Culturally Conscious Leadership in Action: Building the Leader's Capacity

Abstract

The purpose of this capstone project was to support the leadership team of the partner organization with the intentional review of the organization's philosophies, policies, structures, and practices through a racial equity lens to drive innovative and purposeful equity outcomes. By leveraging organizational accountability, current support systems, personal engagement, and team members' commitment, the leadership team strived to guide racial reflections, problem-solving, and decision-making. With the insights gained through this iterative reflective process, I sought to understand the connection between the organization's strategy, culture, and organization and how these drivers operate as tools that leaders must utilize to become racially conscious allies for the communities they support. I used a qualitative data collection and interpretation approach to support the centralization of the organization's leadership as a catalyst for the sustainability of socially and racially conscious efforts for organizational impact. The following findings emerged: Finding #1-Transparency and communication of the vision and mission are directly aligned with the leadership's commitment. Finding #2- Using the leadership team and their level of expertise to communicate the organization's commitment has become an essential tool for intentional, culturally conscious transformation and sustainability. Finding# 3- All the organization units' strategic plans or direction need to focus intentionally on dismantling hierarchical policies and procedures that perpetuate power and privilege.