ALR #1: Austin Channing Brown

Austin Channing Brown spoke about racial injustice and racial reconciliation. Her chosen style of leadership is situational, as she must use different techniques to convey her message properly and effectively to her audience. She may use storytelling, humor, statistics, direct facts and truths, or the latter.

Through Ms. Brown’s talk, I found that leadership is a lifestyle, a choice. Leadership applies to life as a whole not just the workplace or school. It affects the way we interact and engage in our culture and our country. When there is injustice in the world, in this case the topic was racial inequality, it must be addressed and dealt with. When you are aware of wrongdoing, you must act to change it. Doing nothing is the worst thing you can do and, in fact, “doing nothing is no longer an option,” as Brown said during her presentation. Doing nothing is doing something—it is a choice to passively watch injustice take place. Leadership is taking upon you the choice to do something to help prevent injustice in our nation and our world. Brown emphasized the importance of human skills—commiserating with someone is the best thing you can do. When you empathize and want to do something, walls break down and relationships can build and leaders are born.

Personal values, integrity and ethical leadership are very much linked together. Values and morals stem from who we are as people. Who we are is molded or at least remotely effected by where we came from. Brown, as a black woman, explained that her values developed based on her race, family, and the culture that she grew up in. Being an African American, she takes pride and sorrow in the history of her race. The way in which she views her heritage shapes her values, as well as, her integrity and ethical behavior. Her ethics and integrity grew from her upbringing and cultural background. Seeing the history of African American people formed what she felt was right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. Her values made her passionate and decide what she wanted to focus on in the future, which is racial injustice. She saw problems and chose to address them and leads others to see and do likewise. Witnessing injustice leads her to feel a moral obligation to do something. Now that she knew the wrong she had to make it right—her leadership appears to be a matter of social integrity.

Ms. Brown’s message was very helpful and applicable to leadership and life. Understanding race and cultural history and context is very important when dealing with others and being a leader. If you do not understand where someone is coming from, then you cannot lead them. You have to have sympathy and understanding of their past in order to work with them toward the future. When having conflict or experiencing injustice in any situation, it is vital as a leader to not just address the issue at hand, but to commiserate and display understanding in the situation as well. Also, you must seek reconciliation and come to an understanding with the other party. If two parties don’t reconcile, leadership becomes strained and divided. Reconciliation brings people together in a common goal. As a leader, reconciliation should be your goal as it makes you and your team stronger and better. Lastly, leadership requires that you be open-minded towards others—fear and assumptions create barriers and divides people. Listening and understanding is the best possible tool a leader can have.

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