You Have A Big Ego

“You have a big ego.”

Or maybe you just understand what real leadership looks like.

In this episode, I talk about why leadership isn’t about being “the only one” — it’s about building alliances, doing the work, and knowing how to move with people to get real results.

I also talk about why I chose to publicly congratulate the women endorsed by Georgia WIN List — even without an endorsement in my own race — and why that kind of leadership is rare in politics.

This isn’t about ego.
 It’s about work ethic, collaboration, and actually fixing systems that impact millions of workers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm about 25 days from early voting, and I am starting to think people don't actually understand what leadership looks like. Leadership is not walking into a room and acting like you're the only one who can fix everything. Leadership is not centering everything around you. Leadership is not saying only me. However, in campaigns, candidates think that is leadership. And it's not. Real leadership is knowing how to work, knowing how to build. Real leadership is knowing how to bring the right people together early and recognizing when you don't and fixing it quick. And this happens before there's a tile, before there's power, before anyone is watching. And when I think about leadership, when I think about teams, because everyone is running their individual races, but who's forming real alliances, who's doing work, who knows how to move people and not just talk at them? Because this role of labor commissioner, I've recognized very early on, this is not a job I can nor do I want to do alone. You're dealing with employers, employees, state systems, federal systems, wage issues, unemployment, job access. If you don't know how to collaborate, if you don't know how to recognize when collaborations are failing, if you're not ready to have those uncomfortable conversations, you will fail in this role. You fail. Yesterday I posted a video shouting out some women who received a Georgia Windless endorsement. Let's just be honest about it. That's not normal in politics because I didn't get an endorsement. I didn't get an endorsement from Georgia Windless, they're not endorsing my race until after the primaries. What I'm not seeing often in this space, especially from a person who comes from building and working with communities, is that people don't usually celebrate each other in the same spaces. Especially when things like an endorsement are on the line. But I did it anyway. Me congratulating women who I see are doing the same work, working hard, takes nothing away from me or my race. And I'm not operating in a place of lack. I'm not operating in a place where there is only one of us. These are people, these are women who are stepping up to do this work, putting their name online, putting their family online. And that deserves to be acknowledged. But I also want to talk about something else. Because I'm not going to sit here and pretend like my opponents don't listen to my podcast because I know they do. I know some of what I say starts showing up and how they talk and how they position themselves. Even the language they use. So when I am talking, I'm supposed to be humble, knowing all these things. And why? Because I'm a woman? Because I'm a black woman? I'm not going to shrink the fact that I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to pretend I don't see what's happening. And I'm definitely not going to quiet my voice to whether people feel comfortable. Leadership sets the tone. And when people start adjusting to your tone, that tells you everything you need to know. I'm saying this in this space, but let's be clear: this is not just about politics. This is about labor. This is about real people. People are trying to get paid what they're owed. They're trying to navigate a system that doesn't respond. They're trying to find jobs that actually work for their lives. And the problem is that this does not get solved by one person. This gets solved by someone who knows how to build systems, build partnerships, and actually move people and also knows how to move people out of the way. And I've been doing that for years. I have not been talking about it, it's not ideas in my head. I have actually been building programs, helping businesses grow, connecting people to real opportunity. That's work. That's real work. And things like that only happen when you understand one thing that you are not the only one. This is about work ethic. This is about collaboration. This is about leadership that actually knows how to build something. And if it makes people uncomfortable, good. Because Georgia doesn't need more people trying to be the only one. We need leaders that know how to work together to get results. And also understand that real leadership looks like working together with people that you never thought you would have to work with. My name is Dickie Pourchet, and I am running for Georgia Labor Commission because work should work for everyone. And that starts with knowing where to start.