A Candle in the Dark: The Power of a Leader Who Cares

The only resolution I made this year was to let go of old narratives that no longer serve me—especially the ones tied to my career and the lingering effects of workplace trauma.

For every decade of my life, I could share stories about leaders who tried to hold me back, created toxic environments, or exploited my talents to advance their own careers. And yet, I rarely tell those stories. Not because they aren’t real, but because they don’t always tell the full story. In fact, for every one leader who left me disheartened, I can raise you two whose impact changed the entire trajectory of my career.

It’s easy—and often justified—to focus on the negative. These experiences are painful, and they often leave us without closure or clarity. What makes them even harder is that the harm often comes from someone we once admired, trusted, or aspired to emulate. That betrayal hits differently.

But in the spirit of releasing what no longer serves me, I’ve chosen to shift my focus. I’m leaning into the memory of the leaders who saw potential in me before I saw it in myself. The ones who hired me not just for who I was at the time, but for who I could become. I remember the leader who made me fall in love with nonprofit work. I remember the ones who took a chance—like the time I was hired for a data analytics role even though I had no real experience. That leader sent me to Excel courses. Five years later, I had mastered data analysis and was leading system implementations that transformed organizational efficiency.

When I weigh the scale of my career, it’s the positive leadership experiences that shaped my path most deeply. The negative ones may have wounded me—but it was the intentionality of great leaders that healed me. Their care, belief, and investment helped grow me into the leader I am today, and the founder of my own consulting firm.

At Jones 86 Coaching & Consulting, we’re passionate about leadership development because we know just how much people look to their leaders for inspiration, direction, and hope. There is immense power in being a leader who responsibly wields authority and is thoughtful about what leadership must look like in the future—not just for the organization, but for the people in it.

In this current socio-political climate, organizations are navigating unprecedented uncertainty. The call for focused, tempered, compassionate, and forward-thinking leadership has never been louder. As leaders, we have a choice:

We can be the candle in dark times—or the breath that blows the flame away.