I wrote this in 2020, but just found it and felt like it really meets some of what I’m up to right now as we finish the 7th workshop cohort & aim to build small teams within our broader Francesco / Catholic Impact Investing community.
Let’s start with a definition I picked up from a training at the Ayni Institute. They were building off of the work of Marshall Ganz at Harvard University and the work of Metro IAF.
Leadership = accepting responsibility to create conditions that enable others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty.
I believe the elements of (1) accepting responsibility, (2) creating conditions to enable others, and then (3) the focus on achieving purpose in the face of uncertainty are vital starting points.
In some contexts, we are hiring leaders, in other contexts, we’re recruiting and building teams of volunteer leaders.
For both contexts, there are 5 key things we should look for:
- Deep Motivation. Do they know why they’re doing what they do? Why this work? Why do they have this deep, intrinsic motivation? Can they articulate this?
- Vision. A sense of what they want / what they believe is possible. Vision isn’t necessarily the ability to communicate this, but that they have a sense of the way things could be.
- Anger / Grief. Do they have a deep emotional connection to the work. The point being it’s not just in their head, but that they feel it in their heart. For example, I have grief about the state of school lunches, because of the daily struggles I face with helping my daughter make healthy eating choices.
- Patience and Sense of Humor. While anger / grief are a key component to why somebody is motivated to do the work, it’s also equally important that the person also has patience and a sense of humor, because things take time. There will be a lot of loss for most campaigns that are trying to make meaningful change. We want leaders who will be in it for the long-term.
- Accountability. Do they do what they say? One of the most important things you simply cannot train for. Recognizing when people are accountable to what they say is essential.
Since going to this training at Ayni, I’ve been seeing these five elements in leaders everywhere — from folks I work with to people I’m trying to invite into partnership.
It’s amazing how simple and helpful just having a clear sense of what makes a strong leader.
How would you evolve and/or add to this list for your context?
