Chapter 6: Leadership, Personhood, and Race

In a racially charged atmosphere like the United States, leadership often becomes strained. When persons look at one another across racial lines and primarily see difference, it becomes difficult to imagine how any leader can effectively move an institution in the direction she intends. She can hardly impart a vision and inspire followers toward a goal when, for example, the parties edit themselves, question motives, or otherwise import long-term, often implicit biases. Such situations end up stifling creativity, rewarding filtered communications, discouraging risk-taking, accepting separation, and inhibiting growth.

In this chapter, I would like to concentrate on how directors, managers, administrators, and others might create the meaningful relationships necessary to motivate followers despite difficult racial circumstances. My proposal for fostering such important relationships is through Personal Leadership. And what I mean by that is literal—leaders relating to followers as persons with unique potential.¹ By considering the follower as person-in-relation, leaders will then give reasons and explain their vision respectfully. Personal Leaders will listen with great deference to those followers who tell a different racial story and be ready to learn without defensiveness what they do not know before possibly recalibrating their design. At that point, the follower may freely decide to join (or continue with) that vision for those as well as his own reasons. Despite racial differences, a mutuality may be formed between the leader and the follower through joined reasoning, trust, transparent motivations, listening, humility, respect, and shared development goals.