5.3 Leadership

It probably goes without saying that leadership is important in organisations that are set up to protect vulnerable people, and this is what this Chapter is about.

Like nature abhors a vacuum, society abhors lack of leadership.

This is important because where there’s a lack of good leadership it will be filled by bad leadership.

I always find it difficult to define leadership but I know it when I experience it because I can feel it and I am moved by it.

I have discussed at length how values of the corporate world have filtered into the Pillars and then the world of community work and this Chapter will focus on many qualities – but mostly values – that, I believe, leaders that work in organisations that support the Focus Group need.

The Chapter is divided into 9 Sub-Chapters.

5.3.1                LEADERSHIP – INTRODUCTION

5.3.2                WHAT MAKES A LEADER

5.3.3                PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

5.3.4                LEADERSHIP AND PROCESSING SPEED

5.3.5                LEADERSHIP AND COURAGE

5.3.6                LEADERSHIP AND POWER

5.3.7                LEADERSHIP AND CONTROL

5.3.8                LEADERSHIP AND REFLECTION

5.3.9                LEADERSHIP – CONCLUSION

Go to the people, live with them, learn from them, love them, start with what they know and build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, and the task is accomplished, the people will say “we have done this ourselves”.

Lao Tzu [1]

What is it about the old Chinese philosophers that they had such good sayings?  (Well – they seemed to have anyway).  Lao Tzu’s one above always inspires me.  Because whether I am 2 or 102, the sense of satisfaction that arises from I have done it myself is surely one of the most delicious feelings of all – and is hugely relevant to our Focus Group, where as we have stated already, dependency is often an issue.

And we have done it ourselves has other positive benefits.

It increases our self-esteem, ensures that success builds on success, gives a powerful message to our younger generation, reduces the impact of the opinions of far-away [2] experts, is supportive of risk taking and encourages us to be creative, and curious about things that we might have thought to be beyond us.

On my own journey I experience a deep feeling of satisfaction when I create, or do it myself, and when I choose to avoid the institutional game playing that can be part of my life from time to time.  And I believe that this is important because a major element in community leadership is modelling.

That is, actually doing what we desire for ourselves and for others.

A wonderful thing that I noticed in community work when I first got involved in it was that it was peppered with people who wanted to express themselves.

Being challenged to lead such people was very refreshing and inspiring for me to witness (and experience) and while sometimes being a little unsettling I quickly realised how important self-expression was, and is, in community work.

A lot of what I had learned about leadership up to then had been influenced by the military type of leadership taught in the Military College. The type of training/education we received was – in my opinion anyway – ahead of its time, but by and large there was not that much encouragement of self-expression. Or if there was, it was within the limits of the military way of doing things.

I realised very quickly that encouragement of self-expression was crucial in the type of leadership that would work in the community setting. I also learned that what worked best in the community of families affected by imprisonment was invitational type leadership that I will describe below.

I believe that other necessary elements in organisations such as good management, coordination, administration etc. will usually fall into place if the leadership is good enough.

I have been in leadership/management posts in a number of different organisations and my strong belief is that, in hierarchical and centralised organisations, while it is very easy to be a good manager, the innovation, risk taking and creativity that (I believe anyway) is part and parcel of leadership is not, generally, encouraged.

On the other hand, I found that in the autonomous community organisation, leadership is highly valued and appreciated, (and, in a way, easy) but management can often be very challenging.

This Chapter is dedicated to the good-enough non-compliant Community Leader!

[1]. According to legend – no, sorry – according to Google, Lao Tzu lived in China over 2,500 years ago.

[2]. Culturally far away, but often geographically far away also.

What role does meaning have in leadership? Why are the people who we chose to lead us the way they are? These are questions worth asking.

I believe that it is possible to train people up to a certain level in leadership where they will be very capable, thorough, look after their staff, get all their budgets in on time, maintain very good reporting channels and attend to the detail that all competent leadership requires.

