Get a New Angle on your Leadership Challenge

In August of 2011, I started one of my favorite PhD classes, Organizational Theory. I learned something in my first evening of class that deeply informed the way I see leadership, and the daily ins and outs of conflict and debate we all have to navigate. And it all started with sitting on top of my desk. 

Welcome to the Kind Leadership Challenge, where I present short, actionable challenges that empower educational leaders like you to build a better world without burning out. I’m Dr. Sarah Clark, founder of the Kind Leadership Guild, where I use my PhD in Higher ed leadership and nearly 2 decades of experience in academic libraries to advise a growing community of leaders who are ready to transform their school or library’s fear, confusion, and drama into confidence, clarity, and trust. Kind Leadership’s pretty simple, but it’s rarely easy. So if you’re up for a challenge, stick around to learn how to create a legacy that will strengthen your community long after you’re gone.

After discussing the concept of theoretical lenses and how different ones might be more or less useful for making sense of particular situations we might encounter as higher ed leaders, our professor led us in an exercise that helped bring this concept home. She divided the class into thirds, instructed some of us to sit or stand on top of the desks, some to lie on the ground, and the rest to stay seated. After 60 seconds of looking around the room, we took our seats and wrote brief descriptions of what we had seen. (the clock, a mark on one of the ceiling tiles, a chair leg, whatever) As you can imagine, each of the groups described a very different view. 

Now, being an overeducated librarian nerd, I’ve read plenty of social theory in my day. On a simpler level, I’ve long been a fan of the “two sides to every story” argument, and even instinctively knew that “the truth” can often appear very different depending on how you look at it. That’s why I spend so much time on this podcast talking about separating facts versus story, and emphasizing how important it is to listen to others’ perspectives. 

However, for some reason that concrete exercise helped me understand that one doesn’t need to latch on to one way of viewing the world for all time, but rather swap around an ever-evolving set of “lenses” through which to view the world, knowing that different things will “light up” depending on the lens you’re using—sort of like popping on a set of readers for close-up work, or those blue light glasses that help you stare at screens all day without getting a headache. Using a framework to view the world is not an either/or proposition, but rather a both/and, utilizing the framework(s) that make sense for making sense out of a given situation.

Because here’s the blunt, and sometimes painful truth. There's no one "right" answer to probably 90-95% of all leadership problems. That’s why leaders are called leaders—we have to guide our organizations through all those messy shades of grey. The good news is there's often several "good enough" answers, one of which may well be the "best" for your situation. The one you decide to implement should be the one that is kindest for your team and those you serve. 

This Weeks Challenge: I want you to think about a problem you’ve been a bit stuck on. And I want you to make a list of some different perspectives or values you could use to consider the situation through. If you’re stumped, Go download my free next steps checklist at kindleadershipchallenge.com/next. It provides a framework you can use to tackle any leadership challenge so you can heal that doubt, confusion, and drama, and get back to building a better world. And remember you don’t strive for perfect, just good enough. 

Thanks as always for listening to the kind leadership challenge. if you want to get notified every time there’s a new episode, or have a colleague who might find these challenges useful, head over to kindleadershipchallenge.com to learn more and subscribe to the show via email or your favorite app. Never doubt that day by day, you’re building a better world, even if you can't see it yet. So until next time, stay kind now.