Al Grano - Redefining Leadership on the Frontlines

Leadership on the frontlines isn’t clean, easy, or perfect. In Episode 2 of Al Grano, Nora Vargas gets real about navigating power, responsibility, and leadership as a Latina operating in systems that weren’t built for us.

This is leadership beyond the title — rooted in presence, accountability, and showing up again and again.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to El Grano Cornora Vargas real talk on power and possibility without the fluff. Muy contenta and happy to be here with all of you. With um, you know, for over 30 years, I've been on the front lines navigating crises and breaking barriers. I started off as an executive assistant, I've been in a community organizer, CEO, and most uh recently 12 years of uh serving as an elected official. Yep, 12 years of making decisions, caring responsibility, and navigating it all without a playbook. And so season two of the American Dream, uh Despite It All, uh, is a podcast about real talk, real conversation, about leadership power, responsibility, and possibility. It really is about what it means to keep believing and what do we do to really think about how we define the American dream, despite it all. I want us to be able to have, and and what I bring to this is a different lens to what leadership is, because the reality is the world doesn't look the same for everyone, and it definitely doesn't look the same for Latinas and for women of color. And I don't think we talk about it enough. So, how many times have you been told lean in, let them be imperfect, be vulnerable, be your authentic self, and then you do, and when you do, non les gusta, dan una patada, and out you go. So, how do we navigate that? How do we lead on our terms while we're still operating in systems that weren't built for us? How do we learn from them? We navigate them, we push them, and sometimes how do we dismantle them and create new pathways? Y la verdad pues is exhausting, and that's the real real. So, this season we talk about the lessons from leading on the front lines, not just theory, but what actually holds. And so today's conversation, it really is our real talk, is to get clear on what is leadership. And today's topic, uh, one of my favorite authors um or practitioners was Peter Drucker. Um, some of you may know, I went to Claremont Graduate University, and I actually got a chance to be in one of the classes uh before this wonderful legend. And uh it was a crisis, I think it was crisis management class. And um one of the definitions that he has is the only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. I want you to let that soak in. The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers, and then there's uh John Maxwell who said leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And both of them are definitions, you know. I went in and I looked for definitions that that people use um in the world of of leadership development, and and yes, those matter. But when you're actually leading, that's not enough, right? Because when you're on the front lines, it's not as clean, it's not a definition, it's actually a practice. And leadership looks like making decisions without all the information. Leadership looks like holding tension between what's urgent and what's right and what has to be done right now, right? Leadership looks like listening to what's said and what isn't said. Leadership looks like accountability, about owning decisions, and even when they're hard, making those decisions. And so leadership to me looks like discipline, making sure that you choose how you respond. Leadership is about awareness, about reading the room and understanding dynamics, and really thinking about leadership as relational because people feel it. And especially for Latinas and for women of color, how we show up is constantly being read, right? So, what does that mean? Um, as Latinas and as women of color, we are redefining leadership and how leadership matters and how we lead, and we lead in many cases with corazón. And sometimes when we think about leadership, we think about it as titles, and what we forget is that leadership um actually is a way of building trust. So the leader in an organization or in a company is not always the CEO, right? The leader is not always the executive, there are leaders at all different levels. Um, and those leaders are making decisions and are influencing in a different way. And when you think about those leaders, like I think about leaders and with the promotoras that I work with, or like the organizers, the volunteers, different folks who are in leadership um roles or assume these leadership roles, I've always seen a couple of things that they do very, very well. One is they check in with folks, they listen and they listen early, they're good at naming tension, they're good at creating space, they are the folks that are making sure that they're bringing other people along when they're doing this work. And to me, I think that's where the real leadership uh lies, where these are the folks who are able to move folks, engage folks, and then also are able to question. And many of the times what I've realized is that that leadership is not just the petition, the position, it really is the practice, the practice of being able to engage, the practice to be being able to um move people, and the the practice of being able to see um to see through the BS, to be able to decipher information and to really be able to scan their ground um when others may not be able to. And I say that because at times people will have titles, like you can be a manager, you can be a director, you can be an executive. And that doesn't mean you may be in a leadership role, but that doesn't mean you're actually leading, right? And I'll never forget when I was first starting out as an executive, uh my former boss said to me, you know, you know, you're really good at what you do, you are um you, you know, you're very caring, you're very passionate, but sometimes you're moving ahead too fast, and you have to be able to explain to folks the why, you