Part of the Voice I Almost Lost – Blog #14
by Alana Pierre Curry
Thank you for walking with me through the early chapters of my story. Revisiting childhood and adolescence wasn’t easy, but it laid the groundwork for something deeper—for how I show up now.
Today, I want to switch gears a bit and talk about leadership.
Here’s what I’ve come to learn: people tend to follow the energy, attitude, and expectations of their leader. When a leader carries a strong presence—when their voice fills a room—it often sets the tone, whether they mean to or not. And while that strength can inspire, it can also intimidate or isolate, depending on how it’s wielded.
Working in service to others is not—and should not be—selective.
Your team, your peers, your community—whether they come from your same background or not—deserve to be seen. Deserve to be heard. Deserve respect.
If someone on your team is struggling, don’t reduce them to whispered conversations or half-smiles in the hallway. Offer your hand. Offer your time. Offer your *presence*.
Leadership rooted in sincerity and compassion is where strong teams are built. That’s where people feel safe enough to grow. That’s where trust is formed—not by titles, but by how you treat people when no one’s watching.
Your team wants to trust you.
They want to believe you mean what you say. That when you talk about values, collaboration, and community—you live it. Not just in emails or meetings, but in the hard moments. The long days. The seasons where nothing is easy, but everything matters.
People don’t start from a place of low morale. They don’t walk into a mission-driven role already discouraged. Especially in social services. Especially in roles where the work is personal, emotional, and often thankless.
They come in believing they are part of something bigger.
They show up because their calling is to serve—serve their community, serve the people, and yes, serve their organization.
It is the leader’s responsibility to nurture that calling. To protect it with integrity.
Because when you fail to lead with integrity, you chip away at that calling. Bit by bit. When you ignore tension, play favorites, or act from ego, you erode trust. And without trust, the mission becomes noise. Just words on a wall.
A strong leader builds a strong foundation—and that foundation starts with *we*.
There was nothing I asked of my team that I wouldn’t do myself. I believed in servant leadership not just as a philosophy, but as a practice. And when the moment called for all hands, we were *all in*. No titles. No silos. No “that’s not my job.”
We moved together.
When Hurricane Harvey hit, we got word that people who had been displaced would be arriving in our region. My Leads and I had been scheduled to attend a conference—but with the emergency unfolding, it was quickly canceled. And instead of taking the day off, we split up and went straight to designated recreation centers to assist with intake and trauma support. People were arriving with nothing. Their homes, their futures—completely uncertain.
We immediately began coordinating our team across three recreation centers, creating schedules, checking on morale, and rotating coverage to meet the needs as best we could. When the response efforts shifted to the convention center, so did we.
We worked 12-hour days together.
We were tired together.
We got sick together.
And we served—fully, compassionately, and without hesitation—*together*.
That is the strength of a team built on mutual trust. That is what it means to lead beside your people, not above them. And that is the kind of leadership that doesn’t just move projects forward—it moves people.