I deeply appreciated this podcast’s discussion of Invisible Leadership. After learning about it last year, I have remained very interested in the concept. I think it tied in well with Dr. Bezio’s statement that leaders are not necessarily any different from other individuals in attributes. This two ideas seem to suggest that even the leaders that we see as prominent and well-known are actually a product of the invisible leadership of many different people or groups. This idea is reflected in Hayter’s work, discussing how the Black voter population of Richmond, VA organized and were able effectively outvote and oppose those attempting to suppress their right to vote. This was not a result of one or a few select, “special” leaders, but a collective effort by numerous individuals gathering and collaborating to unite under a common goal. This is not meant to minimize or diminish the work of those who initiated and primarily organized these efforts, but these individuals were still not the leaders who we remember most commonly from the Civil Rights Movements, such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks as Dr. Bezio mentions in the podcast, but rather leaders that helped guide other to all participate in this common goal under invisible leadership.

One thing I am curious about is the role of invisible leadership in determining who specifically become the face of a given movement. Dr. Bezio describes the reasons that both Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks became the public-facing leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. However, I am interested in understanding how those individuals were chosen. The podcast discusses how these individuals were chosen in part to appeal to white people, but how did these individuals come to the forefront of a movement fueled by invisible leadership? Did many people collectively agree to support these individuals, or were they chosen by a select number of individuals? This is one area of invisible leadership that I would like to better understand, because I think to an extent it relates to the power structures that exist in our society. Many of our common goals in society require collective effort and invisible leadership, however, in the United States, our focus tends to be on the actions of Congress people, the President, and other individuals in the highest positions of power. We seem to lose sight of the power invisible leadership in our communities throughout the country. How does invisible leadership connect, or potentially not connect, to the ways we select public-facing leaders and influencers in our society?