankless and often in vain. I became annoyed by the self-pity and navel-gazing. I often said I should wear a button that read, <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s not about you!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Just recently, I found myself in a situation where I needed that button for myself. I was invited by Loyola University of Maryland to participate in <\/span>Undoing Racism<\/span>\u00ae, <\/span>the signature workshop of the People\u2019s Institute for Survival and Beyond. <\/span><\/p>\n

Through dialogue, reflection, role-playing and presentations, this intensive process challenged participants to analyze the structures of power and privilege that hinder social equity and prepare them to be effective organizers for justice. <\/span><\/p>\n

The workshop took place over three days and was <\/span>incredibly<\/span><\/i> intense. As a person who benefits from white privilege, my initial reaction to the discussion and presentations was defensiveness and guilt. I had to work hard to remind myself that a workshop on racism wasn\u2019t about how I felt. It could certainly change how I think, feel and act, but in the end, the workshop was about the impact racism has on people of color and the obligation of everyone to change the structures of power and privilege that promote racism.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do I know when I am falling into the trap of making it all about me as a leader and not about the team and what we are trying to achieve together? Here are some warning signs that I have identified:<\/span><\/p>\n