However I sometimes wonder if it is possible to train the kind of personality that finds meaning in leadership, and, as we say nowadays, wants to push the envelope (I love that expression for some reason [1]), and:

1. Break new ground and make what most people say is impossible – possible.

2. Exceed expectations – particularly his own.

3. See opportunities where others see obstacles, and then turn those obstacles into advantages.

4. Have vision, conviction, passion and want to move mountains, metaphorically of course.

All the above are applicable in many areas of work but for the Community Leader in an organisation that supports families and/or protects children in our Focus Group a further challenge is added:

5. Is willing to share power, and maintain connection with the people who matter most – while translating aspirations into actions.

Such qualities can always be enabled or facilitated.  But I wonder can someone be trained to be like that? Perhaps the personality that likes to take a risk, and make all the above happen is innate!

Does our education system encourage children to take a risk, or, put themselves out there?

Universal mainstream education, available from about age 4 to 17-18 (or to early-twenties if we go straight to college) is a very powerful influence on virtually all of us – and it can indeed be a suitable environment for the fostering of leadership.

And educational institutions, particularly third level colleges, in addition to their academic role, see themselves as having a role in the training of leaders.  I often read it in their literature and I have heard it at graduation ceremonies that I have been to.  (Yes, I was listening). 

The points system (which I critiqued in a previous Chapter) and subsequent exams in third level colleges train children and (mostly) young adults to be excellent in regurgitating. One might say that they can reach a high level of excellence in regurgitating, or indeed become leaders in regurgitation!

And I hope that this doesn’t sound too cynical but I have no doubt that skills learned in regurgitating topped up by clever tricks in keeping examiners happy have the potential to take someone very far in a career and probably to the top of a profession.

Many of the people (though not all ) who have leadership positions in the Pillars have graduated from third level colleges.

The challenge for educational institutions, if they wish to produce leaders, is to focus on creativity and innovation, and model the qualities that they wish for in graduates. Some leaders in education do this really well, and some do not.

The proof of the pudding is always in the eating, and when we look around at the institutions of our State, i.e. those institutions that form the Pillars, do we see a critical mass of good enough leadership?

[1]. Surely an envelope is so light an object that it is very easy to push.  But the expression comes from the Space Race where, I understand, the envelope is the boundary of outer space.

In many organisations people who are being led might feel that their choices are limited – that is, they, kind of have to follow the leader, even if they don’t believe in the mission of the organisation at all!

I will call the leadership that exists in such organisations coercive leadership.

Leadership in the Pillars (and, of course, in other sectors too, e.g. business, voluntary organisations etc.) can often be of a coercive nature because of low motivation and I will expand on this below.

I remember when working in various jobs disliking leaders that happened to be in charge of me but I did what they told me to do because if I didn’t I’d have got into trouble.

In other words my choice was limited, both by my financial situation (I didn’t want to lose my job) and (maybe more influential actually) the conditioning that I had experienced in school and my early life in the military – i.e. I sometimes have to put up with people who I think are doing a bad or mediocre job.

I have often met people who are working in the community sector who experience the same thing.

I came to the conclusion that coercive type leadership is necessary because many staff (not all – but quite a few) in organisations are disinterested, bored, discontented, unsupported, cynical, feel exploited anyway, and have more interest in what they can get out of the organisation than what they can put into it.

If I’m conscientious, but don’t have a sense of belonging, I’ll do my job well enough.  I might complain and moan, but my conscientiousness will ensure that the job is done as I tread through treacle towards retirement.

However if I don’t have a sense of belonging and am cynical or lazy, I will use (and abuse) the system for all that it is worth. This is not too unusual in many large organisations whether private, public or voluntary.

Because of this apparent cynicism management motivates me with a mixture of reward and fear. 

Increases in salary, promotions, bonuses, perks, subsistence and mileage etc. (reward) are balanced by sanctions, restrictions, HR policies, possible redundancy, disciplinary procedures etc. (fear).

