If I could get Trump, Ardern and Merkel in a tent together….
It seems that everywhere there are leadership (and how NOT to do leadership) lessons to be learned right now.
My professor at Lancaster University was fond of getting his leadership students to sit in a cold tent by themselves on a wind-swept hillside in northern England to learn about leadership. Although that has a certain romance and drama to it, you can also do one of my favourite leadership development exercises of his in the comfort of your living room. As long as you have a couple of hours of quiet time – tricky for many to achieve at the moment I know!
This reflection activity designed by the brilliant Professor Steve Kempster involves working with our own personal definition of leadership. Taking a large sheet of paper and your favourite pens you work across in a horizontal line, mapping out the life experiences and significant people who have impacted your journey.
You’re rewarded with sparks of realisation that your key influences have shaped your view of what leadership is. Or is it that your views have shaped your influences? It can be a transformative leadership learning moment.
How I would love to get Trump, Ardern and Merkel in a room – or tent - together and be able to compare their leadership timelines. What could have shaped the leadership they are exhibiting now and what could we learn from that process to help us in future crises? (Caveat- reading Mary Trump’s insights into Donald Trump’s influences could be a lesson in what DOESN’T work, but still valuable). Could we dare to imagine that world leaders are sharing their experiences in an open way so as to learn from one another? I know that those leaders in the community and at the frontline of services are sharing. And isn’t that where leadership is really being displayed in all its bravery, dedication, commitment, willingness to serve and downright necessity to keep going?
As the COVID-10 crisis deepens, becomes more complex and we approach the possibility of a second wave or the uncertainty of returning to a ‘new normal’, community leadership is critical. But leadership isn’t and shouldn’t be just about the great (or not so great) person with the top job. Leadership happens between people, it’s a process that engages members throughout organisations and communities, and in a complex crisis scenario that model of distributed, shared leadership should be our focus.
So the team at The Missing Piece pulled together highlights of the insights from the likely, and not so likely experts that we interviewed about how they lead their communities. I think there are important lessons here for us to share.
Do give it a listen on: Apple Podcasts , Spotify and Podbean
The first of the three key experts that we feature, is Gopinath Parayil. Gopi is a social entrepreneur, storyteller, responsible tourism advocate and innovative community facilitator. He has extensive experience working with communities through his work in palliative care and natural disaster response.
We also hear from Maz Farrelly, AKA Maz Speaks. Maz is a former and some would say recovering reality TV producer, turned speaker, author and CEO whisperer. Maz has worked on some of the biggest shows in what we know is a multimillion-dollar industry, which of course aims to entertain, but also holds many important lessons about community and communication, including how we should provide the right environment to enable people to speak up.
Our next community expert is Erica Hammons who is an associate minister at St Barnabas Anglican Church, known locally as Barneys. Erica is in charge of several ministry teams and pastoral care initiatives and plays a key role in supporting young adults, women and marginalised communities in the church. Erica has thought very deeply about what it means to be worthy of trust and to have integrity as a leader.
Our final guest is Matt Dibbayawan, Health Education Team Manager at Uniting’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. Matt is in charge of all things health education and promotion and oversees Uniting’s wonderful Art from the Heart Project. For nearly two decades, the centre has been caring for people who inject drugs and Matt details some very important lessons about listening, trust, and respect in your community.
Here are my community leadership takeaways that can be applied to our own leadership practice, workplaces, careers, businesses.
1. There's a big 3 of trust - Demonstrate authenticity, reliability and empathy.
2. Focus on community-led initiatives - building long term resilience supports creative and sustainable communities who are then better able to tackle problems based on local knowledge and needs.
3. Nothing about us without us – This is about listening at the grassroots, hearing what your community needs and acting accordingly.
4. Enable people to speak up –Creating the right environment for people to engage in difficult conversations and share their honest opinions.
This is all information I’m using on a daily basis to help build communities, with the Belonging is Better program #belonging is better.
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Rachel Abel
Head of Making Friends
