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The purpose of this paper is to argue that the myriad social forces in El Salvador make it difficult for LGBTQ+ to publicly declare their sexual orientation or name their perpetrators and hence to use the #MeToo hashtag as a leadership strategy of their movement.

A qualitative research design was used that included interviews and focus group discussions with LGBTQ+ leaders of organizations and government officials. A descriptive/interpretive approach was used to understand their experiences of being LGBTQ+, leadership approach to gain their rights and knowledge of #MeToo.

Although the movement has contributed to the public dialog about sexual misconduct, it has not had an impact on the “coming out” of LGBTQ+ on Twitter, public exposure of offenders, improved treatment of LGBTQ+ or significant changes in employment law for LGBTQ+ Salvadorans. Rather than the celebrity-led #MeToo movement, a continuation of the more grassroots approach that Salvadoran LGBTIQ+ leaders use may more successfully achieve their protection and rights.

Further research should be completed regarding the impact of leadership on changing the social imaginary and the leadership approach most appropriate for this impact.

The study provides a case to further explore the leadership's role in changing the social imaginary.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to illustrate that #MeToo cannot be successful in all cultural contexts or with all LGBTQ+ communities and that grassroots approaches may be more appropriate in countries such as El Salvador.

Failing to effectively play their leadership role can have a devastating effect not only on leaders, but also on the group or team they are responsible to lead, as well as on the organization or organizations they belong to and/or serve. In the following example of a leadership failure, the author’s inability to come to the plate to play her required role as a leader had a negative impact on her professional standing, as well as on a number of individuals who she was called to lead. This example illustrates the necessity to master “leading oneself” prior to leading others. Cleaning out the cobwebs in one’s own psyche and mastering emotional intelligence are pre-conditions for effective leadership. This is especially true when leading in a foreign cultural context as this chapter shows. A leader always faces the possibility of having to deal with individuals who bring out those inner parts of oneself that have not yet been dealt with and healed. This chapter focuses on the importance of the key ingredient of leading oneself, namely emotional intelligence. Within emotional intelligence, the author examines her leadership failure in relation to self-awareness and self-regulation while leading a US government foreign assistance project. She highlights the negative impact on her leadership of fear that arose from unresolved past conflicts remaining in my shadow side. “Self-betrayal” emerged as a key factor also in her leadership failure.