The Courage to Lead - Wherever You are
The courage to lead the life unseen.
When I am in a meeting wherein no one asks a question yet all are squirming in their seats;
When I witness disrespect between colleagues and there is a moment for interruption;
When I hear a question that is rife with misinformation…
These are moments when, for each of us, the courage to lead is paramount.
All too often we think about Leadership as located—or not—in the C-suite and/or the various echelons of administrative roles in an organizational chart. Yes, we need agile leadership skills in those whose job it is to lead, be it president, board member or midlevel manager. Additionally, I believe that we all have a role to play in the everyday “leading.”
In our families, our friend groups, our faith or online communities, in the trenches, there are opportunities to lead. There are three ways to consider Everyday Leadership: (i) leading by example; (ii) demonstrating vulnerability, and, (iii) radical hope.
Leading by Example
Our everyday actions matter. What we do or don’t do, what we say or don’t say, what ways we show up or don’t show up. . .these become examples for others to emulate. And so, we raise our hand at the meeting, we ask a question, we interrupt, we ask others for clarification, we listen to the narrative or story.
Leading by example is discussed in this great online piece:
What I like the most is “treat everyone like their role matters” –because it does! Leading by example means living by the rules, doing what we say, living daily the foundational principles of our organization, and seeing everyone in the organization. Being seen is key to organizational belonging. It means “Walking the Walk.” It is powerful not just to tell others what to do but to do it as well; we become the leader who lives the mission of our organization.
Vulnerability
Often, leading is portrayed as being wildly confident or never looking back. It may get results but too often it leaves most of us behind. Leading with vulnerability means showing our humanness, being willing to make mistakes, and having the competence to strategize and/or attempt to fix them. Jacob Morgan, author of Leading with Vulnerability (2023) explains that traditionally vulnerability was equated with weakness, but leading with vulnerability is not just showing your weakness but having/creating a plan to change it. It’s saying, here’s the problem and here is what we are going to try to do about it. If one is leading a team, one can build trust by including the team in the identification of the problem, acknowledging the challenges, but also including them in the planning to turn things around. Thus leading with vulnerability not only shows your human side or vulnerabilities, but identifies potential strategies for change. The team builds trust and respect in trying, in the trial and error. And each can see how they can also be vulnerable and bring about change. Leaders who lead with vulnerability create a culture where everyone can thrive.
Radical Hope
We are often asked how to face a future that is uncertain. The future always is uncertain. There is no guarantee that the deal will be successful, that the company will succeed, that the market or the policy won’t change. How do we face uncertainty at work and in our personal lives? Jonathan Lear (2008) writes in his novel Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation on the history of the Crow people, that to face uncertainty we must have radical hope. Radical hope for the Crow was “to anticipate a future they did not yet know how to think about” (p78). They chose to move to land that was not buffalo running land because if they stayed, they would certainly be killed. Survival meant moving into a future they could not imagine. Lear clarifies, “What makes this hope radical is that it is directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is. Radical hope anticipates a good for which those who have the hope as yet lack the appropriate concepts with which to understand it.” (italics added, pg. 103). Radical hope is what we need everyday to live and make choices to imagine a future, whether it is with family or work, your neighborhood or community, the world. We must radically commit to a future, whatever that may be, understanding that it is ultimately unknowable.
We can hope, radically. Each of us can practice radical hope by courageously leading by example, ensuring that we abide by the principles that we expect of others. Leading with vulnerability, acknowledging our weaknesses, and, how we have overcome them. And, finally, radical hope provides the actions that illustrate tomorrow, whatever it may bring, can be better than today, This everyday leadership makes for a courageous leader.
