Lieutenant-General The Honorable Roméo Dallaire (R) is a career soldier, now a member of the Senate of Canada and award-winning author. More importantly, he is an international champion of human rights, his passion formed by horrendous experiences in Rwanda trying to prevent and then end genocide with no support from his UN masters.
At a recent Salvation Army fundraising breakfast in Ottawa, Dallaire shared his thoughts on leadership. There was a review of the usual steps of knowing the mission, strategizing, planning the tactics and all the resource management side of it.
Then, he spoke of leadership and the need to engage the people in the work team. There was nothing extraordinary about his principles of leadership. However, the horrific examples he gave of being a military officer with a life-or-death mission that was not supported by his employer were compelling. His audience could only imagine the despair of his situation.
Vulnerability in Leadership
Dallaire began talking about being vulnerable as a leader, as if that vulnerability is a positive attribute. Yet, in just a few brief moments he painted a picture of himself as vulnerable, exposed, and targeted on a world stage.
For Daillaire, exposing his commitment to ethical decisions over the period of a mission meant leaving his command post, returning home and battling personal demons to finally emerge to continue the fight for human rights in a different venue.
Vulnerable leadership appears to be emerging as a viable approach to leadership. Books are being written on it. Even the Harvard Business Review has articles about it. But Romeo Dallaire tells a story that must be the ultimate in the reality of vulnerable leadership.
The main characteristic of vulnerable leadership is an openness to people, to ideas, and to taking risks in order to achieve the mission.
The risks, in themselves, are myriad. There can be emotional, mental, even physical pain. The hurt can be personal to the leader or systemic to the organization.
Benefits of Vulnerable Leadership
A leader who is willing to expose herself to hurt and risk is also exposed to creativity, innovation, and ever-evolving best practices in an organization. She is declaring her passionate commitment to the mission, her willingness to put the results before her personal gain, and her desire to connect on a human level with all her team.
This means that there are organizational benefits as new ideas are channeled and massaged into enhanced processes and improved outcomes. There are personal rewards in unleashing a passion to attain the mission and in becoming intimate with other people as everyone works together.
Some leaders are naturally willing to be vulnerable. Others will have to be deliberate about their self-exposure.
Leadership Vulnerability in a Non-Profit
Managing non-profit organizations has a special place in the spectrum of vulnerable leadership. This is especially true when the mission is direct service to needy clients.
There is an inherent vulnerability for most leaders in community-based service non-profits. These are the designated leaders and managers who must be wise stewards of limited resources. They continually strive to enhance the services to clients. Ongoing financial restraints mean that many of these leaders have difficulty recruiting and retaining enough qualified staff to provide the services.
All this information is generally public knowledge for anyone who cares to review it. And, the leader, the manager, is the one who is held accountable, not just by her board and funding bodies, but also by the staff who might feel unappreciated and the clients who might think they are underserved.
On the plus side, this kind of service work lends itself to the engagement of management and staff who are usually passionate about achieving successful client outcomes. They live the mission. Even if the resource reality tempers grand ideas for better service, there is an enthusiasm that a vulnerable leader can enjoy and use to improve all facets of the organization.
Taking risks is another norm for many non-profit agencies. They are often providing services in areas where there is little evidence to support or refute what they are doing. For example, a decade ago, the implementation of harm reduction services for the homeless in North America was fighting misinformation and prejudice. Now these services are accepted as a viable option for many substance abuse and mental health treatment modalities.
This respectability was won at a cost for many leaders of non-profits over the past several years. In building a new service world, they endured being scoffed at, turned down for funding, and isolated from some of their community partners.
Roméo Dallaire gave his Ottawa audience advice for those vulnerable leaders who are going through the worst of times. “Find your safe place and cry a bit.” He might even follow up with encouragement to “pull yourself together and carry on”!
Constance Woloschuk - 30 years experience in management and organizational development; extensive volunteer work with faith-based organizations.
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