"I definitely believe that we can make a change in our society."
Laura Rodriguez is an independent consultant who works specifically with women and youth in empowerment and political and civic participation. In addition, she is the voluntary general coordinator of an NGO in El Salvador that supports the empowerment and political and civic participation of young people, in violence prevention, and the promotion of a culture of peace. To put it more simply, her job is to tell young people and women “you have many options in your lives.” Many options apart from gangs, drug trafficking, early pregnancy.
When I spoke with Laura, we talked a lot about leadership and possibility, because for her, it is not possible to separate leadership with the possibility of change in the world. We all have the possibility of being a leader for the good, and if we are leading for the good, the world will improve for everyone. When I asked her what it means to be a leader, she gave me a very beautiful and very poignant definition. Leadership, is her words, has a very long but very simple definition. First, "the leader is not the person at the helm directing the activities or actions, she is the person who is at the side of the people collaborating on specific actions that allow social change every day." It means "having enough humility to understand that we cannot know or do everything and therefore we have the ability to delegate responsibilities and accompany people in those responsibilities too.” It means empathy, accompaniment, listening, love, collaboration, teamwork. Being a leader does not imply, “that other people necessarily follow your directions but that people are also capable of giving you suggestions on your path.” If we can be leaders like that, we will change the world.
In a country like El Salvador, it is not easy to remain inspired and motivated. The country has, like most countries in Central America, many problems. Absent government, powerful and dangerous gangs and drug traffickers. So what inspires Laura? “I am inspired by a better society.” For that better society, she works with young people and women, to empower and get them involved in political and civic life. For this better society, she works as an accompanying leader, who is always walking alongside people, listening. For that better society, she participated in the Certificate programs of the Association for Leadership in Guatemala (ALG) where she learned how to lead from within. “There is a before and after me. Before ALG I was leading from the outside and I was empty. ALG taught me not to let myself get empty… [After] I am a different person, more empathetic, more loving to myself… I am a better person, a better professional.” A person who, without a doubt, is making great changes in the world, not only in her leadership style, but in her style of being and doing. I asked her what she would say if she could say something to each person in the world and, without thinking for a second, she said “believe in yourself, believe with much love and much hope because change is in each of us.”
This month in Community Voices faculty member Maria Mercedes Galvez teaches us how to breathe our way into a more successful leadership.
A New Leadership: Conscious Leadership
They are not rumors, they are loud and clear figures reflected in the latest studies on leadership, in which it is evident that 86% of organizations or social systems declare that one of their three greatest challenges has to do with leadership.
Leaders need to develop new skills to inspire, set an example, empower, align and develop change.
Conscious Leadership
It is increasingly common to speak of a leader with awareness of the environment, trends and also their emotions, the cause and effect of their actions, what generates their own behavior in others. Not only aware of the value they bring but also of their own limitations, where they do not add value and when it is better for them not to be there. Aware of the importance of asking for help, of the innovation and creativity that arises from delegating…
To manufacture the results we desire depends, by a large part, on the quality of relationships we have and our awareness of how and what we talk about at all times. The leader who has impressive results is one who is aware of the needs, expectations and emotions of the people he/she leads and also of his/her own, since he/she is aware of her/himself, his/her vision, mission, strengths, weaknesses and priorities.
What prevents most leaders from doing what they have to do? Mainly, not thinking, or what is known as a reaction trap. It is a natural process that affects the majority of leaders in a kind of fight or flight reaction. Instead of focusing on the big picture, people react to all kinds of ‘distractions’, such as phone calls, emails, meetings, the list of daily tasks and other similar interruptions.
These reactions are activated by the lowest and most primitive part of the brain, hiding from the mind the ability to have an overview of things.
Breathing plays a primary role in breaking this reaction cycle and achieving a higher state of consciousness. Most of us spend much of our lives without being consciously aware of our breath. Conscious breathing exercises the part of the brain that nourishes creativity, allowing people to become aware of their entire being: the mind and the body.
When we reach a higher level of consciousness, people can transcend the reaction trap and begin to focus on what is really important: generating results. Doing so involves making conscious choices, setting limits and slowing down enough to manage priorities and think about decisions.
How do we do that?
As we mentioned before, it is all about breathing. Whenever you have time, for example before a meeting, try this exercise to improve your senses. First stand up, close your eyes and relax. Inhale and count to four, then exhale and count to eight. Repeat this practice several times and observe the sensations that occur in your body.
The technique will help you feel more relaxed, focused and conscious. It allows you to face unexpected situations better, with more calm and clarity than ever. Practice this attentive breathing technique enough and it will become natural for you.
September’s Leader of the Month
I started the interview with Gersom Gamboa by asking him when he first identified himself as a leader. After a pause, he laughed and said never. “I never assumed the position of ‘leader’, it was a natural process. In 2011 I had to define my purpose of life and that’s when I founded DiverArte which is an organization that opens spaces for people to express themselves through art. That’s when the people and organizations started to identify me as a leader.”
Gersom is the kind of person that you can sense coming into a room before you see him. He radiates joy and kindness, and you feel it all around him even if you’ve never met him before. His voice is light and welcoming and his face portrays an almost constant smile, even as he talks about the difficulties through which he’s passed. He somebody you always want around, and he’s served as an invaluable member of the ALG community.
In a nation like Guatemala where opportunities are limited and young people are constantly placed in situations of inequality, exposed to violence and vulnerable contexts that limit their development, leaders or “mentors”, as Gersom would call it, are really hard to find.
