The Radical Kindness Leadership Manifesto and Challenge

Six Sundays. One Movement. An Exclusive Gift for You!

What started as a Sunday series of Linked In posts turned into something more.

Over the past month or so, I’ve been sharing my heart through Radical Kindness—a series about empathy, boundaries, leadership, and what it means to show up with heart when the world feels hard.

Thanks to your support, I’m thrilled to share a special gift with you:

A free, downloadable guidebook featuring all six reflections, my personal notes, journal prompts, and the leadership manifesto I now live by.

This is a love letter to those who lead with compassion. A reminder that empathy isn’t a trend—it’s a calling.

🎧 Listen to the podcast Jim Fielding and Friends

The podcast is LIVE. We have 3 episodes distributed and available for listening, sharing, commenting, rating, and learning!

Listen/Watch the amazing conversations with Brian Sims, Erica Anderson, Ingrid Nilsen, Ryan Sullivan, and Andria Younger.

Please subscribe on your favorite platform, leave us comments, and give us a 5 STAR rating.

We did this for Community and Conversation.

A space for real conversations with kind-hearted disruptors, doers, and dreamers.

Thank you for being part of this community. You make it possible to lead, live, and love out loud.

Watch the Podcast and Shorts Highlights Here:

Stay kind. Stay brave. Stay you.

Aidan Bonner is a purpose-driven marketer using storytelling as a tool for change

At BMO—one of the largest banks in North America—he leads enterprise marketing and content, shaping campaigns like Wrap the Good and Rainbow Deposits, which turns Pride into action: for every rainbow photo uploaded, BMO donates $1 to Rainbow Railroad, helping 2SLGBTQ+ individuals find safety. He also champions financial literacy and small business storytelling, making banking more human and values-led.

That same commitment drives his work beyond the bank. After just a year in the corporate world, Aidan launched Corporate Stripes, a platform built to support 2SLGBTQ+ professionals navigating careers where visibility can still feel like a risk. Inspired by his own coming out journey, he’s built a space for mentorship, collaboration, and community—one story at a time.

Follow Aidan on Linkedin

Follow Aidan on Instagram

KINSEY INSTITUTE STUDY RELEASE

The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University is a jewel and something all Hoosiers should feel tremendous pride for its heritage and impact. Here is a link to some of their latest groundbreaking research. Happy to share……

Flip the Script: The Leadership Killers We Don’t Talk About

The punchline?
Now flip it.

At first, I brushed it off as internet wisdom in a cute font. But then it hit me:
This is more than clever. This is truth.

Because I’ve lived this.
All of it.

💥 Let’s flip it:

• Confidence? I’ve watched mine evaporate in the face of doubt.

• Peace? Jealousy poisoned it more times than I’d like to admit.

• Growth? My ego slowed me down when I thought I had all the answers.

• Dreams? Fear tried to kill them before they ever left the station.

• Wisdom? Anger clouded it—especially when I was trying to be “right.”

• And ambition? Laziness didn't always look like doing nothing—it looked like playing small.

💬 We talk a lot about leadership skills.

But not enough about the emotional saboteurs that sneak in when no one’s watching.

I’ve seen it in boardrooms and classrooms.
In Fortune 500 C-suites and founder circles.
And yep—in the mirror at 3 a.m., when everything feels loud and uncertain.

The most dangerous killers of leadership don’t wear name tags.
They whisper.
They distract.
They convince you to wait, shrink, rage, retreat.

🛑 But here’s the good news:

If we can name it, we can flip it.

And that’s where Radical Kindness comes in.

Not the soft, play-nice version.
The fierce, clear-eyed version that holds you accountable with love.
The version that says: you can choose again.

✨ This Pride Month, I flipped the script:

✔️ Choosing growth over ego.
✔️ Protecting peace over comparison.
✔️ Defending dreams over fear.
✔️ Leading with radical kindness over all of it.

I invite you to do the same.

🔗  This Pride and This Year, We Build the Banquet

In years past, my Pride reflections have been love letters to our community—notes of celebration, gratitude, and visibility. But this year calls for something more. Not a letter. A manifesto.

The Month of June 2025 Pride may be coming to a close , but the need for Pride year round in our Community is stronger than ever.

Because let’s be honest: Pride 2025 isn’t just about joy flags and corporate hashtags. It’s about reckoning. We’re not only facing an external backlash—we’re confronting an internal standstill. Our imagination is stuck. Our solidarity is fraying. Our movement has traded momentum for nostalgia.

We’ve spent too long fighting to be included in systems that were never designed for us. In boardrooms, ballot boxes, and branding strategies, we’ve been brilliant, resilient—and far too patient. We’ve worn the right suits, memorized the right scripts, and waited our turn. I know because I did it for decades.

And here’s the truth: the rooms we worked so hard to enter aren’t ours. We are still, in many ways, guests. Guests of straight institutions. Guests of political parties. Guests of corporate allies who post rainbow logos in June and retreat by July.

It’s time we stopped trying to be lovable.

Let’s stop waiting to be invited. Let’s start building our own house.

That doesn’t mean abandoning the work. We still need legal protections, policy wins, and cultural representation. But that’s not enough anymore. It never was.

We need power. Real power. The kind you build. The kind you own.

So what does that look like?

It means investing in LGBTQ+-owned businesses and building economic engines that don’t depend on approval from Wall Street or Washington.

It means teaching queer leadership, kindness, and history in our schools—not as a footnote, but as a foundation.

It means creating apps and platforms that connect us not just for hookups or hashtags, but for organizing, funding, and growing together.

It means rejecting scarcity culture and remembering that our greatest strength has always been our community.

It means choosing radical kindness every single day—not as a weakness, but as a world-building force. Kindness isn’t passive. It is active, strategic, and brave.

Because resilience is not the end goal. Thriving is.

This isn’t about just surviving Pride month. This is about designing a future where we lead it.

So this Pride, I’m not looking back. I’m not begging for crumbs. I’m building a banquet—and I’m inviting everyone who’s ready to stop surviving and start creating.

Let’s do this. Together.

Not for applause. Not for rainbow merch. For dignity. For power. For kindness. For each other.

If this vision speaks to you, join me. Listen to the Podcast. Join the Leading with Pride Book Club.

Share this newsletter with your Community, and let’s get to work.

With Hope, Pride, and Gratitude….and a Smile

Jim

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