Rosabeth Moss Kanter from Harvard University gave a TED Talk in 2013 in which she described a handy set of “Six Keys to Leading Positive Change”. Her six keys are: show up, speak up, look up, team up, never give up, and lift others up.
I have summarised each below, along with a few additional thoughts –
1. Show Up
Her first point is the universal lesson of life – show up. If you don’t show up, nothing really happens. The very fact of showing up, of making oneself available, of deciding that your presence makes a difference, is the first key of leadership.
This seems to me to be part of the broader Buddhist concept of “showing up for your life”. Which is about mindfulness, about fully inhabiting the present moment, and by so doing, being more aware of self, less anxious, and more effective. (It also reminded me of the Woody Allen quote – “80 percent of life is showing up”!)
2. Speak Up
Being there makes a difference but that’s only the starting point – no one knows what we’re thinking if we don’t express it. So this second point is about speaking up, declaring yourself. But Kanter is talking about more than just words, she is talking about leadership through shaping the agenda, framing the issues for other people and helping people think about things in a different way.
This one reminds me of a ground rule I often suggest for new groups and participants in training workshops, and that is that we will all “help each other learn”. This ground rule encourages group members to take responsibility for the work of the group – to listen carefully to what each other are saying, and, where helpful, ask questions to check their meaning and help them clarify what they are trying to say.
3. Look Up
Her third point is to look up – at some higher principle, bigger issue, or value. Without vision and values leadership is hollow. It’s important for any leader to know what they stand for and to be able to elevate people’s eyes from the everyday problems which bog us down – to get above this and gain a sense of hope by remembering what’s truly fundamental to our values. To be regularly reminded of our nobler purpose, of what we stand for, lifts the spirits like nothing else.
4. Team Up
Nearly anything worth doing is difficult to do alone – everything goes better with partners. Kanter’s third point is to team up. The best ventures, she says, are where there’s a sense of partnership from the beginning. Leaders should bring people together, taking lots of separate efforts and aligning them in one big team. And values are important here too, finding partners who share the same values is essential.
I would add that, as well as strategic alliances, with funding pressures on NGOs in particular, opportunities to establish partnerships to achieve economies of scale are worth exploring in areas such as office accommodation, financial management, payroll, membership/database management and professional development.
5. Never Give Up
“Kanter’s Law”, as she calls it, states that everything can look like a failure in the middle. Middles are difficult. Almost nothing we start that doesn’t hit an obstacle, a roadblock, things takes longer than we imagine with new projects or ventures, because we’ve never done it before. That ability to hang in there and not give up is the hallmark of leaders. If you give up, by definition it’s a failure.
6. Lift Others Up
Her final point is to lift others up. Share success and give back, build support rather than lose support. Make sure other people feel elevated.
Finally, this one reminds me of the Tom Peters’ adage – it is a leader’s job to create more leaders!