Who are we as leaders?

Omar
Omar
Nov 4 · 2 min read

When I was 8 years old, I went to my mother and asked her if I could grow my hair into dreadlocks like Bob Marley. Unfortunately, she said no and drove me into a lifetime of hair regret.

Suffice it to say, I’ve always been a Reggae fan and over the last few years, a massive fan of a Jamaican artist called Chronixx — the heir apparent to Bob Marley. A musician philosopher, he’s put words to my feelings in many ways — one of which, luckily for me, helped inform my personal leadership journey.

I was listening to one of his albums while working a few days ago and the last refrain from one of his most popular songs stuck out to me:

“ Story of my life
Ordinary person just like you
If you take a look inside
You’ll see the great things that people do
We out here changing lives day and night, day in day out
BBC don’t show it
CNN don’t show it
Ease out”

This got me thinking. I’m surrounded by persons in my peer group (early to mid-thirties) who have all dedicated their professional careers and more, to working on issues of sustainability. We meet in professional environments, sometimes in casual and less formal circumstances, sharing stories of our various endeavours, successes and failures. What we never do, in my experience, is share what one of my mentors calls our ‘philosophical clarity’ about the work that we do. What are the world views and core motivations that drive our work; work that may be heralded or unknown by most other people. As Millennial leaders working in the non-profit sustainability world, often disparaged by those older (and younger) for being flighty, transient and non-committal, what keeps us engaged in this type of work that often has no real traditional incentives?

Over the next year, I am going to invite six to eight of my friends from within the non-profit/sustainability field who currently occupy leadership positions, to sit down periodically over drinks and food to discuss our internal philosophies that guide our commitment to this work. At each session, I will also invite persons from within my network who are recognised within the Caribbean for their intellectual leadership of similar movements to share their experiences and help frame our own worldviews. I hope, through this, to help my and the group’s understanding of what identifies us as leaders for sustainability in this very peculiar Caribbean context. Through this understanding, it’s my hope that our work and impact will become enriched and, at the end, more impactful.

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