Voices I Keep Nearby
Leadership Lessons from Black Thinkers
I keep Danielle Coke Balfour’s Black history day-by-day calendar on my desk. Every morning, I flip it before I open my inbox. If it’s not the first thing I do, it is the most important. That’s not accidental. I’m building a habit.
A habit of putting Black leadership at the front of my brain. Not just in February. All year long.
If 2026 is teaching us anything, it’s that we need to lean on the leaders who have been fighting this fight all along. The ones who understand resistance. The voices that have never had the luxury of pretending democracy maintains itself.
If leadership is shaped by repetition—if what you return to becomes part of how you lead—then these are the unflinching voices I want to hear again and again.
“History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions.” —Marsha P. Johnson
Because we are living in the big middle of people making decisions.
“I cannot hide my anger to spare you guilt… If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge.” —Audre Lorde
Anger is not the enemy. Complacency is.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is a difficult, hard, full-contact, participatory endeavor.” —Cory Booker
This is not a season for spectators. Leadership is participation. It asks something of us.
“We must use words to uplift and include. We can use our words to fight back against oppression and hate. But we must also channel our words into action.” —Stacey Abrams
Read it again: We must channel our words into action.
“We need to love one another in a way that reflects this life's urgency and fragility.” —Wes Moore
You know how I feel about leading from love.
“Progress will come in fits and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path.” —Barack Obama
Especially now when it feels like the country is backsliding, I have to remind myself that we were never promised an easy way forward.
“Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.” —Michelle Obama
Say it again. The goal is “a country worthy of your boundless promise”. That’s the bar.
Listen, Black History Month is not a list of quotes. I’m sharing these with you because quotes are doorways. The work is walking through them.
Whose voice keeps showing up in your leadership—and why?
I share reflections like this every Monday and gather them into one monthly email. Subscribe if you’d rather read them over coffee than chase them online. And thank you for choosing to lead with love.
