“A Career of Humanity”: The Leadership of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On Monday, we celebrate the life and civil rights advocacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; an immeasurable advocate for equality, unity, and justice who bore many roles throughout his lifetime. He was a visionary who dreamed of a society without racism, poverty, or war. He was an activist who practiced nonviolence and civil disobedience. He was a theologian who promoted the power of peace and tolerance. And above all else, he was a leader of a movement that revolutionized American culture forever. Dr. King’s words, deeds, and beliefs continue to reverberate and grip our nation as we evaluate how far we’ve come and how far we still need to go to reach his promised land.

As we commemorate what would have been the 94th birthday of Dr. King this weekend, it’s an important moment for companies and professionals to honor his legacy as a leader and reflect on how his teachings and values apply to our businesses, and by extension, our society as a whole.

Approach with empathy and compassion

Dr. King dedicated his life to ending racial and economic inequality and, in doing so, demonstrated an enormous capacity for both empathy and compassion. He heard and saw people from all walks of life and understood how both sides of an issue — even the most contentious ones — actually felt. This allowed him to help people and seek peaceful resolutions in the name of social justice.

This powerful level of empathy and compassion is what businesses should cultivate in their workplaces and display toward their employees and clients — an awareness of people’s thoughts and feelings and a desire to help them. This could be reflected by hosting town halls to engage employees and listen to their feedback, granting time off to honor a wider range of cultural holidays, providing comprehensive health benefits and mental health days, and more.??

The ability to connect with others — to feel with them, to care about their well-being, and to act with compassion — is critical to our lives. It helps us get along, work more effectively, and thrive as a society.????

Demonstrate your purpose and values

While 2023 is the 94th birthday of Dr. King, it’s also the 60th anniversary of some of his most crucial work as an activist and leader, from his March on Washington and his defining “I Have a Dream” speech to his arrest for peacefully protesting segregation in his “Letter from a Birmingham, Alabama Jail.” It was not enough to just speak of freedom and equality; Dr. King knew he had to pair his words with actions to effectively champion his cause. He was arrested 30 times for his convictions and was willing to stand up for his beliefs despite their mainstream unpopularity.?

Communication alone is no longer acceptable in today’s workplaces and communities. Companies need to lead with intention and purpose and demonstrate their commitment to their beliefs through their daily actions. We should all look at the mission statements and values on our websites and see how we can more firmly institute policies that uphold them — from providing mental wellness resources and caregiver leaves, to protecting gender rights and self-expression, and more. Like Dr. King, we cannot speak of a dream without providing a blueprint for how we will achieve it.

Mentor and uplift

No one understood the importance of mentorship in uplifting a society more than Dr. King. Inspired and influenced by the work of visionaries like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Dorothy Height, Benjamin Mays, and Mahalia Jackson, he utilized their philosophies to inform his movement and guide the next generation. He mentored activists such as former United States Representatives John Lewis and Andrew Young and inspired trailblazers like former U.S. President Barack Obama and so many others.

Great leadership begets great leaders, and as we celebrate National Mentoring Month in January, executives should encourage mentoring and job shadowing at their companies and provide access to outside learning opportunities. They can hold informational interviews with students from marginalized communities and historic educational institutions, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Hispanic-Serving Institutions, to introduce them to their fields and companies. They can coach intersectional women who seek and are pursuing managerial, leadership, and boardroom opportunities. Dr. King believed in leaving behind a better world than the one we were given, and mentorship is the first step in achieving that.

Serve and help others

This weekend is also the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service in honor of Dr. King’s work. We can all acknowledge Dr. King's legacy of activism by:

• Supporting causes that matter through volunteering
• Being an ally, advocate, and champion for justice?
• Donating funds to national and international groups that align with your values
• Finding more ways to get involved at The King Center’s website?
• Gathering friends, family, or colleagues to listen to his iconic speech or read Dr. King's biography for this month's book club selection

“Make a career of humanity”

As companies and colleagues, we have enormous potential to shape our society for the better through how we decide to lead. Dr. King once said, “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in." As businesses, how we choose to operate, treat others, and stand by our values has the capacity to uplift and transform our communities. It’s our responsibility to “make a career of humanity” every day and to show up at work with minds and hearts ready to help and actively create positive change for all.