an interview with the expedition disruptor and enabler
The Enabler - Stephanie Khurana, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation / Faculty Dean Emeritus, Cabot House; Social Impact Fellowship Fund Judge, Harvard Innovation Labs, Harvard University
1. Why is “an approach to leadership that resonates with women” needed?
The complexity of societal problems today spans our economic, political, cultural and personal spheres and requires an approach to leadership that crosses boundaries and lifts up all. Women often serve in a multitude of leadership roles across society whether in work, home, community, political, or social and offer us vantage points to consider more expanding ways to lead. These ways are informed by the practical realities of life and what it takes to earn a living, raise children, breathe in clean air, foster community cohesion, respond to crises, care for parents, use power, and remember our humanity. Exploring leadership approaches from these wide ranging vantage points can open our minds to what leadership is, could be, and should be, not just for women but for everyone, and with ambitious hopes for a better tomorrow.
2. Halfway through the Expedition what are you uncovering?
The nuance and texture of what people share about leadership from divergent perspectives is both revealing and hard to navigate, like any ambitious expedition. Sitting with the ambiguity and messiness of the work while resisting the temptation to define an answer before we’ve uncovered overlooked possibilities is hard.
Approaches to leadership differ, as defined by organizational structures, as shaped by cultural norms, or as embedded in various business, government or social sector practices. Context matters. However, we are uncovering some generalizable trends across these traditional settings that can result in effective approaches to more inclusive leadership.
The Disruptor- Lissa Young, Associate Professor of Leadership and Management at United States Military Academy
1. Why is “an approach to leadership that resonates with women” needed?
I am not advocating for an approach to leadership that resonates with women, but one that resonates with ALL humans, regardless of where they find themselves on the gender spectrum. A human-oriented leadership that embodies and exhibits equal parts courage, fierceness, empathy and compassion.
2. Halfway through the Expedition what are you uncovering?
People find it almost impossible to think in genderless terms, and this limitation will constrain our ability to define leadership for all peoples.