Evolving Leadership in These Evocative Times: Wisdom From the Queer Community

Dr. Laura welcomes Dr. Joel Davis Brown. Chief Visionary Officer of Pneumos LLC, sought-after speaker, and author of “The Souls of Queer Folk: How Understanding LGBTQ+ Culture Can Transform Your Leadership Practice”, to Where Work Meets Life™ to talk about his journey, leadership, and what we can all learn from the queer community. Joel discusses how he worked to uncover what it means to be queer from an ethnographic standpoint, validating and understanding the community, in order to understand their leadership lessons. 

Joel and Dr. Laura explore the nine queer leadership principles from Joel’s book, including justice, verve, resilience, and interconnectedness, which are core leadership competencies everyone should embrace. Joel highlights the importance of gratitude, differentiating it from toxic positivity, the significance of coming out, how leaders must heal themselves to do transformational work, and how soulful leadership embodies the essence of an individual. The conversation illuminates the depths of experience in the queer community, the insights Joel has pulled from the community to write his book, and the power of interconnectedness and storytelling.

“Leadership is a life book. It's not a business book. So leadership applies to how you lead yourself, how you interact and engage with your family, your spouse, your children, your community, and yes, with the world. And so in that space, I think there's an opportunity for people to learn and to benefit from the wisdom of the queer community, asking: how can I be better as an individual? How can I be a better version of myself? How can I have a better relationship with my family? How can I support my organization? And also, how can we create a better planet? So that's in essence what this book is about.” Dr. Joel Davis Brown

About Dr. Joel Davis Brown Esq., Ed.D., CLC:

Dr. Joel A. Davis Brown is the Chief Visionary Officer of Pneumos LLC, a management consulting company based in San Francisco, California, and Nairobi, Kenya, specializing in cultural intelligence, leadership development, organizational strategy and change management, and strategic storytelling. Joel is also the co-owner of MetaPrinciple, a training and certification company that coaches practitioners on sustaining systems work globally using a modern theory of change.

Best known for his critical analysis, creativity, humor, and his ability to build consensus, Joel has partnered with Fortune 500 Companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies to help them achieve sustained growth and organizational breakthroughs. He has worked with the City and County of San Francisco, Apple, Workday, UserTesting, the United Nations, Pivotal Enterprises, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the American Civil Liberties Union, and many other Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and institutions of learning.

Joel is a member of several professional communities, including SIETAR, SIETAR Europa, Young SIETAR, and the International Association of Cross-Cultural Management. Joel is also a certified facilitator with the Cultural Detective suite of intercultural tools. Since 2018, Joel has served as an adjunct professor at the IESEG Management school in Lille and Paris, France, where he teaches Masters courses on emotional intelligence, strategic storytelling, and story listening. Joel has also designed programs that focus on Ethics in Leadership, Cross-cultural Dialogue, LGBTQ Inclusion, and Men’s Leadership.

Joel has his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and his doctorate in educational leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California, which included domestic and international coursework in design thinking, global citizenship, innovation, and peace education. Joel has travelled to nearly 95+ countries, is conversational in Spanish, and has studied abroad in Costa Rica. Joel is also a nationally recognized spoken word artist in the United States. His award-winning and best-selling book, “The Souls of Queer Folk: How Understanding LGBTQ+ Culture Can Transform Your Leadership Practice,” was published in February 2023. Joel also curates and facilitates a Queer leadership forum, the Queer Leaders Lens, for aspiring and established LGBTQIA2S+ leaders all around the globe. 

Resources:

Website: JoelDavisBrown.com

Website: Pneumos.com

Book: “The Souls of Queer Folk: How Understanding LGBTQ+ Culture Can Transform Your Leadership Practice” by Dr. Joel A Davis Brown

LinkedIn: JoelAnthonyBrown

Instagram: @JoelABrown

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