Turning Pain into Purpose: Leon Ford’s Leadership Lessons
“I’m turning pain into purpose”-those are the words that Leon Ford shared earlier this week in a session with Dina Kaplan, founder of The Path.
There were about 100 people on the virtual zoom gathering. Each of us was processing our own pain as we listened intently to Leon’s. We were all visibly inspired by Leon’s courage to take something so traumatically awful and turn it into his life’s purpose. I felt my heart hurt again around the edges when he was speaking. I could see the pain and sadness on other people’s faces. I could feel them, too, despite the distance and screen between us.
I also saw and felt hope. Hope expressed through Leon’s courage in sharing and hope held through our active and supportive listening.
Leon’s leadership mantra is helping people ease their own pain while also turning that pain into purposeful action. He doesn’t want to dwell on the story. He wants to focus, instead, on the change he is driving. He is committed to rebuilding the system that let this happen to him and so many other Black people. The story, though painful, is a necessary part of the story for us to hear, especially White people. As White people, we haven’t heard these stories as much. We’ve either been protected from them, or have chosen to look the other way. We can’t look the other way anymore. And…
