Events

Reflective Wrap-Up Kiki

The holidays can be complicated, especially for queer folks navigating family, community, and the weight of the season. That’s why we’re inviting you all to a gentle gathering to close the year together. We’re offering a space to pause, breathe, and be held in community before the year ends.

We’ll gather for:

• Meditation & reflection: grounding ourselves as we step into the new year.
• Open space to air grievances: naming what’s felt heavy and letting it go together.
• Connection & care: simply being with one another, without pressure or performance.

This isn’t about resolutions or productivity - it’s about making room for rest, honesty, and queer joy. Come as you are, bring what you need, and let’s share a moment of spaciousness before the calendar turns.

The "Only One in the Room" Toolkit

Being “the only one” in a space – whether by identity, experience, or perspective – can be isolating, exhausting, and deeply political. This 90-minute online workshop offers tools for navigating those moments with clarity, care, and strategy.

We’ll explore how systems like whiteness and patriarchy shape who gets to be seen, heard, and safe in leadership spaces, how privilege can buffer or intensify the weight of being “the only one,” and how we can build micro-alliances that sustain us. 

Through reflection, dialogue, and practice, we’ll name the dynamics, discern what’s ours to carry, and co-create strategies for showing up without burning out.

Leading While Masked/Unmasked

In this time of…well, all of this, hostility and division can make it hard to show up as our full selves. For queer leaders, showing up as “us” can feel both urgently important and unsafe. (How complicated is that?) In this 90-minute online workshop, we offer a space to reflect on how we balance authenticity with safety in our leadership.

Together, we’ll look at the “masks” we wear - those personas that protect us, those that help us, and those that quietly push back on power and oppression. We’ll reflect on masking in intersecting contexts such as gender, neurodivergence, and race, and look at these through a queer lens - as something flexible, creative, and even as a way of challenging norms, not just hiding. We’ll also reflect on why/when/how our masks show up, and how to make more intentional choices about them.

Through guided reflection and conversation, we’ll surface the personas you step into in different contexts, notice the power dynamics that shape them, and find language for the tensions they hold. Most importantly, we’ll explore practical strategies to choose presence over performance without giving up on keeping ourselves safe.

Leading Through Uncertainty

When you’re in a leadership role, uncertainty comes with the territory. Whether you're managing a team, problem-solving in your community, or trying to make the right call without a clear answer, things can get murky fast. And for queer folks, it often feels like we’re navigating even more unknowns than most. It's easy to get stuck in stress mode: frozen, overwhelmed, or second-guessing everything.

In this 90-minute mini-workshop, we’ll talk about what happens in your body and brain when things feel unclear, and how to get back to a place where you can lead with intention. We’ll share a couple of frameworks that'll help you lead through your stickiest challenges. You’ll leave with a clearer head and one small next step for something real you're working through.

This isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about learning to stay grounded, curious, and strategic even when everything feels a little wobbly.

Emotional Intelligence for Queer Leadership

Emotional intelligence (EQ) skills are the most important skills for leaders to have, yet white cis-heteropatriarchal leadership norms often devalue them. In this workshop, we'll delve into the transformative power of EQ in queer leadership and explore how emphasizing emotional self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal skills can benefit our effectiveness as leaders. By focusing on developing EQ skills, we can lead in alignment with our personal values and philosophy and create equitable, human-centered work environments. Participants will explore an EQ framework featuring 15 specific skills, self-reflect on their personal EQ strengths, and discover simple ways to incorporate EQ skills in decision-making, communication, and building stronger relationships across their organization and community.

Queering Leadership Confidence

Queer leaders often experience imposter feelings and societal pressures that undermine our self-worth and leadership abilities, leading to burnout, stress, and decreased effectiveness. If you're ready to see your queerness as a leadership superpower and build radical leadership confidence, join us for this dynamic and highly interactive session. We'll explore how to protect and nurture our confidence, recognizing it as an essential skill for effective leadership. We'll unpack the myths of white cis-heteropatriarchal 'confidence,' deal with pesky impostor feelings, and explore strategies for fortifying our self-concept. This session is for all queer leaders seeking to transform their leadership approach and harness the power of their unique perspectives.

Fishbowl Conversation

The world is shifting rapidly - it is frightening, and people (also us - hi - we’re people) are scared, angry, overwhelmed…and somehow still expected to function as usual. We certainly don’t have all of the answers (or any of the answers, really), but what we do know is that we have to keep getting together to talk about what we’re experiencing, how we’re feeling, and what strategies for survival, rest, connection, and resistance are available to us right now. 

Each month, the Queer Leadership Lab hosts a fishbowl conversation to explore the realities of queer leadership in the present moment. Our founding members, Taj M. Smith, Jen Self, PhD, LICSW, and Liz Cruz, will share reflections, strategies, and questions to help us all think through how to show up, push back, and protect our well-being in this moment of chaos.

This is a space to listen, reflect, and connect. Come be in community with us as we make sense of the world and imagine the futures we want to build.

Community Coaching

If you’ve ever wished you could hang out in a room full of queer folks and get support on your biggest leadership challenges…here we are!

Join the Queer Leadership Lab for a community coaching session. Whether you’re navigating complex team dynamics, managing burnout, building confidence, or figuring out how to lead authentically in a challenging environment, this session is for you. Bring your questions and challenges to the table and get real-time support from three expert queer coaches. Together, we’ll create a dynamic, supportive space where you can gain insight, perspective, and inspiration.

This is a chance to tap into collective wisdom, gain new perspectives, and leave with actionable ideas to support your leadership growth. Bring your challenges, your curiosity, and your queer brilliance—we can’t wait to work with you!