What a time, y’all. What. A. Time.
Let’s begin with a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Whew! Okay.
Please allow us to introduce ourselves: Axis Talent Partners. We are a collection of women, women of color, immigrants, and daughters of immigrants, who – in our work lives – run an executive search firm. And if you know anything about us, you know Axis is not your typical executive search firm. Since our very beginning over a decade ago, we have intentionally focused on recruiting leaders of color and of identities that are often marginalized, seeking to correct for the way traditional hiring and executive search favors certain groups and excludes others. We seek to ensure our own and our clients’ interview processes are fair, reflect dignity and care, and actively disrupt the biases we all carry. We’ve always called this centering of equity and inclusion ‘just best practice for how you treat people. All people.’
All of this puts us in touch with extraordinary leaders and social impact organizations all over the country, and gives us a unique perspective on the nonprofit and job-seeking landscape. It also gives us a front row seat to the backlash against DEI, the downsizing or elimination of organizations, programs and services that we know firsthand communities rely on. We also see daily the direct impact on the individual black women who make up the 320,000 and counting pushed out of the workforce.
We are also moms, friends, care providers and community members who, in this moment – maybe like you – are struggling to make meaning of the world around us. Our work is deeply personal to us, placing leaders in amazing organizations who have incredible impact on real lives around the country. We make it our business to build relationships – with candidates, with clients, with colleagues – that are authentic, deep, and long lasting. It is immensely painful to see so much damage being done, to so many, and on such a scale as it is right now. (Ugh. Maybe time for another inhale…… exhale.)
And so that is what brings us here. As we watch this destruction, wrestle with our grief and anger, we keep asking ourselves how we’ll sustain our work and ourselves – in this moment, and in the years to come. To cope, we keep coming back to a mantra of sorts. Community, connection, and joy as an antidote to chaos and pain. And yes, if you’re wondering, we’re thinking directly of Dr. King’s wisdom and his Beloved Community concept.
We see community, connection, and joy as pathways to our collective healing. (And Ooof! Our world is in dire need of some deep healing right now.) We see community, connection, and joy as a form of resistance and a demonstration of resilience. At a moment when the highest powers in our country seek to divide us, we seek instead to share the ways in which people are finding joy, creating connection and building community. Together, they are a message to those that destroy and divide, that we can still show up with love.
On that note, we get to see community, connection, and joy in action in leadership all around us. In fact, they are an essential part of the type of leadership we seek to elevate. The diverse humans we work to identify and support – across ethnicity, gender, background, and experience – don’t just lead with strategy and skill. They lead with humanity. They build the communities that sustain movements, forge the connections that bridge divides, and create the joy that makes lasting impact.
Join us in our new Substack, where we’ll share reflections, stories, resources, and inspiration as it comes our way in the practice. We’ll shine a light on the stories of survival, of starting over, of impact, and of thriving – that we have the joy of witnessing regularly in our work. We hope you’ll share with us as well. We can remind each other that our light is needed more than ever, and we’ll get through dark times together.