The cynicism that I mention above, which often results from doing things for the sake of doing them rather than because they need to be done, is the basis of many classic comedies about the public service, prison, military life, hospitals, and other institutions. 

Much of the humour comes from viewers observing how we cannot help being human despite all the efforts by leadership to impose absurd conditions and rules on our behaviour.

Coercive leadership insists on regularity, conformity and adherence to bullshit and the impossibility of this makes for great comedy.

After that discussion on coercive leadership I will now ask what kind of a leader does an organisation that supports families in our Focus Group need?

Most of you might say a person who works hard or a person who is rooted in the community or a person who has integrity or someone who gives good example etc. etc.

All of those yes. But, also, a very important trait is that I, the leader, have the ability to attract people who believe in my vision.

And, in my experience, those who turn out to be most enthusiastic are what I will call sceptical believers. This it is probably truer for community leadership (and in particular those communities that are populated with families in deep distress) than for any other kind of leadership.

Let us say that I am a person who has lived or worked (or both) in a community affected by imprisonment. In my life and work I may often have had my hopes raised and then dashed – so it is a very healthy sign that I am sceptical.

Now it’s as important to want to be involved as it is to lead – because, obviously, if no-one wanted to be involved there’d be no-one to lead. And I, (a sceptical believer – remember) need encouragement to 1): stand up and be counted, and, 2): always question everything! 

This is done by the leader recognising commitment, enthusiasm, energy, motivation and questioning attitude, and proactively nurturing and reaching out – not disappearing into the distance and then wondering why no one is following.

And if elements like cultural matching, creativity, person centred modality etc. are to be fostered in the organisation, status needs to be given to those who are attracted to, or find meaning in them.

Much mainstream type leadership is described in the previous post.

The reason why leadership in respect of the Focus Group needs to be different is that most of us community/voluntary type people are very aware that we have a choice – and we vote with our feet. That is, if we don’t like something that we really don’t have to do we simply ignore it.

But, far more importantly, the opposite is also true. If we like something and we feel that it is relevant – and will improve our lives – we will want it, and this is where invitational leadership comes in.

Keeping this in mind, we will see why an organisation needs to make it easy for people to choose to be involved, rather than making it difficult for them to choose not to be involved.

When I first took up the post of a leader in a streetwork Project in Southill in Limerick there were certain other leaders far more experienced and established than I that I chose to be involved with.  They were the ones that I felt, in my heart, (I actually don’t remember thinking about it too much) had the best interests of the young people in the community in their hearts.

I felt invited into their world because their values mirrored my own – symmetry again – and I recognised them as leaders in the field that I was aiming to be part of. And I felt that they believed in me – i.e. gave me status.

Then there were others that I didn’t have much interest in.  They were the ones that (I felt anyway) paid lip service to the aspirations of the young people and their families, were hung up on image, or were on power trips, used big words, or, indeed, tended to complicate everything.

I wasn’t really put out that much, or even angry at that time, I just wasn’t drawn to them – so I didn’t include myself in their way of working.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let us now look again at the significance of invitational leadership in the context of people who may have given up hope that anything will change.

As I said above I may perceive myself (and my family) to have been badly let down by people who I looked up to as leaders – people that I depended on to improve my (and my family’s) life. Therefore I will be very selective (and rightly so) about who I will chose to believe in.

In particular, if I am a worker in a community, I have far more to lose if a leader is bad, or incompetent, or goes against what I believe in, than someone who works in a bank, or a shop, or even in a school or hospital.

And, as we will see below, being uppity, (as Paul Robeson said) or having an attitude can induce, in some leaders, a kind of negative attitude in itself.  In this negative attitude the big danger (and I use that word deliberately) is that if we are the kind of leaders who feel threatened by uppity people we will almost definitely leave others behind.

