Lately I have been fortunate enough to be asked to stand for various leadership roles in my community. This has mainly to do with a local school and my local Church. I think it must be because there aren’t that many people putting their hands up to spare the extra time required. So in a very shallow pool, I surfaced as one of the better swimmers.
I remember the time the principal from my son’s school asked me if I would consider standing for election to the governing body. I felt really proud of my myself and thought that finally my inherent leadership skills and all-round-good-guy-ness were being recognised by society. As I have become exposed to the dedication and skills required to keep a school going, I have to humbly admit that I am learning more about leadership and management from the school than they could ever benefit by having me involved there.
This article is about recognising how the most skillful and competent leaders in society are probably working in environments we least expect. Moreover, I encourage everyone who wants to be a better business leader to get involved in volunteering their time to community organisations as they will learn lessons on life and business here that they just won’t get anywhere else.
1. The school
I serve on the school governing body (SGB) of a small public school in my area. They face numerous challenges around keeping the school financial viable, well maintained and most importantly effective for growing young minds for the future. The budget has no extra fat for any luxuries and they have to make sure that the escalation of schools fees is realistic in terms of what parents can realistically afford to pay. In addition there are numerous regulatory issues to contend with and compliance to sometimes onerous requirements from the education department.
Despite this the school is exceptionally well run. The principal is a master at protecting the staff from unnecessary pressure, negotiations with government officials and identifying the special needs of the school children. The budget always balances and the succession planning to keep key staff positions filled is done extremely well. The staff are very passionate about the children and whenever there is a challenge the overwhelming consideration is that all decisions are made in the best interests of the children.
Quite honestly given how overtly societal challenges play out in the school environment, the team at this school are better at managing their environment and stakeholders than any business leader I have encountered in my career. They aren’t being paid the millions that a CEO would be paid, definitely don’t have the same resources and are managing a more precious commodity.
My key learning here is that when the needs of the customer are elevated genuinely ahead of any other needs, it can act as a rallying call towards excellence. Processes required to maintain this for the long term are put in place out of necessity and emerge because of the culture of the organisation.
2. The children’s home
Through an association with a group in our Church I have been exposed to some children’s homes in Johannesburg and Durban. Recently, I had the privilege of sharing a meal with the director of one of these homes in Durban.
This particular home houses boys between the ages of 4 and 18. The children have either been orphaned, abandoned or rescued from broken homes. In many of the broken homes the challenge is drug related with both or either parents being drug addicts. Associated with this is the violence and negative behaviour present in many broken homes.
Financially, the home receives income from the government per child, however, the government grant does not fully cover the cost of looking after the child. The private sector does contribute via various corporate social investment grants but it is never enough. To make it more challenging, the government also does not compensate the home for children who are 18 years old or older.
The director told me how by the age of 8 years old most of these children have seen violence that would traumatise most adults. He has an endless list of horror stories of how some of these children ended up in the home. One of the milder ones is that of two boys under the age of 10 who go into a heated argument on the premises. Both boys went to the kitchen to get knives so they could “settle it once and for all”.
What I learnt from these interactions is the director’s ability to walk in the boys shoes. To try and understand why they would behave in a certain way. To understand their story and to always give them the benefit of the doubt. The place has a real culture of zero judgement.
In the work environment I don’t think we make enough effort to understand people’s circumstances. Policies and procedures are catch all blanket statements intended to avoid future litigation. They aren’t really designed for empathy. My exposure to these boys has made me more conscious about the real problems being faced in society.
3. The Church organisation
I am involved in an organisation with over 75 years of history in South Africa. Some of the achievements have been the construction of affordable old age and frail care facilities, with millions of Rands generated in fund raising for various activities every year. The biggest challenge the organisations faces is renewal. Membership is voluntary, however, is very targeted towards Catholic men who are committed to the Church.
Many of the early traditions of the organisation have continued over the years. This is great for those members from a particular generation, however, is proving to be a challenge in attracting and retaining newer younger members. The average age of the current membership is in the 60’s (I am bringing down the average). Lately what is happening too is that more members are dying in their old age than new younger members are joining it. As a result the organisation is also dying.
This is a genuine organisational renewal challenge in that we want the group to retain the principles established when it was founded but at the same time make it attractive to younger members and millennials. I am the only member who accesses relevant documents electronically on my phone during meetings and we still have some members who don’t have a mobile phone. They only have a landline. Some members don’t have an email address.
So the challenge is how to retain all that was good in the past, but package it in a relevant manner for the younger generation. Being part of the leadership team expected to bring about this change has been extremely difficult. However, I am confident that if we can achieve this in this environment then it is possible to achieve in any corporate environment. We count some very high powered professionals as members, however, the renewal problem has continued unabated for many years.
So where does this leave us
I have listed some of the areas I have been exposed to in my community involvement. I encourage everyone to get involved where they can. While it is true that you may bring some useful skills to the table, I believe the reality is that you will ultimately gain more than you could ever give. People working on social causes in resource constrained environments are incredible managers and leaders. There is so much we can learn from them.
I also must point out that it seems a trend in society is that it is assumed that because one is well off (rich), they must have superior wisdom or insight to add about life. In some cases this is true, however, I must say that I really wonder whether the rich CEO has more to contribute to leadership practice than the local school principal in the area.
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