b'PURPOSEDRIVEN BOARD LEADERSHIPAMERICA THE BoardSource describes purposedriven board leadership as a mindset characterized byBELOVEDfour fundamental principles, mutually reinforcing and interdependent, that define the wayIn A More Perfect Union: A New the board sees itself and its work:Vision for Building the Beloved Purpose before organization: prioritizing the organizations purpose to define the funda Community (Broadleaf Books), mental reason the organization exists. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, reimagines a contemporary version of Respect for ecosystem: being respectful and responsible by acknowledging that the organi Martin Luther zations actions can positively or negatively impact its surrounding ecosystem.Kings beloved Equity mindset: committing to advancing equitable outcomes, and avoiding the ways incommunity. In which the organizations strategies and work may rein the beloved force systemic inequities.community, neither privilege Authorized voice and power: recognizing thatnor punishment organizational power and voice must be author is tied to race, ized by those impacted by the organizationsgender, religion, work. When boards are populated in a waysexual orientathat disconnects them fromtion, or ecothe communities theirnomic status, organizations exist toand everyone is able to realize his or her full serve, it signals that thepotential. By building the beloved commuorganization is not innity, Taylor suggests that America would partnership with theunify around a shared moral vision that community. transcends ideology and partisanship, tapSource: BoardSource andping into its most sacred civic and religious Stanford Social Innovationvalues, enabling the nation to live up to its Reviewbest ideals and realize a more perfect union.JULY/AUGUST 2021 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 49'