The people that we leave behind (that is, the ones who lose interest in us) are usually the people who don’t agree with us.  But they may be the very people from whom we have most to learn about ourselves.

And leaving good people behind is, in terms of community leadership, a very wasteful thing to do.

If we are leaders, and we aspire to be radical [1] we will see the value in bringing good people with us – and be alert to traits within ourselves that may well arise from our passion (and indeed cause us to be driven to achieve great things quickly) but might alienate or sideline others who have loads to contribute.

This, of course, is a recipe for the more things change the more they stay the same type of result, which is the last thing that any community leader wants.  (I cover this in far more detail in the Sub-Chapter on Processing Speed below).

[1]. When I say radical I simply mean will do something different to what is usually done because it works better.  Radical also involves having the courage to invite people to do it too.

Given that community leadership involves inviting people to believe in our vision, I propose Fifteen Principles of Community Leadership (following posts 5.3.3.2 to 5.3.3.6 inclusive) when supporting families in our Focus Group and protecting vulnerable people within them – including children. To make the Sub-Chapter easier to read I have divided up the fifteen principles into 5 posts of 3 principles each.

These are brief descriptions of the principles – loads could be written about each one. But to have knowledge of them, and be aware of how we respond in our organisations so we can include them is at least a good start. And it might be a good exercise, as you read the principles, to think about leaders you had or have, or organisations that you have been, or are involved in to check on the presence of the principles. If they have been present, or are, what encouraged or is encouraging them, and if not, can you think of a reason why not?

Remember; as you read – we want to invite practitioners in the Pillars to believe too! (To this end, there is a separate Chapter on this entitled Getting The Pillars To Believe).

Based on my experience, I propose that if we community leaders adhere to these principles, as best we can, we will by our very actions be invitational.

The invitational bit is very important to me, personally, because even though it may take longer to garner believers, they will tend to be loyal and true to the principles.

It also models the voluntary type of engagement that we are encouraging in families.  

The first Three Principles of Leadership are Reality, Adventure and Tenacity, and they are described in this post.

1 – Reality

I described the difference between myth and reality in a previous Chapter. Realities of circumstances can sometimes be clouded by prejudices, hierarchies, and what people like to believe rather than what people in distress are experiencing.

Simplicity, clarity and respect are essential in naming realities – particularly if they contain truths that might be uncomfortable to a listener or reader, as they may be when describing families whose members are involved in crime and imprisonment. (For example I felt challenged when I was describing the Focus Group).

Maintaining focus will always be challenging, particularly when leadership is inclusive of stakeholders who may have strong opinions, or who may be uppity.

Remember that we are inviting people to be involved, so we need to garner support for what needs to be done and what will work rather than disrespecting or dissing what mightn’t be working. Having the wisdom and courage to name what is real will always assist this process.

One of the most productive things about focusing on reality is that people love common sense which is the result of acknowledging, and being in touch with reality.

2 – Adventure

In the Chapter on Energy I mention how important excitement is in an organisation.  This is where adventure is relevant.  (I will revisit it again briefly in the Chapter on Organisational Matters when I discuss playfulness).

I believe that a sense of adventure is very important in motivating people. Big things can be achieved by allowing people to take manageable risks.  In adventure, there is always a bit of trial and error, and organisations generally do not like error. 

Risk-aversion is common among leaders that are not that adventurous, confident or experienced.  There is a bit of a catch-22 situation here because in order to take a risk we need to have experience and in order to get experience we have to take a risk! 

(Remember the child learning to cycle in the early part of the book in the Chapter on Cause and Effect)?

When we take a risk, master a new skill, and put it in practice, something will change – so leaders need to be ready to embrace the challenge that the change brings, just like Mam and Dad are ready to embrace the change that their child mastering the skill of cycling brings to them.

We may allow someone to take a risk but we cannot really predict where it will take us.  This is, of course, because living things (and organisations are living things) have the property of emergence. In this, we need to be able to be a little flexible in determining whether or not some new venture is bringing us where we want to go.

