Subject: Charity Talk - courageous leadership

Here are some quotes from last night's inspiring speakers:

• "Leadership is at its best and most successful when we're being authentic"

• "A leader has to have personal courage to question their own motives for making a particular decision"

Thomas Lawson, CEO of Leap Confronting Conflict

• "When you first walk into a room as a leader you need to be quiet and observe the group dynamics"

Justin Sesay, Leap Confronting Conflict

• "Leadership is a way of living in the world 24/7"
• "It's easy to trust those who never let you down. Authentic leadership is about trusting people who have let you down." 
• "If you give people the space to step up, 99% of the time they will"
• "Leadership is about creating the space for other people to shine" 

Debra Allcock Tyler, CEO of Directory of Social Change

Here is the reference I talked about

Hi All,

I thought it was a great end to the series and a timely reminder of what we in the sector are here for.

At the end of the talk you spoke about Kouzes and Posners conclusions on leadership.

Would you be able to post a quick summary of their key points please?

Hi Tom

Here is a summary of the Kouzes and Posner research findings on the most important things to do to be a successful leader. Their findings fit well with our speakers' views and encapsulate the approach I have always tried to use and found really work.

A good leader will be successful when s/he contrates on: 

Thanks Ian, I think these comments do ring true. In my experience sometimes the most powerful leadership is ‘felt’ and it is difficult to describe although Kouzes and Posner make a good effort in identifying some of the key things. What makes an effective leader is often not measurable, it is the ‘magic’ that happens between people – the atmosphere the leader creates, the way he makes colleagues feel, the inspiration and confidence and sense of passion they personify and in turn inculcate in others.

This is an interesting time for the Sector with many Not for Profits facing financial pressures whilst simultaneously recording an increase in demand for their services. The Sector is being tested in extraordinary ways and the need for courageous leadership has never been more acute. Thanks for the posts.

Another Ian here! The Kouzes and Posner list makes sense to me too. In terms of the great point made today about leadership being felt, apparently a famous poet, Maya Angelou, once said: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’. How things feel is important in the processes involved with charities making a positive difference in society; otherwise leadership can become a negative given the vulnerabilities and imbalances in power and position that can exist. In the place where I work, we try to 'inspire a shared vision' and 'enable others to act' by encouraging an entreprenurial edge to the organisation; somewhere where 'passion' can exist alongside all the necessary risk management and other factors essential to effective growth. Useful to read the posts, thanks!     

This was the first Charity Talk I had been to; I enjoyed it very much.

At our recent management away day we had an external speaker from a private sector oranisation who asked us to consider where we should put our investment in difficult times. There is only one answer he said, and that is people. "This is counterintuitive when times are hard, but we can all invest in communication - what we say to people and how we listen to them." This is a challenge if, like me, you are time poor, but he concluded with a reminder that the quality of relationship is one of the key indicators of a successful organisation.

Like Philippa, this was my first Talk - but I sincerely hope it will not be my last!

I found the speakers inspirational in different ways, but all exemplified the idea of authentic leadership under discussion ie people with the courage to be themselves. I pondered particularly on one point raised: that the environment can either support or suppress authenticity. This is an area where we should be able to exert a degree of control - to build a challenging but enabling, supportive and communicative organizational environment. This takes me back to Kouzes and Posner, Ian: challenging the process through searching for opportunities and experimenting and taking risks. The inclination in the current climate may be to avoid risk taking. Our challenge is how to stay creative in a time of cuts and maintain the passion. 

Apologies for not being called Ian!

Hi everyone! This is a great discussion! (And I can see that I am much of a latecomer, sorry!). I definitely agree with the main points from Kouzes and Posner, however, this is easier said than done often. I had a boss who knew that this was what it took to be a good leader... but she made leadership a mental thing - she tried to analyse her way to her passion, instead of reflecting inwards and discovering her passion within herself. So she did not manage to make her work authentic and true to her self, and then her leadership did not become believable and an inspiration, which was a shame because she was professionally really competent. I think that it takes some guts for a leader to look inwards and really reflect about what is true for him/her and what is authentic... and then it also does take some guts and 'letting go' to allow and create a space for his/her colleagues/staff/employees to discover their own authentic passion and their own personal ways of working. Humanitarian/aid/human rights (etc.) work is very soul-oriented... we often put our entire souls into the work... therefore it is SO important that our work and the way we do things is aligned to who we truly are so we can maintain our passion and avoid burnout... in my view. Thanks for a great discussion!