As leaders, looking for the lotus in the mud

"The lotus cannot be there without the mud. Likewise, happiness cannot be there without suffering. Looking deeply into our suffering, we gain an understanding of it, which gives happiness a chance to blossom. Thus, the lotus does not have to reject the mud, and the beauty of the lotus actually gives value to the mud."

?- Thích Nh?t H?nh

As 2023 comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on this idea of coaxing the lotus from the mud, a metaphor I return to often on my leadership journey. Optimism is one of my signature leadership traits, but it’s not a blind optimism; it’s an optimism interlinked with an honest confrontation of the suffering in the world.?

Amid so much suffering, from violent wars to climate devastation to irrational and persistent poverty, it can be tempting to tell ourselves that the lotus is just an illusion; that the mud is far more significant. And yet, I don’t believe this to be true, nor does such a reductive approach set us up to be the leaders that our teams and stakeholders need.

One of the things that helps me continually return my gaze to the proverbial lotus is reconnecting with the purpose of my work at USA for UNHCR , which is to bring needed attention and resources to the plight of refugees and displaced people. This purpose, or “why,” comes from a place of deep caring for our fellow humans, and reconnecting with that caring is fuel —?much more so than focusing solely on the “how” of our everyday work.?

As events unfold, our “how” may shift but our “why” remains constant, and that keeps us striving upwards toward the sunlight, instead of collapsing into the depths. If you know the lotus in more practical, everyday terms, it actually emerges perfectly clean from the mud. It takes in the sun’s rays all day and then, as dusk approaches, it closes up, descends back into the mud and takes its rest until the next day. A (muddy) rinse and repeat, day after day. How can we learn from this persistence, this resilience??

Just as the purpose of our organizations fuels us, so does our purpose as individuals, which we may not have words for but which exists, at the very least, as a feeling inside of us. Mine has something to do with bringing strategic optimism to any context, but especially the scaling and growth of mission-driven enterprises. This optimism has traveled with me from a reproductive rights organization, to a girls’ education effort, to now USA for UNHCR and its focus on the brutality and indignity of displacement.

As Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and founder of Acumen Fund, writes in her book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, “you don’t plan your way into finding your purpose. You live into it.” When I was 20 years old, or even 30, I couldn’t have articulated my purpose to you. But as I shared earlier this year in my , I always knew at my core that it would have something to do with being both in and of service. Following this purpose has led me from one life-transforming opportunity to another, and has fueled me through grief and outrage at the world’s suffering (as have nature walks with my dogs, baking with my daughters and the occasional well-timed karaoke session with friends).?

And then there is the other layer of our purpose as leaders of nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations– to be the best leaders possible. Leadership is a practice, and the more intentional we are with this practice, the better able we are to create the conditions that fuel our teams to have the greatest possible impact. It also helps to remember that, in its highest and most noble form, leadership is not a solitary practice. As I’ve written before, collaboration is so central to my leadership approach; learning in partnership has value, not just for us as individuals but for the nonprofit sector as a whole. In other words: You are not alone in the mud. We’re all there, together, and so many of us have our eyes trained upward.?

Turns out I’m in great company when it comes to centering the importance of collaboration and cooperation. In a recent piece in The Guardian, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency 's High Commissioner Filippo Grandi calls for a change of mindset, from our current state of territorialism and one-up-manship to a mindset “... where we see the mutual benefits and public good of collective action and sharing responsibility. Cooperation does not equal capitulation and compassion is not a weakness.”

If you are feeling despondent or fatigued about the state of the world — about all of the mud — you are not alone. Believe me, I have my moments where seeing the lotus feels impossible. But I never stop looking for it. And I never stop remembering love, as poet Cleo Wade implores. She’s right. Love, it strikes me, is our ultimate purpose, after all.?