For leaders, the important things to remember are to have support and supervision built in to build up confidence, get experience – and – have patience!

3 – Tenacity

A vital element in human development is learning from our mistakes. Once again referencing the child learning to cycle – it is her persistence and tenacity – and learning from her mistakes – that brings ultimate success.

If we don’t learn, we will (obviously) keep making the same mistakes over and over again. This will gnaw away at our enthusiasm which is so important in building tenacity.

For a small child, encouragement, reassurance and praise from her parents or carers does this. As we grow older, wider influences impact on us, e.g. teachers, people we look up to, peers, older siblings, perhaps cousins or classmates and eventually employers. But the foundation is laid down in our preschool years.

In making a mistake it is important to put the mistake in perspective, and determine what needs to be changed to rectify it. 

It is worth remembering that sometimes when mistakes are made people may be angry with the person who made the mistake – particularly if it disadvantages the organisation, or people in the organisation – or causes hurt to a person in distress. (The post on how trauma seeps into teams is relevant here).

If we work in an organisation that has no knowledge of the effects of trauma (or pays lip service to it) mistakes have the potential to blow up into major conflict. The role of the invitational leader, in such cases, can sometimes be holding the suffering of the people affected while at the same time enabling accountability.

One of the reasons why organisations are risk-averse is that taking no or very few risks reduces the incidences of mistakes. In respect of tenacity, it is all too easy for practitioners to give up on those who present with problems that are so acute that mainstream cause-and-effect strategies will not work.

To sum up, to achieve anything in such situations, risks must be taken.

So if we work in a very risk-averse agency that has a punitive response in respect of mistakes, or where there is negativity towards what we are trying to achieve, it is important to get support for ourselves!

We now come to the another three principles of Leadership, they are Estimation Of Effort, Passion, and Recruitment/Morale/Support.

4 – Estimation Of Effort

In addressing the issues that affect the Focus Group it sometimes seems that there is so much to be done that it is easy to be discouraged.

The old saying that it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness is relevant here.

Success tends to breed success, so it is essential that a leader has the ability to estimate what effort it takes to address certain issues that, if resolved, will have a wider impact – a kind of multiplier effect.

In this, it is usually better to address a small number of issues that have a good chance of success than to tackle too much too soon and be unsuccessful.

Our success also needs to be managed properly – and this is a leadership responsibility.

What I mean by this is that if successful in one area we need to keep it in perspective, and not neglect other areas just because we have had success in one.

It is a bit of a cliché to say that in addressing the most important issues for our Focus Group the most important resource is our people. I’d like to qualify that by stating that the most important resource is not people per se, but people-who-want–to-do-the-work, people who are enthusiastic and are willing and able to maintain their enthusiasm.

In estimation of effort I also include the desirability of leading intelligently – sometimes resolving one issue can lead to pressure being eased in other areas.  (Like I said in a previous post, creating an atmosphere where workers feel heard, and that their opinions are valued, can avoid countless other staff problems).

This type of leadership can go on in the background without any fanfare or change management policies and while it may have low noticeability it really does have high impact.  (In other words, we don’t know it’s there until it’s gone).

The little but constant effort that goes into creating and sustaining such an atmosphere saves huge amounts of time and effort.

5 – Passion

Passion and its good companion, hunger are very important in the kind of leadership that I described earlier. It is particularly needed in invitational leadership.

But the passion doesn’t stop with the leader.

It is essential that a leader has patience to allow staff to reveal what they are passionate about, what they are good at, what they hunger for, and then (within the boundaries of the organisation and the work) let them play the role that they want to play.

Sometimes it’s obvious to others but they don’t know themselves!

And some staff are straight out of the blocks, hit the ground running kind of people with what they want to do and what they are good at, and others are just as passionate but are shyer about their talents and doubt themselves, so it takes time and patience – and trust – to discover them.

