Principled & Non-Hierarchical Expressions of Leadership

Yejin Lee (she/they) is an equity & justice coach, consultant and facilitator whose working life is currently spent immersed in identifying, uprooting, replacing, and preventing practices of oppressive harm in purpose-driven organization. They have observed the ways in which approaches to leadership sit at the root of many of these instances and patterns of harm. Having experienced and witnessed the debilitating consequences of oppressive leadership and authority, Yejin now has a deep, guttural, and visceral aversion to being seen as a leader of anything. This workshop is part of a series entitled “Leadership Icks,” an array of events for deeply principled & liberatory-minded comrades who are avoidant of and reluctant around practices of leadership because…ick.

During this 2.5-hour interactive workshop, Yejin will:

• Share thoughts, feelings and observations on the inherent limitations to equitable practices of structural/hierarchical leadership, and provide examples of how this gets expressed even by the most “progressive” organizations and spaces;
• Facilitate discussion around the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to structural/hierarchical forms of leadership, and dominant narratives/frameworks around “leadership qualities;”
• Introduce and brainstorm different ways of relating to leadership that aren’t rooted in dominance or control;
• Identify areas of life beyond economic work to practice leadership around liberatory values and politics.

While anyone interested in this topic is welcome to join, this space is designed to center:

• Folks of intersecting marginalized identities who have experienced oppressive harm;
• Sweeties whose commitment to the values of equity, justice, liberation, and collective care make it very difficult to relate to “leadership” in positive ways;
• Cuties who have reluctantly taken leadership roles, and swirl/spiral around the harm they may be causing;
• Active co-conspirators against oppressive systems/structures.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• Backup Date: In case of emergency, illness, or technical difficulty, Yejin has scheduled a backup date for this workshop - that date is Thursday, January 15th from 2:30-5:00pm. Please put a hold on your calendar just in case!
• Recording: This session will be recorded and made available to all registrants for 60 days following the event. Captions will be enabled, and the transcript will also be sent along with the recording. Since this is taking place via Zoom Meeting and will encourage interactivity, folks will have the option to request pausing the recording before they speak. The chat will also be shared, but Yejin will scrub everyone’s names from the document for added safety.
• Pricing: Yejin utilizes a justice approach to pricing, and trusts everyone to honestly locate what they are able to spend. 30 free community tickets are available to multiply-marginalized sweeties, and more seats will become available with every purchase of a “sponsor” type ticket.
• Follow-Up: All registrants will receive a comprehensive follow-up message, which includes the recording/transcript/chat/slide deck, additional resources (e.g. articles, podcast episodes), and a workbook to support internalization and application of the session.

Yejin Lee (she/they) is a queer, genderfluid, neurodivergent, 2nd gen Korean cutie comrade who works as an anti-oppression practitioner, coach and consultant. They facilitate equity-based transformation processes and catalyze generative introspection for folks interested in deepening their material commitment to liberatory praxis. Centering people of intersecting marginalized identities who experience oppressive harm, they support building practices and eco-systems of care in service of survival and liberation.

As a result of their recent return to queerness and their current explorations around their neurodivergence, Yejin seeks to make room for wholeness, softness, and lightness in and beyond their work. They are an uncertified silly goose, an anti-colonial sweetie, and love spending time dancing in anime cosplay on TikTok, playing drums, gardening, hiking, and building community around their special interests!