have to be able to really share with people the information, and it's not always you have all the answers, right? And to me, that was a pivotal moment in my growth as at the time I was an executive, and it was a pivotal moment for me because you know, there's this expectation that as a leader you always have the answers, and that is not what true leadership is. True leadership is about knowing that you may have a path, and so how do you bring other people along so that there's buy-in and that you're able to get to your final path and your final um goal as you're moving forward? And I'll never forget that experience because I think it it created a transition for me and my leadership style and in the work that I did to be able to move a team forward that that had a bigger and greater vision beyond the goals that I was trying to accomplish at that moment. And to me, that type of practice of being able to step back and be able to really think about uh what it looks like is one of those things where I remember sitting there thinking, ah, like they should just do this, they should do that, and I'm thinking, and I'm like, I don't know why they don't do it. And then I thought, well, I'm the one in charge, I can make a difference, I can actually be the one sharing and building and looking at things in a different way. And I think that really is what brings me to this uh no manches moment because if I think about leadership, I think it's always presented to you like you're supposed to have it all figured out, or like you know, you walk into a room and you silently have this clarity and confidence in this direction. And you know, I always say no manches like you know, I didn't grow up in a family where I had people who were executives in my family. We didn't, that's not what conversations that we were having. Um, you know, there wasn't a book that anybody gave me. And even though I went to graduate school and I was learning about crisis management and leadership, I didn't do that until way later. I mean, I became an executive at a young age when I was about 20 something. And so I didn't know, right? I was reading, and we didn't have Google back then, that's how old I am, so I couldn't just Google how to become a better manager. Um, so you kind of learn, and sometimes you learn from other people's bad habits. Actually, most of the time you did. And so a lot of it was you're having to figure it out in real time. And so what I learned is that you had to read the room, you had to adjust, you had to make decisions. Sometimes you didn't have all of the information, and and sometimes you were expected to make it look easy. And you never had conversations about like following your intuition because you know, a couple of decades ago, that was not a thing. We weren't talking about that that way. And so um it wasn't easy to be carrying around this responsibility, but I think the biggest challenge for me is if I think about it, uh, as I have grown in my leadership and where I was an executive in my 20s, late 20s, versus the executive that I was um uh, you know, in my late 40s, uh a lot of it really was the seeking the perfection and and really trying to have all the answers. And the reality is that that is not how leadership works. And trying to really think about what leadership meant to me and how I wanted to treat my team and what I wanted them to have and what how I wanted them to be was things that I had to think about on a daily basis. And so I think one of the things about that I think about in terms of the no manches piece is like so many times that I was like, no manches, I don't know why these people are not doing that, and then realizing that I was the people that had the power to make the difference, right? I was responsible for the budget, I was responsible for the team, I was responsible for being able to ask the questions. And so transitioning to that piece where you own your power to be able to move forward is not something that many times we learn. There's a lot more work and a lot more um time that is spent now with people to make sure that they know that they can. But the truth is that um it's not always something that we make time for. And so uh as we're moving forward, I want to make sure we remind ourselves that leadership is not about perfection, it's about being present. And so as I think about the granito de arena, the oro, perdon, that I want to leave you with is that um leadership isn't about control, it's about letting go. And and that can be tough, right? It's really about how you show up and uh when you don't have the answers, it's really how you stay grounded under pressure, how you make decisions without all of the perfect information, how you listen beyond what's what actually is being said, how you own your role and outcomes, and how you include uh those people that are going to be impacted by your decision, not only your team members, but the folks that you're impacting by your decision. And I think that's extremely powerful. So this week I want you to really think uh about a couple of things. First, um pause before you react. Uh, ask one more question, listen a little longer, uh, check yourself because the truth is that that's where leadership lives. Not in the title, it's in the moment. Leadership on the front lines isn't about getting it right every time, it's about showing up again and again with clarity, intention, and responsibility. To me, that's the true definition of leadership. And so I'm grateful for you uh being here uh for this season two, episode two of El Grano, The American Dream Despite It All, as we uh continue to redefine what leadership looks like on the front lines, and we have real talk about what it looks like now and a couple of the things that we can do as we move forward. So make sure that you share with me your thoughts, make sure that you share this podcast with other folks that you think um might benefit from it, and I would love to hear from you and how um all this resonates with you as well. So this is Nora Vargas Fidel Grano, the American dream despite it all. Let's keep moving forward.