Passion (I believe anyway) has an inspirational effect on people in deep distress.  And remembering systems theory, we know that inspiration will spread through an organisation and have an effect on everyone.

When people who are in crisis seek help, they do not generally look for someone’s accreditation or what their qualifications are.  They are drawn to people who are both compassionate and passionate, because just like any emotion, passion will be felt rather than taught.

I also believe that if a leader allows people to do what they are passionate about and good at they will work with a spirit of generosity.

And the experience of generosity (and kindness), i.e. we don’t want anything back – we just want to help, is transformative in itself.

6 – Recruitment/Morale/Support:

A leader generally has a pivotal role in recruitment, and I believe that leaders, when recruiting, need to be self-aware enough to hire people who have different traits to themselves.

A leader leads.

A leader doesn’t have to know everything about, or be an expert in, or be the best at everything. The organisation needs to be led so that it will be attractive to people who have different skills to address the issues that I described in this post, (that, as I also stated, are sometimes life-and-death), and that require something radical and different to be done.

Time and space are needed to take the risks that need to be taken to achieve results.

In addition to recruitment, a leader is responsible for morale of staff.

Working with families in deep distress is fulfilling and enjoyable for those who wish to do it but can be stressful and onerous for those who do not.  It is important to create an enjoyable, positive work culture, where employees work hard because they know they are appreciated, where they are allowed to have some fun, and feel at ease in each other’s company.

The leader then needs to support those people in their work.  I believe that people look to a leader for support, example, guidance and wisdom, and this is why the loss of a leader almost always has implications from the point of view of morale. When workers get accustomed to a particular personality it is sometimes difficult for them (and everyone in the organisation) to get used to a new one.

And no matter how good or confident someone is at their job, they still need regular recognition and affirmation from their leader. It’s amazing how many stories I hear from workers who get little or no affirmation.  Its positive effects are known for decades (formally) and as long as we have been on the planet (informally).

Also, I believe that higher pay is only one of many motivational factors that ensures better work!

Staff will need to work within the boundaries of the organisation, and be supported in that.  Support can come in the form of informal supervision, formal supervision, training, casual affirmations etc.

But (I believe anyway) the most supportive of all is interest in what they are doing and what they are good at. Many workers that I know (and have known) are like flowers growing in desert soil – never tended, and rarely nurtured or enlivened.

In the realm of morale, I will also mention size – which will be covered in more detail later.

I believe that if an organisation is too big and unwieldy there is little opportunity for leadership to be attentive to, and supportive of everybody’s work – which is where encouraging leadership at different levels of organisations is important.

In fostering of morale, I believe that it is good practice to create an atmosphere where it is easy to have difficult conversations – particularly with the leader…….

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.

Continuing on with our Principles Of Community Leadership, here are Principles 10, 11 and 12; Openness/Transparency, Congruence, and Work Ethic.

10 – Openness/Transparency

Now we come to a principle that might be a little contentious. That is, openness/transparency.

If I am a good leader I will know that staff will need to know what state the finances are in. I will also need to be aware that leaving people out of decision making that affects them is very bad for morale.

This might sound self-evident, but having a transparent atmosphere is vital in ensuring that we work to our optimum.  For example, it is best that planning for the future or determining/assessing likely outcomes of different courses of action is a collective venture involving as many as possible. It is also very good for morale if we know what our work means to the overall goal of our organisation – as roles will differ.

But, not everyone needs to know everything about everything.  In fact, it can be disrespectful, and it can create an unsafe environment for all if everyone knows everything about everybody else, whether we are staff or Focus Group.

Everyone knowing everything does not equate with transparency, in fact it can lead to lack of trust among a team.  The Johari Window which we will describe later is usually applied to the individual, but it can also be applied to teams. In respect of what is public and what is private, people need to know that certain things will be private and confidential, and that there will be no gossip.

