UnLeadership

9Game-Changing Leadership

Orlando Bowen is a game changer and a messenger of hope who inspires change with his words and delivers results with his actions. A keynote speaker, Orlando teaches companies to use forgiveness as a high-performance tool as well as team building and overcoming adversity. He is a speaker, mentor, and the founder and executive director at One Voice, One Team Youth Leadership Organization. His enthusiasm for and commitment to empowering others to get off the sidelines and become difference makers on their teams and in the lives of those around them is contagious.

(Highlights from our interview, recorded May 29, 2023.)

SOME FOLKS SEE LEADERSHIP AS a title or position, but you can lead from anywhere if you show up in a way that honors people. At One Voice, One Team, we encourage young people to do what they can to serve. Sometimes they say, “I don't come from means, Mr. Orlando, I don't have a lot to offer.” And we tell them, “You have more than you realize. You are not alone; we're going to lead together.” Leadership is about doing what we can with what we have. We often talk about “Ubuntu,” a word rooted in the Zulu language that means “I am because we are.” When we look at life through this lens of our shared humanity, so much is possible, and leadership becomes how we show up in ways that honor and defend that shared humanity. We often talk about what it means to show up in restorative ways, Afro Indigenous and Indigenous ways of connecting, healing, ...