Leadership Embodied in All Directions
In collaboration with Power U Center for Social Change, Miami Workers Center began 2026 with a training and development program.
The L.E.A.D. (Leadership Embodied in All Directions) Program has brought together members of our organizations to learn organizing basics, practice in teams, and get to know one another. This series of weekly sessions is designed to build and sharpen essential leadership skills for our movement, from building teams to practicing popular education. Together, we’re building the relationships and developing the leadership necessary to fight for and win alongside everyday people.
This cohort unites our most active leaders, builds the foundational logic for our training work, and clarifies their roles in shaping their organizations. They are taking on the responsibility to develop other leaders and move towards MWC and Power U’s long-term goal: building political power for working-class people in Miami-Dade.
Throughout the L.E.A.D. program, participants were grouped into teams of 6 to support their learning, build member-to-member camaraderie, and create structures to apply their emerging leadership skills. Participants represent the diversity of Miami-Dade County; they are an intergenerational and multiracial group of young people, parents, college students, retirees, care workers, and tenants who speak English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.
Week 1: Orientation and Relationship Building
We kickstarted our training program with a 2-day orientation that explored MWC and Power U’s shared history dating back to our founding, reflected on lessons learned from campaigns, and talked about power and strategy, defining power as the ability to act and exploring how our strategy must build power for our people. We learned about base-building by discussing where our power lies and practicing how to map influence in our neighborhoods and schools.
We concluded the first week with a session on Building Relationships (How to Have Successful 1:1s). In a world that aims to divide us, the practice of building relationships is a critical skill. It’s how we find common purpose, bridge divides, and create the collective power needed to step up for our communities and build a better future for all.
Week 2: Building Teams & Foundations of Community Defense
These sessions focused on two critical skills the current moment is requiring of us: building collective strength through strong teams, and understanding how to protect each other as we face the threat of harmful immigration enforcement. Across the country, we are seeing this in action as everyday people step up to defend their neighbors. We learned this work does not happen overnight, it develops from being in relationship with people.
Teams allow us to strategically combine our skills, resources, and support to achieve goals that would be impossible alone. They are how we develop leadership, provide resilience during moments of crisis, and build the infrastructure for long-term power.
Week 3: Our Inner Foundation & Building Our Base
“We have to change ourselves in order to change the world” —Grace Lee Boggs
In our third week, we focused on two essential skills: building the inner awareness and resilience to navigate conflict, and how to grow our base. This is how we develop as leaders and expand our circle of power. Both are critical to our collective success!
We introduced grounding techniques for navigating conflict and stress. To build trust and courage with others, we must first understand and be honest with ourselves. Our bodies hold truth, and by learning to navigate our inner conflicts, we become more strategic, grounded, and effective in navigating external challenges.
“When I’m facing difficulties, I become a singer, like a songbird. Whenever my family sees me singing a lot they know something is wrong.”
“When someone answers the door and is rude was always a point of conflict for me; canvassing showed me how much I’ve grown in how I respond to conflict. Now the way I respond–I don’t always look for a fight; now I think maybe the person doesn’t want to open the door because they’re fearful or having a bad day”
Why We Grow Our Base: Building membership is building power. We reviewed that absorption is the active process of bringing people into the organization and involving them in the work. We also talked about how understanding another person’s self interest is a tool for bringing people in. We then got an opportunity to practice this skill in our pods!
We also talked about how we grow our base and develop leaders, our method for power-building. Absorption is the active process of bringing people into the organization and involving them in the work.
Remember:
- Check your assumptions
- Make it clear you will follow up
- Identify the folks most excited and ready
- Organize your list
- Follow up soon!
- Understand the self-interest of the folks you are talking to
- Have a clear role or a clear way people can get involved in the organization
Coaching for Everyone by Everyone: We learned the Apprenticeship Model (I do, you watch → You do, I watch) and principles for being a good coach: asking open-ended questions, providing actionable feedback, and building trust. We challenged the idea that only experts can coach.
Our power multiplies when we grow our base. Being able to coach and develop others is how we build a leader-full community and scale our work.
“Many hands make light work. The more people we bring in, the stronger our roots grow.”
“Someone we recruit might connect better with another member, or know others who are interested. This is why it is important to bring people in.”
“A core trait of a leader is someone who accepts responsibility to create conditions that enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. That’s what everyone in this room is doing by being here!”
“Coaching is not telling people what to do, it is the belief that we already have what we need to lead.”
Week 4: Giving Feedback & Practicing Facilitation
This week, we focused on two essential skills that determine the health and momentum of our organization: how to give meaningful feedback that builds trust and makes us stronger leaders, and how to facilitate spaces where people feel seen and heard. In order to do so, we must transform our relationship with feedback and critique from something we fear to something we use as a tool for growth. Some key insights:
- A strong organization chooses truth over comfort and regularly engages in critique.
- Feedback is the foundation for building trust and strong relationships, which is the bedrock of our organization.
- Honest, constructive feedback builds the muscle needed to move at the speed of trust.
Our 5-Step Feedback Process:
- The Request: Ask for permission to talk and name the topic in advance.
- Name the Thing: Objectively describe the observable action or event.
- Name the Impact: Share your interpretation of the event and how it affected you, the relationship, or the organization.
- The Offering: Propose a request for moving forward and ask what the other person needs from you.
- Check for Resonance: Ensure mutual understanding and identify next steps.
“Being able to give and receive feedback is something I believe will only positively impact our organization and culture. A place of close to perfect harmony is only achieved when conflict can be productively managed or resolved. Conflict will always exist but it’s up to us to deal with the conflict in a worthwhile manner.”
“In order to grow as people, as an organization, we have to learn from our mistakes.”
Feedback is an investment in each other's leadership. By engaging in honest critique, we build trust and strengthen our ability to grow together.
Week 5: Deep Dive Into Our Neighborhoods
For our final session, we brought tangible numbers to the fight and explored what it takes to create real change in our neighborhoods, grounded in the fact that when organizing, even with small numbers, impact is possible when we focus. Some key insights:
- Miami’s low civic participation is a weakness, but it means we can punch above our weight if we focus.
- Building real people power means building density through place-based organizing.
- A fundamental goal: build real power to swing elections and develop people to run for office
- Low voter turnout allows money to win.
- Voters aren’t excited; we lack a pipeline of our people running for office.
- It means we have work to do, and it’s possible to flip an election.
- We should focus on relationship-building and growing organizing muscle within neighborhoods
- In the organization is the victory