Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change

This is a term used by Abrams’s mother to describe the family’s economic status. She preferred this descriptor to others like “working class” or “working poor” because it ascribed the family more dignity and suggested the premium they placed on education. As Abrams says about her family’s economic situation, “[W]e had little money, but we read books and watched PBS” (27).

Because power, in Abrams’s estimation, is a rigged game controlled by the victors, if members of minority groups want to gain power, they must elbow their way onto the field. In her terms, they must “hack” the system, “figuring out how to circumvent the traditional systems and own opportunity” (93). In practice, this means first accepting that the game is not a fair one and that playing according to the conventional rules will not guarantee a victory. Instead, one must devise unconventional means to achieve the same ends.

Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside is the original title of the 2018 hardcover edition of Lead from the Outside. Abrams was the minority leader, or leader of the Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives, from 2011 to 2017. Abrams uses the term throughout the book as a catch-all for leaders and aspiring leaders outside of traditional systems of power. As she writes in the chapter called “Fear and Otherness,” “My responsibility, our responsibility as minority leaders, is to demonstrate to those in power the value in our difference” (75). In this reworking of her job title, Abrams places herself on equal footing with her audience and encourages them to view their minority status as an asset, a valuable tool to shake up conventional notions and practices of leadership, whether on the House floor or in the boardroom.

“Power mapping” is an activity that Abrams uses to identify problems, determine who might be necessary to resolve them, consider who might be impacted by the outcome, and outline the next steps. Power mapping began as a social justice tool but can be adapted for individuals to meet their personal and professional goals. Abrams offers power mapping to her readers as a practical apparatus that encourages readers to name their goals and take concrete steps toward realizing them.