In professional spaces across the country, many leaders are navigating two jobs at once. The first is the role printed on their business card. The second is far less visible: constantly adjusting speech, tone, behavior, appearance, and cultural expression to fit dominant expectations.

Leadership is often associated with vision, strategy, and influence. We celebrate leaders who speak confidently, move decisively, and inspire action. But beneath every sustainable, impactful leader is a quality that rarely makes headlines: self-awareness.

Leadership is often framed as a set of skills to acquire, strategies to master, or behaviors to perform. But this narrow framing misses a fundamental truth—leadership does not begin with what you do; it begins with who you are.

Identity—our race, gender, culture, class, language, values, and lived experiences—doesn’t sit outside leadership. It actively shapes how leadership is expressed, received, and sustained. When leaders understand and embrace who they are, their impact deepens—not just for themselves, but for the communities they serve.