Continuing on with our fifteen Principles Of Community Leadership here are three others; Capacity Building, Vision Proofing, and Optimism.
7 – Capacity Building
If I am a leader it is necessary to build skills and resources in the team that I am leading. This enables the team increase the self-efficacy of individuals in our Focus Group. This, in turn, facilitates alleviation of distress in individuals’ lives that often hinders them taking a full part in their families and communities. (The post on upwards and downwards causation in the Chapter on systems theory is relevant here).
Building skills and resources also means that staff will be better prepared to address very serious issues in families in an empathic way – in partnership with the main carers. Confidence also facilitates journeying, two-way knowledge flow, and sharing power.
In fact it takes a lot of confidence to share power.
Another important function of capacity building is to foster and nurture future leaders.
I need to remember that I am behind the wheel, so to speak, on a long journey. That is not to say that I am unimportant – but I need to be aware that, some day, someone else will be taking over the driving.
I believe that it is a healthy sign to be on the lookout for someone to succeed me, and nurture people (i.e. build the capacity of people) within, or close to the organisation with that in mind.
This is where the world of community leadership is a bit like the private sector, and it probably differs a little from the Pillars, where the incumbent leader, no matter how good she is, is unlikely to have a lot of say or influence in her successor. (Leaders within the Pillars are generally chosen by a standard competitive process, or else simply by seniority, or a mixture of both).
The competitive process attracts people who wish to be promoted because they know that they are good, they enjoy their work and are ambitious, and/or will get higher wages, or to be transferred to a more desirable location, have higher status, etc. The seniority process just plants someone in the job because they joined before others. Both processes can actually throw up very good and inspiring leaders – and have done – but I believe that it’s a bit risky for the type of invitational leadership we are aiming for.
That is, in the context of people whose primary need is relationship, methods of selection of leaders might need something different – akin to what will be described later.
8 – Mission/Vision Proofing
If I am an effective community leader, and I choose to work in a project that aspires to support families affected by serious crime and imprisonment, I need to be a good, reflective mission-vision-proofer i.e. a protector of the mission-vision.
Most mission statements and vision statements are very high on aspiration but sometimes the lofty aspirations that they have for clients, service users, customers etc. do not extend to staff.
It is very easy for a leader to make exceptions for all sorts of different reasons (for example, health and safety) that are actually more to do with discomfort than danger, or inconvenience than impossibility.
In my experience, workers on the ground are usually more likely to want to stick to the mission/vision than management, who may harbour fears and anxieties about all sorts of situations that might never happen, and/or are coerced by bureaucrats in the Pillars to do or not to do certain things. Sticking to the mission/vision often means taking risks and then managing them.
Here is where this website may differ slightly from mainstream thinking in interpretation of a mission statement. That is, if it says, for example, that an organisation will reach out to vulnerable people, I contend that it also reaches out to staff. This is because we want to model congruence, which, in addition to being a desirable trait anyway (what we see is what we get) is also one of the principles of person centred therapy.
Now I hear you say that there is a slight difference here – because workers have contracts and are paid to do the work they do. But they are also human, and they may need to be reached out to now and again! And this is different to formal supervision – which is also necessary.
And, (as we note from the Chapter on Trauma and Related Topics where I described secondary trauma) reaching out is an essential tool of the community leader in leading her team whose responsibility is to engage families where members have suffered or are suffering from trauma.
It makes sense that a happier workforce (that is reached out to) results in enhanced sense of belonging, and greater interest in the job.
9 – Optimism
I mentioned in a previous post how accepting reality is important for our energy level.
One of the realities of support work within our Focus Group is that a lot of children are growing up in poverty in very difficult circumstances such as addiction and abuse.
It’s very easy to be pessimistic and throw our hands up in the air in despair.
But optimism, like passion, has an effect on others.
Too often, ordinary people’s opinions can be influenced by media or political sound-bites, or others who have a vested interest in looking at the more sensational sides of things.
Maintaining freshness and optimism among the team is a key responsibility of the community leader. If we are well in ourselves and happy in our own skin we will probably be more inclined to be optimistic, and also realistic!
Because, in addition to being optimistic, we need to be realistic about the situations that are faced and the challenges ahead – as I said in a previous post in this Sub-Chapter.