So when we talk about openness and transparency, we do so in the context of the need to know.

While it is impossible to totally weld down the manholes in this respect, a good will contract is a very useful tool in an organisation that is committed to sharing power. That is, if we talk about someone, or share information, we do so in a respectful manner, with compassion, good intent, and positivity in mind.

In close-knit communities people know a lot about each other, and to pretend that they don’t is kind of disrespectful and even a little nonsensical. Different people from different backgrounds will have had many different experiences of confidentiality – i.e. some people’s interpretation may be a lot looser than others’.

The good will contract, encouraged and given importance to (and modelled and adhered to) by the leader, will go a long way to ensuring that transparency can be real, safe and meaningful, and that which is talked about will be positive and affirming.

This is completely different to gossiping!

11 – Congruence

The most effective leaders are congruent.

As stated in this post, congruence can be described as human genuineness.  And just to remind you, it is a fundamental principle of Person Centred Therapy.

I mention it here because as leaders we can sometimes be tempted to pretend to be someone that we’re not.  That is, to play a role that is expected.

In being congruent, it is important to be accessible to others and to listen carefully to the parts that we don’t like, i.e. for the grain of truth in the criticism we react to, get defensive about, or get angry with.

We have a responsibility to have very high standards of integrity, and this includes being willing to create the atmosphere where we make it easy for others to express opinions about us, the organisation, the way we are running it, decisions we make etc.

That is not to say that the person giving a view will be always right – but at least expression is allowed – and there is a far better chance that something will be learned in such an atmosphere than in an atmosphere of fear and closed-ness.

Another aspect of congruence is giving good example.

We need to remember that we are a model for not only everyone on the staff team, but also everyone who accesses the services of our organisation and those who are in other leadership positions on Boards etc.

In short, if I am not willing to be congruent I cannot call myself a community leader.

12 – Work Ethic

Many years ago I (with a neighbour – but I was in charge) was moving a piano up a hall.  We began heaving and shoving and after a promising start it got more and more difficult until the piano just stopped moving no matter how hard we pushed.

Rather than stop and try and figure out what was wrong I directed my two assistants (another hefty neighbour had joined us at this stage) to keep pushing – thinking that the extra oomph would have some effect.

When we were close to the cardiac arrest stage my son, who was 7 at the time, came to me and pointed out that we were trying to push the piano against a long mat that was folding up as we pushed – thereby increasing the resistance the more we pushed – and suggested that I remove the mat and try again.  Which I did – after which the piano whizzed up the lino floored hall with relative ease!

Once again the world of physics is relevant here.  The definition of work in physics is that something is moved as a result of a force being applied to it.  And it takes energy to apply the force.

Whenever I think of energy and work I think of that incident, there being, of course, a strong link between the two.

If the object on which the force is applied doesn’t move, (like my piano) in physics (or mechanics, a branch of physics, to be more precise) it is not defined as work, no matter how much energy is used.

Now this is very interesting when applied in the context of social care type work, helping professions etc.

I have argued a number of times that in child protection, homelessness, crime prevention and similar areas very often an enormous amount of energy is expended by the Pillars and nothing really changes.  So, going by the physics definition, no work has been done.

This is like us exhausting ourselves, expending huge amounts of energy pushing and pushing, but the object refuses to move.

So if we, as leaders, consider ourselves to have a good work ethic we need to ensure that something will change as a result of the application of all our energy. And I believe that it is very good for our morale if the change is noted and/or remarked upon.

Now – sometimes change happens but because we are not really listening and/or observing we don’t notice it – or, we expect too much too soon, i.e. we don’t give the energy we have expended a chance to take effect, that is, to turn into work, (we are not patient enough) or our evaluation methods are too clinical and focus only on quantitative results, (we are too influenced by mainstream methods).

As we all know, success breeds success, so our work ethic will be helped by noticing what is changing for the better – no matter how small the change.