What Does It Mean to Lead Like a Rebel in a Colonized World?

Choosing something radically different than the leadership models we’ve inherited

Jul 01, 2025

Note: In honor of the upcoming Fourth of July, I thought I’d bring back an old blog post from 2022, now reframed through the lens of rebel leadership. If you ever want to read the scattered musings of a younger me, you can visit www.susiefishleder.com/blog

The first time I heard the term "decolonize" a few years ago, I was perplexed.

"Decolonize?" I thought. "Does that mean all the white people just go back to Europe? How would that work?"

Well, that's not exactly what it means. And even though I've learned a lot over the last few years about what it means to "decolonize," I've learned even more about how much I DON’T know. What I've come to understand lately is that decolonization isn't just about history — it's about the systems we've inherited and whether we're brave enough to choose something radically different. So in recognition that this Friday is Independence Day, I thought this week we could talk a little bit about decolonizing!

As a white descendant of colonizers who benefits daily from institutions built on stolen land, I can't separate myself from this legacy. In fact, my own personal history offers the first entry point and question into this conversation: Am I, as the descendent of colonizers, able to separate myself from my ancestry to look at this topic with the appropriate level of sensitivity, empathy, and understanding? (Spoiler alert: I don’t know, probably not, but I’m going to do my best, and I’ve included a list of the people I’ve learned from for you to follow at the end of my post.) But I CAN examine how colonizer values show up in the way we've been taught to lead, and ask what it might look like for all of us to rebel against those models entirely.

The Leadership Legacy We Inherited

Many of my ancestors came to this land as early as the 1600s, and recently I was able to visit the graves of my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents (that’s 7 greats!) on Long Island:

Standing on land that my ancestors walked for hundreds of years was deeply moving for someone who never felt like she belonged growing up. But I cannot ignore the fact that if my ancestors were living on Long Island in the 1600s, they were part of the colonizing settlers from Europe.

To colonize means to take control of a people or area, especially as an extension of state power. It means imposing beliefs, value systems, and ways of knowing upon others. And here's what's important to remember for those of us thinking about leadership: the people willing to travel across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1600s weren't just seeking adventure. They were escaping violence, trauma, and oppression.

Anti-racist educator Resmaa Menakem describes the brutal reality that spurred this migration: "The 1500s and 1600s in England and Europe were anything but gentle times. People were routinely burned at the stake for religious heresy... Torture was an official instrument of the English government until 1640." https://medium.com/@rmenakem/how-racism-began-as-white-on-white-violence-55b43ec1ccf3

But instead of leaving this brutality behind, these settlers brought inherited trauma and violent systems with them. Punishments in the original colonies still included branding, whipping, or hanging from gallows. People (usually women) accused of witchcraft were drowned, stoned, or burned alive. They didn't just colonize land, they established ways of organizing power that we still live with today.

Colonizer Leadership in Action

Think about the leadership models we've normalized: hierarchy over collaboration, where someone must be "in charge" and others must follow. Competition over cooperation, rooted in a scarcity mindset that says there's not enough power, resources, or success to go around. Extraction over reciprocity, taking what you need without considering the cost to others or the earth. Individual achievement over collective care, perpetuating the myth that successful leaders are self-made and don't owe anything to their communities. And domination over partnership, leading through fear, control, and the threat of consequences.

These aren't just "traditional" leadership styles. They're colonizer leadership styles, rooted in the assumption that some people deserve more power than others, and that the earth and its beings exist for human consumption and control.

What Decolonized Leadership Looks Like

The official definition of decolonize is to free a people or area from colonial status. But more broadly, it means a return to ways of being that existed before colonization's impact. For Rebel Leaders, this means questioning nearly everything we've been taught about power, success, and what it means to guide others.

Indigenous communities, Black liberation movements, feminist organizers, and other marginalized groups have prioritized forms of leadership that center collective decision-making instead of top-down control, reciprocity and relationship instead of extraction and transaction, honoring all beings (including the earth) instead of human supremacy, circular time and seasonal rhythms instead of constant growth and productivity, and vulnerability and authentic connection instead of performative authority.

