S9E8: Becoming a Future-Ready Leader

What does it take to lead well when the ground will not stop shaking? In this solo episode, Laura introduces the Future-Ready Leader Model, a tree-based framework for leading from the inside out, through your roots, your trunk, and your branches.

Roots. Your internal foundation: Self-awareness, emotional regulation, values, and grounding.
Trunk. Your strategic positioning: The clarity and intentional choices that keep you standing.
Branches. Your expansive impact: The influence, relationships, and reach beyond your role.

You were not designed to only lead when things are easy. Future-ready leadership is not about becoming someone different. It is about going deeper into who you already are, and growing anyway.

“You can have the most impressive branches in the room. But if your roots are shallow, one hard wind takes you down.”

Take the free Future-Ready Leader Assessment. Fifteen questions, about five minutes, and you get your profile, your scores across all three dimensions, your strengths, your growth edge, and three next steps.

https://futureready.blackwomanleading.com/

About Laura Laura Knights is the Creator of Black Woman Leading® and host of the podcast. She is an executive coach, speaker, facilitator, and licensed clinical social worker with 20+ years of experience creating personal and professional development programs that have touched leaders worldwide.

Her expertise and background in business, human resources, adult education, and social work uniquely equip her to teach others how to deal with both the “head work” and “heart work” required to succeed at work and in life. She is the Founder and CEO of Knights Consulting LLC, a leadership development consultancy that provides customized training and coaching programs to create more confident leaders and high-performing teams.

Black Woman Leading® is a research-backed initiative which offers leadership development programming, a podcast, and an annual conference for Black women professionals. Black Woman Leading® is an initiative of Knights Consulting LLC. Learn more at blackwomanleading.com.

BWL Resources:

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Check out the BWL line dance tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eui89AmJwUg