Chapter 6: Leadership Thread Six: Intersectional

Applying the construct of intersectionality to leadership theory provides a pathway to integrate marginalized and privileged identities into one’s leadership practice. The ability to bring one’s complete self to the practice of leadership and acquire a sense of belonging will serve as the focus of this chapter.

Readers are introduced to the concept of intersectional leadership. The Leadership Kaleidoscope^™ is presented as a tool to provide readers with a critical lens to discern how social systems and structures inform and impact their intersectional identity, sense of belonging, and influence their leadership development. One key epistemic enhancement of shifting to an intersectional lens is that it disrupts the prevailing leadership paradigm. The author invites readers to consider how this shift is pivotal to leadership development.

The benefit of establishing an intersectional lens in leadership theory and practices is acquiring a more robust understanding of how individual agency engages social systems and structures. This epistemic shift provides leaders with the ability to bring their whole selves to leadership and secure a sense of belonging. This new juncture situates individuals in a new and ideal leadership location – intersectional belonging. To arrive at this location, readers will be introduced to the Intersectional Belonging in Leadership Framework^™. This framework presents readers with another way of thinking that contends our identities and the way they intersect is integral to the process of achieving a state of acceptance for oneself and by society.