“Leadership in a Community Context” -by Ako Onyango

Leadership in a Community Context

Leaders are visionaries… We’ve heard this before, but it is to varying degrees that we understand what it looks like on the ground.  In a community context it means simply to see the strengths and potential among a given people and then begin imagining how to capitalize on those for the advancement of all.  The big challenge in urban America is to find individuals with the prerequisite characteristics.  Americans are trained toward individualism and the drawing of as many lines as possible with the end of creating an “ultimate uniqueness”; often wrongly associated with freedom.  Community building, and consequently nation building, actually demands the de-construction of divisive social practices in order to gain mutual advancement.  Success in this de-construction leads to a strong local contingent able to leverage their communal power against municipal and corporate entities; which to me is the only real freedom. This is the American paradox. Individualism has been on the upswing and is causing a leadership vacuum at the community level.  Community leaders stand squarely against the individualist trend and their message is invariably one of unity and social responsibility.  Are you a community leader?  Could you be? What do they even look like in real life?  Here are a few hints:

Selfless and Transparent
Often hard to quantify, a leader’s selflessness will be evident when he makes decisions with no regard for his personal gain in the equation.  He will find himself in the group that gains from the decision or looses from it on equal occasions.  An important caveat to this is that he would also, as a concession of his position, agree to transparency as to where his personal life intersects with his decision-making.  This is NOT a superhero’s feat.  It simply means that the leaders should be proven, honest people who have figured out how to survive, and in fact, prosper by their own devices so as to be able to withstand a loss or gain to their personal position without significant effect.  The litmus question?  Is there an atmosphere of neutrality around every decision.  An honorable leader will create equity where a conflict exists by recusing from leadership for certain things or bringing issues to full democracy if need be.  (i.e. If Dr. Whom’s practice is thriving in the community, he might be a good candidate to run any initiative but when the fair healthcare and fee reduction program comes, he should be ready to fall out of leadership and into consultancy.)

Consensus Builder and Mediator
Community initiatives are often heavily determined by resource availability.  This makes the management of expectations and desired outcomes among partners a weighty task.  A successful leader knows that the research and conversations which reveal the full viewpoint of each stakeholder should be conducted far before any action plan.  Their insight will automatically cause them to plan for potential clashes because they know that matching personalities can be more important than number crunching.  A good leader will be careful not to take any detail for granted as partners place different priorities on the individual aspects of a project.  A great leader will know exactly which parts are most coveted by which stakeholder and will then work to manage their expectations; shaping them into realistic outcomes for each.
Even after the exhaustive strategic planning is done and all alliances forged, it will seldom happen that no conflicts occur.  The great leader will have foreseen these and have a plan to neutralize hiccups, but in many cases human nature takes over and a fight can’t be avoided.  The superb leader will know when and how to leverage partners back into their perspective corners or have an acceptable exit plan for obstinate parties.

Passionate Thinker
What are you passionate about?  Chances are, if you travel to work and back daily without seeing anything that strikes you as wrong with this world of ours, you aren’t a community leader.  This isn’t a bad thing though, God forbid you wind up being the block captain but really don’t care about the block!  Good leaders are passionate about some aspect of community life.  They can spout endlessly about whatever small section of the great fray they have chosen to fight in and will fervently lead their troops into the breach for the cause!.  A great leader however, is also a thinker, one who has expended much mental energy and hours reading on many aspects of the issue he feels so passionately about; even the opposing viewpoints.  This leader has keyed in on the true foundation of the issue and is constantly thinking toward resolution.  Several strategies are on his drawing board and he carefully wields his communities resources against the problem in ways that make the most impact.  A superb leader has figured out how to make each foray profitable thus making his campaign sustainable.

Leadership is never a single person job.  The three characteristics outlined here could very easily be 6 different people.  Our nation is in crisis.  Individual communities can make a difference if honest, concerned people put up a fight.  Resist the urge toward individualism.  Exercise your inner community leader.

*Ako Changa Onyango is a father, writer, musician, educator, community leader, founder and director of OBI Baltimore, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Group Harvest, and SoS Coaching Partner to name a few. Expect to see more from him as SoS grows.