Why Reverend Doctor Leroy Barber Developed This Assessment
To effectively guide leaders through a diagnostic tool that separates innate personality from fear-based defense mechanisms, a facilitator must possess more than theoretical knowledge. They must have a lifetime of executive experience, a deep understanding of organizational systems, and a proven track record of guiding diverse human dynamics through complex environments.
Reverend Doctor Leroy Barber is uniquely qualified to deliver this assessment based on three core pillars of his professional journey:
1. Decades of Multi-Tiered Executive Leadership
This assessment was not built in an academic vacuum; it was forged through decades of real-world executive leadership. Dr. Barber has successfully stepped into the "lone chair" of leadership across multiple distinct organizations, serving as:
- Founder & Executive Director of the Atlanta Youth Academy, navigating the complex operational, financial, and cultural landscapes of urban education from the ground up back in 1997.
- Global Executive Director for Word Made Flesh, managing complex international team dynamics across diverse global contexts.
- President of Mission Year, mobilizing and training waves of next generation leaders to step into high pressure, community focused environments.
- Executive Director of Focus Community Strategies and Neighborhood Economics, engineering community driven economic development and structural sustainability.
- Speaker for Compassion International, engaging large audiences and advocating for global development.
Having stood at the helm of organizations tasked with systemic change, Dr. Barber intimately understands the unique pressures that trigger a leader’s insecurity. He has experienced firsthand how easy it is for an executive to disguise an underlying fear or imposter syndrome as a "personality trait" or an "operational strength." This assessment is born from the highly practical wisdom of knowing what it takes to stay grounded when the stakes are high.
2. Mastery of Spiritual Formation & Leadership Development
A great assessment can tell a leader what they are doing, but it takes a seasoned developer to help them unpack why they are doing it and how to heal it. Currently delivering high-level spiritual formation and leadership development for organizations like Journey Home out of San Diego, Dr. Barber spends his days in the deep water of human motivation.
His work centers on helping executives, changemakers, and teams move past performative metrics to examine their internal landscapes. His expertise in designing transformative curricula including deep historical, ethical, and cultural frameworks, such as an 8 session leadership curriculum focused on Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail ensures that he does not merely hand a leader a scorecard; he provides the psychological safety and spiritual grounding required for true behavioral transformation.
3. Global Perspective and Intersectional Wisdom
True leadership agility, the intersection of Woo and Adaptability built into this very test requires a global perspective. Dr. Barber’s leadership journey includes breaking bread and building collaborative systems across six continents.
Having navigated intercultural dynamics, multi-l million dollar economic development initiatives, and community grounded grassroots movements he understands that a leader's "default setting" must be flexible enough to handle immense ambiguity. His extensive background in training leaders across racial, economic, and geographic divides gives him a rare ability to spot the universal human defense mechanisms that manifest in the boardroom, regardless of the sector.
In Summary
When Rev. Dr. Leroy Barber delivers The Leadership Drivers Assessment, he does so not as a rigid lecturer but as a peer who has walked the road. He brings the clinical precision of organizational metrics, the deeply analytical science of the Enneagram and MBTIand the seasoned empathy of an executive coach who has successfully navigated the exact transitions, crises, and triumphs this tool is designed to decode.