EP013: Kat Calvin: Spread the Vote

Dialogue Lab

-- DIALOGUE LAB PODCAST EPISODE 013 - Kat Calvin: Spread the Vote --

After the 2016 presidential election, Kat Calvin took a hard look at the state of voting rights in this country, and did not like what she saw. Like the fact that in 34 states, eligible voters are being turned away from polling stations because they don’t have a state-issued ID.

So Kat founded Spread the Vote, which is working to get people their IDs, so they can vote. As well as find jobs, apply for housing -- all sorts of essential things.

I talked to Kat about what motivated her to build Spread the Vote from scratch, and about her leadership and life at the head of an ambitious effort to secure people’s voting rights in advance of these critical midterm elections.

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One of the things we talked about was how successful social impact leaders don’t try to go it alone. They check their egos at the door, so they can prioritize what’ most important: their missions.

And Kat talked about how you can usually tell when someone is letting their ego drive the bus -- and driving potential allies and partners away. And if you ask me, the fact that it’s easy to spot -- that’s good news.

Because spotting it is the first step to repairing and building the kind of strong partnerships you need to pull off your ambitious vision for change.

I’ll be sending out an email the Tuesday after this episode goes live with a list of some of the key signs that tell you it might be time to take a look at who is driving your bus. If you want to get that email, go to dialoguelab.org/antidote and subscribe.