All Leadership is Autobiography
…thoughts about organizational mission amidst Covid-19
Twenty years ago, when I was a student in seminary, one of my professors regularly reminded his students that “all preaching is autobiography.” Put a bit more simply, his point was that “most preachers are preaching to themselves.” Although I never ended up becoming a preacher, I regularly think about that little piece of wisdom. Recently, I find myself applying that old lesson in a new context.
“All leadership is autobiography.”
What do I mean by that? I mean that as leaders, the messages we elevate and the lessons we return to again and again are often the messages that we most need to hear ourselves. My hunch is that lots of this kind of thing is happening in this season of upheaval produced as the result of Covid-19. I could be wrong about that. You might be that one-in-a-million leader who is reliably able to separate him or herself from the way you engage with the world. If that’s you, you can stop reading right now since you’ve apparently already got it figured out. If you happen to be one of the rest of us, hang with me for a second.
Rather than approaching this obliquely, let me just tell you that I LOVE to fix problems. All the better if they are problems that someone else is facing. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out and managing chaos, turning obstacles into opportunities to do something constructive. I like this about myself and my leadership, and I think that this piece of my autobiography has been put to good use in my organization. But, there can be a dark side to these tendencies, particularly when there are lots of needs, when I’m tired, or when I am juggling too many things. In these moments, I have come to learn, my leadership risks looking more like autobiography than might be healthy or wise.
At RiverWise, we are wrestling daily with what the limits of our work ought to be in a world dominated by the Coronavirus. At the heart of our mission is the goal of “creating a regional identity” in Beaver County. That means that we spend lots of time trying to get communities to work together, to see their stories as part of a broader, regional narrative. We work to help residents dream about what is possible, about how their talents, resources, and organizations can be utilized to create a different and more beautiful version of the communities we inhabit.
I’m admittedly biased, but I think this is a beautiful and noble mission. It’s a mission that was intentionally crafted to be wide and flexible. But, for precisely that reason, it’s also the kind of mission that can take our organization to unexpected and even unproductive places if it’s applied without deliberate forethought and discernment.
In this season of upheaval, I have found myself talking quite a bit about how this moment presents an opportunity to “demonstrate our relevance” and why we need to “translate our messaging” in ways that show how our pre-Coronavirus identity remains applicable in the era of Covid-19. I have been reflecting and writing about how we are “made for this” season, that we are poised to meet the challenges we are now facing.
All those things are true. I’d even go so far as to say that they are wise and necessary truths to be sharing at this time. But, in reflecting on the truth of these kinds of messages lately, I have needed to remind myself not to allow my own tendencies and personality to become more prominent than is wise.
Given the many needs we are currently facing, I am tempted to latch on to anything that I suspect I might be able to help make better. In just the last three weeks, RiverWise has been asked to help with feeding people, making medical masks, assisting with the Census, checking in on the elderly, providing financial guidance, writing grant application for others, establishing a charitable fund, starting an employment agency, and more. All these things could undoubtedly contribute to the broader vision of “creating a regional identity” in Beaver County. But not all these things are wise. They certainly cannot be done all at once with the resources at our disposal.
If I, as a leader, cannot consistently remember that “All leadership is autobiography,” I can quickly allow my personal inclinations, insecurities, strengths, and curiosities to steer our organization away from wisdom and prudence. And, I can easily do that while justifying our journey with noble rhetoric and generous motivation. Herein lies one of the central challenges of leadership in this moment: sifting through infinite need to discern where and whether we might act with strategic effect. The need for action is without end, but the need for strategy is without equal.
Don’t get me wrong, loving and serving people amidst need is intrinsically good. There’s always room for acts of generosity and kindness. But, given the enormity of need all around us, staring too long at this truth can keep us from seeing the bigger picture. It may sound brutal, but leaders of others must discipline themselves to think beyond the need for triage. Not all the time, and maybe not yet. But, the time is coming, if it’s not already upon us, where we are going to need to be able to see beyond the consequences of our broken systems so that we can stare honestly at the reasons those consequences are so profound and so numerous.
As leaders, we must be careful to delineate what our autobiography tells us is good from what wisdom suggests is necessary. Making these critical and subtle distinctions can be challenging, to say the least. But this is precisely what is required if we are to marshal a response to Covid-19 that rises above legitimate individual need and begins to address underlying systemic necessity. I must, as a leader, refuse the impulse to lead my organization valiantly into every opportunity where we might be helpful. I must instead begin to discern those critical situations where history is requiring that our organization must become helpful.
I can tell you, even as a leader who is committed to transparency and honesty, having this kind of conversation publicly (in writing, no less) is not entirely comfortable. At RiverWise we have worked hard to let people see “under the hood” of leadership and civic participation, and we still struggle to understand the complex interplay between our autobiography and our mission. In our case, our autobiography can blur the lines between what’s good for us to do and what’s critical for us to undertake. We are staring at that honestly, as individuals and as a team. And it’s helping us to refine how we are acting, whom we are serving, and when we are saying no.
So, what about you and your organization? Have you been honest enough with yourself and others in this season of reaction and triage? If you have, that’s fantastic. I would love to learn what you’ve sorted out through that process of discovery. If you haven’t yet begun that journey, it’s probably worth the cost. Failure to do so risks allowing your organization to be sucked into a vortex of infinite need, rudderless, and with no discernible destination in sight.
We need all of us to know who we are and what we are not in this season. The delivery of our organizational mission cannot, at this time, become mere autobiography. It must become a manifestation of robust community and ongoing dialogue. It’s a process to be sure, but we must be on our way, now more than ever.
Daniel Rossi-Keen, PhD
Executive Director, RiverWise
