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.