You CAN use your leadership as a force for collective liberation.
Holas! My name’s Petra Vega. Pronouns: She/ Her/ Ella
I help BIPOC and Queer leaders align their liberatory values with their liberatory actions (especially when self-doubt is the cause for the discrepancy).
I understand how deeply you crave speaking up authentically and collectively even though you might believe:
🍄 I need to be 104% healed first
🍄 I need to be “overly confident”
🍄 I need validation from other people
🍄 I need to be a perfect realization of my values
🍄 I have to know-it-all
Leading by example is complex and confusing, grab a resource below to make it easier.
“Change is fucking hard.” 😞
Whether you’re looking at personal or systemic change, you could probably use some new approaches and strategies to make it LESS hard, LESS alone and LESS forced.
“Can I give you some feedback?”😧
Feedback is essential for growth but not enough of us have any sense of how to do it without traumatizing each other or without reinforcing oppressive systems of what is and is not “acceptable”.
But who am I?!
Holas, I’m Petra Vega!
Pronouns: She/Her/Ella
I’m a Liberatory Leadership Coach, Social Justice Facilitator, Emergent Strategist and Radical Social Worker.
All of these self-defined titles encompass my perspective on leadership that is grounded in a place of liberation, about making things easier to lean into, getting at the root, and leaning on the nature of the change to support our visions and desires.
I offer customized coaching for leaders who want to lead with MORE purpose and trust and LESS pressure and anxiety about perfection (aka internalized White Supremacy culture).
I provide consultation and facilitation for groups and organizations who want to translate their liberatory values into their programs, policies, and processes, all of which I describe as daily practices.
As someone who helps others cultivate their own flavor of Liberatory Leadership, I wanted to share my definition of this term into the world.
But first, let’s break them apart.
Liberatory: the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; freedom from limits on thought or behavior.
Leadership: the process of being responsible for self and responsive to others (this is how I’m redefining leadership).
If I were to put these two together in an expansive way, here’s what I would say:
But I didn’t start here (no one does, homie)!
Create More Possibilities was born out of the overlap between individual change and systemic change as a pathway to move towards a compelling future.
Wanna learn about how I went from cautious to courageous?
Read about my story and why I decided to water this seedling of a desire to help historically marginalized leaders, like you, do leadership differently.
Do any of these sound like you?
👉🏼I want to be the change. You’re someone who wants to be the kind of leader, manager or supervisor you wish you had as a worker but you’re not sure where to start or if you really can make a change.
👉🏽I need some help translating the theory into practice. You’re someone who’s done lots of learning and unlearning about equity, social justice, oppression, trauma, change and people but aren’t sure how to put those beliefs and ideas into everyday action.
👉🏾I am NOT okay. You’re someone who’s struggling with a new role or you recognize that you are no longer leading by example and you see the negative impact that has on you and the people around you.
👉🏿I’m feeling real good. You’re someone who appreciates having a support system, shared accountability and thought partnership from someone who knows the ins and outs of leading by example, especially when you’re goal is to do right by people and the planet.
Still with me?
Here’s what I didn’t know THEN that you need to know NOW:
#1) You belong here. You are uniquely suited to do the work you’re doing, with the people you are doing it with, for the people you are doing it for. IT’S YOU. You belong here.
#2) It’s not your fault that you feel {insert shitty emotion here}. It’s just proof that the system is working the way it was designed‒to make us feel powerless and hopeless.
#3) We’re all swimming in an ocean of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and the list goes on, even those of us who are working against it. This is the reality. Our duty is to make flushing this shit outta our system a daily practice so that we can feel the freedom we’re working towards, today.
#4) The reason you can’t ‘do the thing’ is not because you suck, it’s because you care SO MUCH that you’re getting overwhelmed in all of the ‘what if’s’ that probably aren’t doing right by you.
#5) Fear, anger and shame will always be at the party…it’s a human thing and you get to decide whether we dance, take a break or make small talk with them.
#6) We are not meant to do this work alone. There are some things that can only be articulated, healed and released if we are in a relationship with someone we can trust.
