Author and leadership trainer Juana Bordas says the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was her main inspiration, as he promoted the concept of the leader as equal.
“He went into a leadership role reluctantly, but he was so articulate and so brilliant that he kept being put in leadership positions,” Bordas says.
King also demonstrated leadership in choosing key associates, she says. “He always had a cadre of leaders around him including Andrew Young, who was later the mayor of Atlanta; Jesse Jackson; and Ralph Abernathy. By getting the community to lead itself, the movement kept going forward.”
Bordas, president of Mestiza Leadership International and founder of Mi Casa Women’s Center in Denver, will present the lecture “Diversity: Weaving Together the Sources of our Strength,” at the Business and Finance MLK Day Convocation from 1-3 p.m. Jan. 17 at Rackham Auditorium. The program will include a performance by MOSAIC Youth Theater of Detroit. A reception will follow.
As a student at the University of Florida in the early 1960s, Bordas heard John Kennedy speak, and was moved to join the Peace Corps. She served two years in South America. “That set me on the path to studying leadership; it was my first decision about how to serve others,” Bordas recalls.
Photo courtesy Juana Bordas.
The work of Mestiza Leadership International focuses on leadership, diversity and organizational change. Its message is captured in her book “Salsa, Soul and Spirit.” It promotes a multicultural leadership model that identifies eight principles from black, Latino and Indian cultures.
Bordas says that in studying leadership styles in communities of color, she found a key similarity: “In Native American culture there is the same idea of reciprocal leadership. A leader listens first, then makes a decision.” She says King similarly would consider all ideas, then meditate and pray before reaching a decision.