“In reality, redefining leadership in Guatemala is probably linked with the leaders who lived during the internal armed conflict (30 year war of the government versus guerrilla fighters) who later facilitated the signing of the Peace Treaty. But from there those leaders positioned themselves politically and diplomatically and now they aren’t the kind of leaders that I am… I’m not a leader of a community, it is more that I am trying to be an example that people are interested in, they like and are attracted to and then we can create a new country... I don’t think people think ‘Gersom Gamboa is the leader of the Education for Peace’ and I don’t want them to.”
Education for Peace is a national conference that Gersom co-founded. Each year the conference brings together youth advocates, educators, and social entrepreneurs who offer their skills and knowledge to the guests of the conference in the hopes that shared knowledge will bring big change for Guatemala’s youth. It’s a project he runs in addition to his work with DiverArte and a personal consulting business in which he offers workshops in a variety of skills.
Of ALG, Gersom shares that being part of the ALG community “has been really important, being part of this network offers many opportunities… Many people in the network do things extremely important, big things in defense of the people, of the environment, of territory… I loved learning about the past and present of the other people in my cohort.” Of the skills acquired, “[the certificate] helped organize me enormously so that I could define myself as a coordinator or director of the organization.. and in the ordering of myself, I was building myself, too… and finding my purpose.”
Our conversation was long, and there is so much more to share about Gersom and the phenomenal work he’s doing and you can ask him yourself about it by following Gersom’s projects in Facebook @DiverArteGuatemala
Herramientas para Colaboración is a blog series we’ve started at ALG with the intention to share the tools we use to inspire more frequent collaborations between people and organizations in the world. Collaboration is a big part of our mission, and we are delighted to share these tips and tools with you, our beloved community.
In our last post, we introduced the series by sharing a bit about why we collaborate and with this post we begin to dive into how we collaborate. When ALG was founded we had only one program -- the Certificate in Leadership and Collaboration. This is our flagship program and the program we are known best for. We have since added on an additional two programs -- the International Collective of Restorative Practitioners and the Traveling Workshop. These two programs, although quite different from the Certificate program, are based in the very same values that the founders of ALG hoped to promote through the Certificate program. These values are diversity, integrity, responsibility, and solidarity, among others. To begin to understand our how when it comes to collaboration we have to spend some time understanding what that last word, solidarity, really means.
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” Australian indigenous woman and activist Lilla Watson is widely recognized as the source for this radical statement which admonishes the idea that hierarchal, one-way help is constructive. In order to change the world for the better, we must first humble ourselves and recognize that all suffering is universal. If another human being -- no matter where they live -- suffers, I suffer too. From the place of that mutual suffering, we, as human beings, are able to create healing and transform systems of inequality. This is a solidarity mindset. In solidarity, hierarchy is abandoned, barriers and borders are abandoned, there is no “other” there is just us, walking hand in hand creating healthy relationships and conditions in the world. In the words of Audre Lorde, “divide and conquer” becomes “define and empower”.
To make oneself available to collaboration is to say to another person, peoples, or organization that you see them as part of your own being, with needs and goals and ideas that are just as valuable and so important that they are worthy extending the resources you have to help those people pursue their needs, goals and ideas at the same time you pursue yours. To collaborate is to say, “I am here in solidarity with you. We have different skills, we have different stories and shapes but we are one. My liberation is bound with yours, let’s work together.”
Without a solidarity mindset collaboration is impossible. Collaborating parties must see each other as equal, as partners in a shared mission to make the world a better place. Solidarity is the base of each and every collaboration that ALG participates in.
For those interested in collaborating more as an individual or an organization, we challenge you to reflect on the words of Lilla Watson -- are you hoping to help? Or is your liberation bound up with the liberation of your neighbor or the person/organization you hope to collaborate with? Have you abandoned all sense of “other”? Are you ready to walk hand in hand, side by side, with all beings? If so, then you are working from a place of solidarity and you are ready to collaborate.
Realizaremos nuestro primer módulo, en compañía de un grupo 21 extraordinarios líderes de distintas partes de Guatemala y de El Salvador los días 18 y 19 de marzo en el Hotel Vista a los Volcanes.
El tema central del módulo es: “El punto de partida para la integración de una comunidad de Liderazgo.”
El objetivo es: identificar cuál es el punto de partida de cada líder y hacia dónde desea orientar su liderazgo, valiéndose de herramientas de análisis y de la reflexión grupal en compañía de la nueva comunidad de líderes a la que se está integrando.
Metas SMART con Jack & Linda Smith
Son dos experimentados asesores que luego de una exitosa carrera en el mundo empresarial a nivel internacional, ofrecen sus conocimientos y experiencia como Coachs a líderes en distintas partes del mundo.
Teoría de Cambio, Jeff Barnes
De profesión Economista, especializado en Historia y Desarrollo Económico de Centro América, ha sido Director de Planificación Estratégica de una de las organizaciones internacionales pioneras en Guatemala por más de 12 años.
Sesión de Inspiración, Tamalyn Jackson Gutierres
Ha sido la Directora Nacional de Common Hope desde hace 10 años, teniendo a su cargo un equipo de 120 personas y supervisando programas de desarrollo en Educación, Salud y Vivienda.
Tamalyn además es miembro de la Junta Directiva de Asociación para el Liderazgo en Guatemala.
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