This is a personal reflection written by our CEO Jeff Hunter in response to the current pain and protests being voiced across the US. It’s not meant as a piece of advocacy or a prescription for what to do; rather, it vocalizes the internal process of one leader making sense of all of this, and I share it now as an invitation to deepen into your own sensemaking, wherever it may take you. In times like these, it’s easy to arrive at all kinds of snap judgments about ourselves and others. The greatest gift we can offer is to step back, get in touch with our own compassion, and see what arises from there.
THINK
Talentism Community
I am not writing this to you as a leader. I must be a follower.
Leaders enjoy privilege. Privilege is blindness. I need to listen. Not to win, not to fix, but to learn.
I take full responsibility for my blindness. Only my humility will hold me accountable. That is the nature of my privilege. Others are accountable through force. I am accountable by choice.
My purpose is to systematically unleash human potential: potential that is murdered by the institutions of which I am an integral part. I benefit from a contract that is enforced by a gun.
I start with myself. I accept the reality of systematic racism and bias. I become self-aware: I am the problem. I am self-skeptical: I do not see the problem. I accept I am blind due to the luxury of privilege I did not earn.
Each of us must find our own path to clarity. This is mine. Today. Tomorrow? I don’t know.
How can I help you find your path to clarity?
I share as a follower. I commit to study and engage in the suffering. I commit to more attention to the stories of loss. I commit to constantly improve my work.
First we belong, and then we believe. I commit to offer my belonging to communities I cannot presently witness. I commit to being a better follower.
I will fall. Will you help me when I return to blindness? I don’t expect it. But if you help me, I will listen.
I am grateful for my work, for our work, for you. Today I am most grateful for the countless people who have led me to a point in time where I can do the next terrifying thing needed to evolve with my confusion.
Thank you for your leadership.
