Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The journey to transformational leadership: Embracing the inner work

Martin Luther King Jr., "I have a dream" speech

Martin Luther King Jr. used his personal turmoil to become a gerat leader.

Bettmann/Getty Images

Mesirow is the founder of the Elected Leaders Collective.

History’s most legendary leaders took their inner struggles and turned them into strengths to unite us. In contrast, the most reviled leaders allowed their inner turmoil to project outward, harming us. As leaders today, we each face a choice: Who do we want to be remembered as?

Figures like Abraham Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela stand as pillars of transformation and healing. Their journeys were not paved by chance but by deliberate inner work, where personal growth intertwined with public service, a concept Aristotle called "arete."


Arete, a core Aristotelian value, represents the intersection where personal talents and passion meet public needs, elevating the public interest above personal gain to achieve one's highest potential in service. These leaders did more than succeed — they embodied transformation and built legacies that extended far beyond their own lives. This was no accident, and it was not magic.

Each of these lionized leaders was a prominent figure even in their youth. But it was only through bouts of depression, the struggles with polio, electoral losses, near-death experiences or incarceration that they transformed into something greater — leaders who discovered their arete.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

It's not about the physical challenges you face but how you respond to them. Like Mandela, MLK, the Roosevelts and Lincoln, you can transform your struggles into the source material for growth. These leaders didn’t merely endure their hardships; they used them as a microscope into their inner world, connecting empathetically with others and emerging from their chrysalis, ready to serve with the entirety of their being. This is a long road, a hard road and an uncertain road. But it is also the only path to transforming society — and, in the process, becoming legendary.

Interestingly, the cosmological gift of rising to a higher calling is inner peace. Like Viktor Frankl, who found inner purpose, community, clarity and empathy through his inner work in the external hell of Auschwitz, these leaders turned their prisons into paradises in their minds. They emerged not just as survivors but as examples of the possible, their personal struggles fueling their public missions.

In contrast, leaders like George Wallace and Joseph McCarthy took the easy path. They were the darlings of their time, attracting votes and attention by dividing us. They rose quickly, but their legacies are buried in infamy. Mandela stayed on Robben Island for 28 years, yet he lives in eternity. McCarthy rose overnight, but his actions left lives strewn in his wake, a dark memory in our history.

The communal meal takes time but leaves the palate and soul full. Fast food is accessible and cheap but leaves a trail of harm to your heart, your health and our environment.

Today, as leaders, we are all in a challenging place. The world is coming at us with public hate, threats, misinformation and division. It can be overwhelming, isolating and maddening. We can all retrench to our worst impulses — I have. It’s normal and not your fault. You were never taught how to make your biology work for you rather than you for it. As an elected leader, I found myself short-tempered, reactive, angry, stressed, anxious and wondering what I was even doing. Was it worth it? Then, I applied the inner work.

With new tools and approaches, each challenge became a key to unlocking greater potential. Each conflict became an opportunity to heal. My universe expanded. Gridlock became teamwork. Advisories became collaborators. My anxiety fell. My alcohol consumption fell. I became clearer, more courageous and happier. I accomplished more with my community than I ever could have done for it, and others began to notice.

There is a movement afoot. A small group of brave leaders — electeds, staffers and non profit workers — are ready to do something different. We want to break out of partisan gridlock, stop feeling angry, and start connecting, doing, and leading from the heart with joy and possibility because we have the tools, practices and community to do it.

We are committed to cultivating leaders who lead like Lincoln, train like Teddy, and win like Winston. If you feel the call to rise above and lead with purpose, your journey to your highest potential starts with the first step inward.

You already know who you are in your heart. You know your arete. We welcome you if you seek the magic sauce to manifest it and are tired of doing it alone.

Get the tools.

Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump walks towards Marine One on the South Lawn on May 1, 2025 in Washington, DC.

U.S. President Donald Trump walks towards Marine One on the South Lawn on May 1, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Getty Images, Andrew Harnik

Trump’s First 100 Days on Trial

100 Days, 122 Rulings

Presidents are typically evaluated by their accomplishments in the first 100 days. Donald Trump's second term stands out for a different reason: the unprecedented number of executive actions challenged and blocked by the courts. In just over three months, Trump issued more than 200 executive orders, targeting areas such as climate policy, civil service regulations, immigration, and education funding.

However, the most telling statistic is not the volume of orders but the judiciary's response: over 120 rulings have paused or invalidated these directives. This positions the courts, rather than Congress, as the primary institutional check on the administration's agenda. With a legislature largely aligned with the executive, the judiciary has become a critical counterbalance. The sustainability of this dynamic raises questions about the resilience of democratic institutions when one branch shoulders the burden of oversight responsibilities.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla

Trump 2.0’s Alleged Trifecta Crisis

On July 25, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a radio address to 125 million Americans in which he coined the term “first 100 days.” Today, the 100th day of a presidency is considered a benchmark to measure the early success or failure of a president.

Mr. Trump’s 100th day of office lands on April 30, when the world has witnessed his 137 executive orders, 39 proclamations, 36 memoranda, a few Cabinet meetings, and numerous press briefings. In summary, Trump’s cabinet appointments and seemingly arbitrary, capricious, ad hoc, and erratic actions have created turmoil in the stock market, utter confusion among our international trade partners, and confounded unrest with consumers, workers, small business owners, and corporate CEOs.

Keep ReadingShow less
America’s Liz Truss Problem

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Liz Truss speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Getty Images, Andrew Harnik

America’s Liz Truss Problem

America is having a Liz Truss moment. The problem is that America doesn’t have a Liz Truss solution.

Let me take you back to the fall of 2022 when the United Kingdom experienced its own version of political whiplash. In the span of seven weeks, no less than three Prime Ministers (and two monarchs, incidentally) tried to steer the British governmental ship. On September 6, Boris Johnson was forced to resign over a seemingly endless series of scandals. Enter Liz Truss. She lasted forty-nine days, until October 25, when she too was pushed out the black door of 10 Downing Street. Her blunder? Incompetence. Rishi Sunak, the Conservative Party’s third choice, then measured the drapes.

What most people remember of the Truss premiership is the Daily Star wager that a head of lettuce would last longer than Truss. The lettuce won. But Truss’ stint as Prime Minister—the shortest ever, I should note—holds some lessons for America today.

Keep ReadingShow less
Employees being let go, laid off, fired.
Getty Images, mathisworks

Part One, The Impact of Trump’s Executive Actions: The Federal Workforce

Project Overview

This essay is part of a series by Lawyers Defending American Democracy, explaining in practical terms what the administration’s executive orders and other executive actions mean for all of us. Each of these actions springs from the pages of Project 2025, the administration's 900-page playbook that serves as the foundation for these measures. The Project 2025 agenda should concern all of us, as it tracks strategies adopted by countries such as Hungary, which have eroded democratic norms and have adopted authoritarian approaches to governing.

Keep ReadingShow less