Common ground seems pretty elusive these days. Sometimes it seems to be out of our reach completely. But that doesn’t mean that we give up. It may be frustrating but giving up is not the answer. Neither is leaving it to someone else to fix.
I conducted a workshop on this issue last week at the
Mid-America Regional Council
meeting. It was geared toward elected officials, and the topic was “Servant Leadership Leads to Common Ground.”
As city leaders look to find ways to heal the divides in their communities, this has become a favorite workshop. I’ve seen servant leadership at work in people and in communities. For those seeking to find common ground, I think it provides effective tools to do that. Implementation may look different from place to place, but I’ve seen the application of servant leadership tools work again and again.?
- Base decisions on the next generation more than on the next election and serve the entire community.
- Keep mission, vision, and values at the center of decisions in the pursuit of the greater good rather than pacifying any group’s agenda.
- Make decisions based on facts and resist being manipulated by critics.
- Value those with the courage to disagree with you and have the wisdom to know when you don’t understand something.
- Understand your role is to govern rather than to manage—that’s the job of staff. Never fail in your role to hold staff accountable.
- Emphasize solutions over problems and be sure to understand the problem before offering solutions.
- Embrace mutual trust as the foundation for everything—refusing to trust others discourages them from trusting you.
- Protect the integrity of the process over the rightness of your position. Fight for your position, but when a decision is made it’s critical to unify behind that position—even when you disagree.
- Disagreeing with someone doesn’t make them an enemy. Your beliefs, values, and positions are strengthened by the courtesy, respect, and civil discourse you have with others—especially those with whom you disagree.
- Define yourself as a leader by treating everyone with dignity and respect—not by how they treat you or whether you like or dislike them.
- Model civility in every situation. If it would embarrass you if your child treated someone a certain way, then you shouldn’t treat anyone that way either.
- Remember that it’s not about you and it’s not about now—it never is.
?Have a great week, everyone.
Featured Open Recruitments this week
