5.3.3 Principles Of Community Leadership

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.

At last we come to the final three Principles Of Community Leadership; they are Humility, Holding The Tension and finally Creativity.

13 – Humility

When I was a young man Liverpool were tops of the soccer world. (After a bit of a valley period they are doing very well again now).

One night I was watching their witty, sometimes irascible manager, Bill Shankly being interviewed on telly. During the interview I remember the reporter asking him what his thoughts were when the stadium was empty, when everyone had gone home and he was alone. He replied that the time to be humble is when one is most successful, and he gave examples of what he imagined his life might have been like had the cards fallen differently for him.

As he was usually very confident to the point of being cocky I remember being a little surprised at his humility.

That was Liverpool Football Club in the red-hot competitive and comparative world of what was then the English First Division.

What about the community sector where many families have felt neglected or abandoned for generations, and where, in many posts, I have stated that competition and comparison may have been causative factors in their neglect and abandonment?

I remember being inspired by Bill’s humility at an impressionable age. This is because as leaders we need to remember how things can be different but for the good fortune that comes our way. I believe that this is very important in our work as leaders in communities.

And it brings us back to an earlier post where we described the desirability of inviting rather than coercing followers.

While humility might have some benefits in soccer management, I believe that, in organisations that support our Focus Group, it is a leadership responsibility to be humble, because genuine humility has an invitational nature. 

There is a balance to be struck between not hiding our light under a bushel on the one hand and maintaining that we are the leading this or the leading that.  If indeed we are, it will speak for itself. (The old saying failure has a thousand excuses; success speaks for itself, resonates here).

But the principal reason for humility is not that we want to promote false modesty or even restrain our ambition – it is because we want to protect our organisation from the corporate values of competition, comparison, one-up-man-ship, and a lot of what has been harmful to vulnerable people.  (This was discussed at length in the Chapter on Power and Control in Society where we described corporate closed-ness).

It is also good modelling in de-compartmentalising (if that’s a word at all) our organisation – and furthermore promotes the notion that behaviour that would be okay in a good enough family is not out of place in our working environment. Like, sometimes it might be a good idea for us to do work that some might consider routine or even menial – if it needs to be done at that time and no-one else is doing it.

Also, healthy humility has a downstream positive effect not often thought about.

I believe that it encourages staff and leaders alike to think deeply about things – be reflective and self-aware and have a realistic sense of our own importance – or otherwise.

14 – Holding The Tension

The tensions that will inevitably arise between members of staff who are competent, assertive and confident need to be viewed as positive and potentially growthful.

Thinking once again about physics; I tend to view tension in a team as a kind of potential energy and the practice that arises from, or is stimulated by tension as akin to kinetic energy.

Just to explain, potential energy is the energy that a body has because of its situation. It can be described a stored energy. For example, an apple hanging on a tree waiting to fall has potential energy – energy that hasn’t yet been used yet, or released. Kinetic energy is the energy that a body has when it is moving – like when the apple is falling.

In our case, I imagine the tension is energy waiting to be released, and the work done is the energy being released.

As we saw in the Chapter on Energy, conflict can enable creativity and innovative practice.  When egos are healthy and manageable, people who have different views will learn from each other – which is also modelling the desirable two-way knowledge flow. 

Holding tension can be a challenging (and sometimes delicate) function of community leadership.  We saw, when we discussed self-organisation, (and in self-organisation there is always the possibility of tension) that an entity that self-organises is a lot more robust and adaptable than a rigid paint-by-numbers structure.

As good enough leaders we will:

Firstly have the confidence and self-belief to embrace ideas that arise from staff – no matter what their status is in the organisation. (In this, it’s amazing how easily we slip unknowingly into the feeling threatened mode when ideas come from newcomers or staff who are in positions that are deemed to be of lesser importance).

Secondly we will be proactive in seeking out new ideas and trust emergence in the team as much as practitioners will trust it in people who are in distress.

Thirdly we will have enough experience (and intuitive sense) to reach out to staff who have a lot to offer but who are naturally quiet and reflective rather than being outgoing and opinionated.

And finally we will embrace diversity in respect of opinions and views within the boundary of the mission of the Project – and be a good model in this area.

We will see later how important supervision is.  It is in the area of holding the tension that the real value of supervision is evident.   

15 – Creativity

I have already covered Creativity in some depth so there is no need to go on too long about it here. Needless to say community leaders need to be both creative themselves and foster creativity in all parts of the organisation they are leading.

In the Chapter on Creativity, it is probably the Sub-Chapter on creativity in strategic thinking that is most relevant, and that is what we might mostly associate with leadership.

However, getting away from strategic thinking, it needs to be stressed that in situations where there are frequent crises we need to think and plan creatively. If we don’t, then there is a temptation to default to the logical response that we have mentioned elsewhere. Just to remind ourselves, it is a response that often ignores (or at least negates) the emotional dimension in the crisis.

To choose to be creative at such times is the true test of leadership in an organisation.

Creativity helps us to adapt to the complexities of crises – i.e. rapidly changing situations with competing demands and priorities.

You must be exhausted after reading the previous five posts on the Principles Of Community Leadership. Or maybe you are energised……..

Through them all, it is important, as leaders, that we focus on being good enough, not perfect.

In this, we will be able to initiate and then sustain innovation and originality in our efforts to support families in our Focus Group who are in deep distress from poverty, alienation, trauma, and all the aspects of people’s lives, already described, that are causative factors in addiction, wrongdoing and criminality.

The principles (and descriptions) in the posts are ones that came to my mind as being important. They are not exhaustive – and perhaps I have neglected to mention some that spring to your mind – please send any in.

They all involve affirming qualities that will help us manage, motivate, challenge, support, make decisions, and include.

We have all been influenced by leaders good and bad, wise and unwise, humble and power-hungry, many of whom have never encountered very hurt people. If we are perceptive we have undoubtedly picked up a lot from our experience of different forms of leadership on our journeys.

And if we are in the listening business our daily encounters with very hurt people have an effect on us, and inform our norms and values.

With a bit of support and encouragement, we can all choose to be different.

You might notice that I don’t have ambition as one of the principles. That is because if we have all of the rest we’ll have ambition too. I think it’s fair to say that no-one is more ambitious for a child than their parent. If we are committed to sharing power we will allow ambition to inspire us, and not act as a negative factor in growth.

And the more ambitious leaders in the area of child protection will always be looking for a bit of inspiration.