Redefining Leadership: What the People Need

By Yolánda L. Chase, SHRM-SCP, CPM, CM

Founder, Diversity Way-Maker® & Intersect Global Leadership Institute®

The Call to Redefine Leadership

In today’s climate of disruption, complexity, and fatigue, what people need most from leadership is not perfection, but reconciliation—leaders who have done their own work to reconcile identity, power, and purpose. We don’t need more polished performers at the helm; we need whole humans who are courageous enough to lead with both conviction and compassion.

Leadership that centers equity requires a radical shift away from positional authority and toward relational authenticity. It demands the kind of courage that disrupts comfort and invites transformation—an idiosyncratic courage that refuses to conform to outdated norms of neutrality or hierarchy .

This is the work of the Way-Maker and the mission of the Intersect Global Leadership Institute (IGLI): to fill the leadership competency gap with innovative, bold, transformational leaders who make a way for equity-centered change.

Leading with Identity, Not Image

For too long, leadership development has centered around image management, checking the box on diversity training while leaving identity untouched. But unresolved identity drives behavior, and behavior shapes systems. Leaders who have not reconciled their own identity cannot effectively lead inclusion or transformation.

Research on leadership identity development supports this idea, showing that meaning-making and marginalized social identities are integral to how leaders evolve and influence culture (Orsini & Sunderman, Journal of Leadership Education, 2024). Leaders who reconcile their own social identities are better positioned to lead authentically and inclusively, because they operate from awareness, not performance.

Equity-centered leadership begins with the self. It’s not a corporate strategy—it’s a human one. The reconciliation of identity allows leaders to connect authentically across difference and to model belonging in ways that transcend policy and performance metrics.

When a leader operates from reconciled identity, they lead differently. They listen deeper. They make decisions that consider lived experience. They understand that equity isn’t an initiative—it’s a way of being.

From Competency to Consciousness

At IGLI, we believe the new leadership frontier is not in skill acquisition but in conscious evolution. Competency without consciousness leads to performative action. Consciousness without courage leads to inaction. But when both meet—anchored by identity reconciliation and a people-centered ethic—transformation becomes inevitable.

This is echoed by research in Strategic Disruption (2023), which argues that equity-centered leadership must begin internally: “It’s a commitment to reimagining power, beginning with ourselves and our organizations.” That means leaders must interrogate how they show up in systems of privilege, power, and influence before they can effectively redesign them.

This new model of leadership moves beyond diversity metrics to address the question: Who must I become to lead equity?

It’s a journey that asks leaders to disrupt inherited patterns of power and proximity, to center humanity in decision-making, and to measure success not only by profit, but by the collective thriving of people and communities.

What the People Need

People need leaders who are:

• Reconciled: grounded in self-awareness and identity wholeness.

• Courageous: willing to challenge inequity, even when it costs comfort or favor.

• Relational: committed to belonging as a strategic and spiritual imperative.

• Idiosyncratic: unafraid to lead differently, disrupt norms, and embody purpose.

• Transformational: devoted to creating systemic change, not symbolic gestures.

Research consistently shows that when leaders center people and belonging, organizations thrive. Inclusive leadership behaviors foster psychological safety, empowerment, creativity, and retention (Shore et al., Human Resource Management Review, 2018). Similarly, belonging has been identified as a key driver of engagement, confidence, and productivity (Inclusive Leadership Institute Report, 2022).

As leaders, our call is to embody the future we say we believe in—to move beyond statements and step into stewardship. To make equity the center, not the sidebar, of how we lead, live, and serve.

A Final Reflection

If leadership is what shapes the world, then it’s time we ask not what leaders do, but who they are becoming. The people are not waiting for perfection; they are waiting for presence.

And presence—the kind that heals, includes, and transforms—is what the world, and the workplace, need most right now.

Making a Way for Equity-Centered Leadership™

Learn more at | http://www.intersectgloballeadership.com

For partnership or media inquiries: Hello@intersectgloballeadership.com 

References

1. Orsini, C., & Sunderman, A. (2024). Leadership identity development, meaning-making, and marginalized social identities. Journal of Leadership Education. Emerald Publishing.

2. Shore, L. M., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Ehrhart, K. H., Jung, D. I., Randel, A. E., & Singh, G. (2018). Diverse and inclusive leadership: Impacts on performance and belonging. Human Resource Management Review, Elsevier.

3. The Importance of Belonging in the Workplace (2022). Inclusive Leadership Institute.

4. Reimagining Power: Why Equity-Centered Leadership Must Start Internally (2023). Strategic Disruption.

5. Chase, Y. L. (2020). Becoming a Way-Maker: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Belonging. Diversity Way-Maker.