Darren Walker on Courageous Leadership

On July 25, the McNulty Foundation hosted a conversation on fearless leadership at the 2018 Resnick Action Forum in celebration of the 2018 John P. McNulty Prize Laureates: Govindraj Ethiraj, Hope Azeda, Dave Gilboa and Mehrdad Baghai. "This year’s laureates are amazing, singular, inspiring people,” said McNulty Foundation President Anne Welsh McNulty. “Each of their stories is different — they’re different sectors, different parts of the world — and yet all of us are so incredibly amazed at the work they have done.” The laureates bring change to different sectors around the world as they fight for information transparency in India, use arts to heal in Rwanda, broaden access to school vision care in the US and build hate-free communities around the globe. To kick off the event Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation and McNulty Prize Jury member spoke to McNulty Prize winner and co-founder of B Lab Jay Coen Gilbert about leadership and courage.

After beginning his career in finance, Darren Walker spent a year teaching at a school in Harlem, an experience that gave him an important lesson in humility because, as he said, “you don’t just turn up at a school and, like, help.” It was at this time in his life that he began working in social change, taking the skills he honed on Wall Street and using them to help low income communities.

Jay Coen Gilbert brought up the topic of patriotism and though Walker acknowledges a deep love for his country, he also feels a deep anger for the systemic violence and racism that still plague us. “Every day I need to calibrate my rage with my optimism,” Walker said. “As a black man in this country who lives with an extraordinary amount of privilege, I see what happens to people who don’t have my privilege.” He finds a tension between a legitimate and riotous anger about the world and hope, a hope that drives him in his career in philanthropy. Walker believes that leaders need to push the envelope even though "it is so hard to be a fearless leader, because all of the signals around us discourage courage.” He cautioned that many institutions today focus too heavily on preservation and stewardship rather than courageous leadership. Democratic institutions have become increasingly dependent on the resources of a few, allowing those few to make the decisions that affect society as a whole. Instead, Walker argues that leadership needs to be about bravery and taking chances, an approach that has led to many successes, as well as criticisms, throughout his career.

Ultimately, it is those with privilege who are in the position to stand up. For that reason, Walker keeps dialing up the risk and taking chances, embodying the kind of fearless leadership that is so necessary to the world today.