More than food and music

Hello Beautiful Human,

Being born into the world to certain parents, with a certain skin tone, with a certain language and privileges isn’t something we had any say in and no manual exists that makes it all make sense.

It doesn’t mean I haven’t been searching for one or compiling resources to make it make sense. I’ve learned a lot and know I have so much I’m still learning.

The good news is, I don’t have to have all the answers. Thinking that I did was part of what was keeping me from sharing the insights and learnings that I had gathered along my journey.

Woven through my journey is curiosity about culture.

When I was young I had friends tell me that they wished they had a “cool cultural” background like mine. What does that mean? … I’ve explored it and have empathy for those disconnected from their roots. I find it interesting that the “othering” of my culture also functioned as an catalyst to explore and love it.

The truth is- We ALL live within culture. It’s that air we breathe and stitched into our nervous system.

Culture is why I tell my children to use their fork instead of allowing them to use their hands (despite the research that eating with your hands aids digestion).

It’s why we apologize for being a minute or two late for a meeting.

Below is an image outlining the depths in which culture impacts us.

Within the field of change management there’s a saying, “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch”. It’s true within businesses and truth within ourselves.

PBS Google Classroom- Iceberg Concept of Culture Image

We can try leadership hacks or communication tactics addressing the top parts of the iceberg but if we aren’t aware of the deeper stuff and know how to lovingly work with it, than incongruencies and embodied misalignment happens, which is a huge mental and emotional energy drain.

Are you burned out or just misaligned?

When I first read, Juana Bordes’ book, The Power of Latino Leadership when it was released in 2013, it was a mirror reflecting what was below the surface for me.

Reading it in contrast to the assigned HBR leadership article was like enjoying a warm tortilla in my grandma’s kitchen – nourishing and comforting.

Culture is held within our nervous system, within our senses that feed information to our brain as to whether we belong or not, what’s expected, and whether we will, “be ok” or not.

Our brain and body have a wondrous capacity to expand beyond a single culture.

We can investigate social narratives that no longer support what we desire to create in the world and powerfully choose to evolve and grow.

Juana’s book served as a starting point and I begun to observe the many other cultures at work within nonprofit, capitalist, and the complex social impact space.

Observing culture with curiosity rather than judgement allows us to celebrate, shift, and transform parts of our identity and nervous system wiring that were hidden from our awareness.

We all live within and come from a variety of cultures that contribute to how we show up as leaders and influence our limiting beliefs.

Understanding those various cultures is also the unlock to authentic and empowered leadership.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month.