Leadership Development

ACG believes a leader is anyone who is responsible for finding potential in people and processes, and for developing that potential. A leader is someone who has the courage to say, "I see what is possible, and I'm going to hold myself responsible for doing it." Leaders need the right people in place supplied with the resources to develop and utilize their skills. ACG can help build the capacity of people who lead throughout your organization. 

ACG is a certified facilitator of Dare to Lead™ workshops based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown. This challenging program is one of the most sought-after leadership and culture interventions for organizations that want to build sustainability into their futures. It is an empirically based courage-building program for leaders, teams and individuals. The most significant finding from Brené's latest research is that courage is a collection of four skill sets that are teachable, measurable and observable.

ACG offers online training on the four skill sets.

If you are a leader, your courage is called upon more than any other skill. Without courage, new ideas won’t see the light of day; tough conversations won’t happen; and letting go of old ways of doing things in favor of new, better approaches will fail. Even the best strategies won’t matter if your organization culture lacks the courage to implement them. The good news is that based on Brene’s writings we know that courage is made up of four research-backed skill sets that are teachable. 

During this time of exponential complexity it is important to find time for self-care, self-reflection and self-development. There is no better virtual leadership curriculum than Brené Brown's Dare to Lead™ workshop. We have a unique opportunity to identify which parts of our work are essential and which parts are space-filler. We have the time to choose what kind of parent we want to be, what kind of healthy we want to be, what kind of life we want to live. And we have enough time at home to form some new, lasting habits.

Please visit our Online Courses page to join a virtual course or workshop. The Zoom video, Slido and Ruzuku online course platforms are easy to use and allow for connection, collaboration and learning.

BUILDING BENCH STRENGTH

Photo by Beth Applegateate

Transformative change requires a larger bench of leaders who lead from the seat they're in, and who can flex easily across a spectrum of leadership approaches that make sense in various contexts, with different people, for diverse purposes—and do it both in person and remotely. We support leadership that: Engages the Broader System of Leaders Uses a Spectrum of Approaches (Sometimes More Directive and Other Times More Collaborative) and technology (remote and on-site learning) Values the Wisdom of, and Contributions from, Multiple Voices and Perspectives Creates the Space for Building Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness and Use of Self, which is Needed for Lasting Transformation Supports Leaders’ Identities and Lets Go of Self-Imposed Limitations ACG can help organization leaders access the unique set of skills necessary to successfully lead their teams, in person or remotely, no matter the size or purpose of the organization. Together, we develop the strategies to increase the capabilities needed to produce the desired results. Our leadership coaching supports clients in breaking past self-imposed limitations, mental models and perceptions to see new possibilities for overcoming challenges. This can enhance the team's leadership effectiveness and contributes to individual long-term professional development and the growth of the organization.

LEADERSHIP COACHING FOR WHITE LEADERS

White leaders at the helm of multi-racial and multi-cultural organizations—such as NGOs, foundations, universities and governmental agencies—can unknowingly hold themselves back from allying with belonging and justice. 

As Anne Braden taught us, the “struggle for racial liberation has always been a struggle for the Hearts and Minds of white people in the United States.” As a Polarity thinker, and as a white anti-racist, I deeply resonate with this dispatch. I am clear that the fight against racism is a White issue. It is not something that we’re called on to help BIPOC with. Our white lives depend upon it--in fact, so does all of humanity. White leaders are going to miss things, stumble, fall and get their asses kicked in belonging and justice work, and ACG helps white leaders practice resilience in the face of racism so that leaders are equipped to co-create and help build the path to collective liberation.

Emotional and racial literacy, courage, and resiliency, along with repair and trust-building, must be coupled with an analysis of the underlying social systems and structures of racism historically and in the present day. Only with a “both/and” approach can white leaders fully grasp how accumulated unearned advantages and accumulated unearned disadvantages operate and build webs of inequity that white people benefit from just by being white. White leaders must understand that under these conditions, it is impossible for Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) to feel a basic sense of trust in public spaces in the U.S., let alone in our organizations, agencies and foundations.

White leaders must raise their awareness about how social conditioning operates and how it rewards them for internalizing whiteness. White leaders must remain ever vigilant about the pernicious nature of the system of whiteness: How white culture lives within them, and how many white leaders instinctively apply a white cultural lens and approach to all of the spaces they enter. White leaders can unconsciously sanitize spaces with "niceness and/or politeness" behaviors that are often mistaken for kindness. They often don’t realize that “niceness” is most often associated with maintaining the status quo (white culture norms and behaviors), and securing power for White leaders.

ACG believes it is not the job of the people being othered by prejudice and systemic racism (prejudice + power = racism) to initiate the dialogue, to carry the emotional labor of White leaders unlearning racism, or to grant absolution when those leaders feel shame and guilt about the pain being experienced by the people they other.

We believe the most effective way to tackle dominant racial narratives, and to create and advance new narrative loops around racial justice, is to understand how the underlying master narratives of white culture work. We name them, talk about them and take personal and collective responsibility to change them.

In this program, we offer white leaders a brave and respectful space to uncover their unconscious bias and behavior patterns, and to coach them to take new risks. Through this process, they can become more authentic, courageous and proactive as we work to promote an atmosphere of belonging and justice in the organizations they serve, and in the world at large.

The responsibility for doing the work resides with White leaders. Racial identity-based coaching is one way to take informed action as a member of the dominant group.

With ACG, your organization can support existing and emerging white leaders to focus their skill and passion through individualized support and development.