I'm not trying to appropriate these practices or claim I can fully understand experiences of colonization that I haven't lived. But I can ask: What would it mean to lead in ways that actively disrupt the harmful patterns I've inherited?

The Rebel Leader's Practice

"Decolonization is not a metaphor, it's an active practice." — Gogo uMkhanyakude Wase Manzini (From https://podbay.fm/p/sex-love-and-superpowers-on-the-superpower-network/e/1610359221)

This is where rebellion becomes sacred work. Every time we choose collaboration over competition, every time we share power instead of hoarding it, every time we prioritize collective wellbeing over individual advancement — we're practicing decolonized leadership.

This isn't just about being "nice" or "inclusive." It's about recognizing that the leadership models we inherited are actively harming people and the planet, and choosing to do something different requires courage.

Decolonizing leadership isn't just about changing my personal style. It's about actively working to dismantle systems that concentrate power in the hands of a few while extracting from the many.

For Indigenous communities, decolonization means land back and sovereignty, not just mindset shifts. For Black communities, it means reparations and the end of white supremacist violence, not just diversity training. As those of us with privilege step into leadership roles, our rebellion must include concrete action toward justice, not just inner work.

This means using our platforms to amplify marginalized voices, redistributing resources and opportunities, refusing to participate in systems that harm others, supporting Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation movements, and examining how our businesses, organizations, and communities perpetuate colonial patterns.

Some questions for rebel leaders:

Where do I default to colonizer leadership patterns (control, competition, extraction) when I'm stressed or afraid?
How can I practice reciprocity in my leadership — what am I giving back to the communities and land that support me?
What would it look like to make decisions from a place of abundance rather than scarcity?
How can I use whatever power and privilege I have to amplify voices and redistribute resources rather than just accumulating more for myself?

Voices Leading This Work

As I continue learning about decolonized leadership, I'm committed to amplifying the scholars, activists, and writers who are leading this work — especially those from communities most impacted by colonization. Here are some of the people who have informed my understanding:

Dr. Resmaa Menakem - Trauma specialist and author of "My Grandmother's Hands" | Website | Instagram: @resmaamenakem
adrienne maree brown - Author of "Emergent Strategy" and "Pleasure Activism" | Website | Instagram: @adriennemareebrown
Dra. Rocío Rosales Meza - Xicana/Mexicana seer and medicine woman specializing in decolonial healing | Website | Instagram: @dr.rosalesmeza
Susanna Barkataki - Indian yoga practitioner and author of "Embrace Yoga's Roots" | Website | Instagram: @susannabarkataki
DecolonizeFeminism - Instagram account run by Khara Pelagio Tapay Jabola-Carolus | Instagram: @decolonizefeminism
Robin Wall Kimmerer - Botanist and author of "Braiding Sweetgrass" | Website

Essential Reading:

Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith - "Decolonizing Methodologies"
Paolo Freire - "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"
Gloria Anzaldúa - Chicana feminist theorist and author of "Borderlands/La Frontera"

This work is being led by brilliant minds who have been doing this work for generations. If you're serious about decolonizing leadership, start by learning from and supporting these voices directly (definitely do not let this be the only post you read about decolonizing!!)

The Long Journey

Decolonizing leadership is not a metaphor; it's an active practice that will require a lifetime of learning, unlearning, and choosing courage over comfort. It means first understanding how the effects of colonization have socialized us, and then taking steps to learn what it would mean to think, relate, speak, learn and simply exist without these effects. It means questioning nearly everything we were taught and assumed to be true, even things like space and time. It is a combination of education and practice, and it will be a lifelong journey.

But here's what gives me hope: every rebel leader who chooses this path creates space for others to do the same. Every time we disrupt colonizer patterns, every act of authentic, reciprocal, earth-honoring leadership is a vote for the world we want to create.

What colonized leadership patterns do you recognize in yourself or your communities? How might you begin practicing something different?

Rebel Leaders