As part of our exploration of Social Leadership in practice, in every day, i am inviting a range of people to share their own stories and perspective: today some thoughts from Christine Bruce, host of the podcast The Cookie Jar: grass roots recipes for change.
I asked Christine ‘What does ‘Social Leadership’ mean to you, and she talked about it being a ‘responsibility for any influence you may have in your circles’. I appreciated how she led with this notion of leadership being a responsibility.
“People influence change in social situations by being educated, articulate or popular; born into the right family, class or other niche; having money. Some people lead by example. It’s a responsibility, because a lot of people could take your suggestions quite seriously. Obviously, there are good and bad leaders. Some people lead for the wrong reasons, some are unwilling leaders. Some are remarkable and you never understand why.”
“Then there are the quiet leaders, who just act. They aren’t always trying to be leaders (and may even dislike drawing attention), but their actions can be a model for social behaviour. One of my farmer friends is extremely generous of her time and talents, but does it with no expectations and no fanfare.”
In my own work i sometimes say that ‘Social Leaders act with no expectation of reward’, because their action is an investment into their communities.
Christine and i live on opposite sides of the world, so it’s natural that we talked about distance, because this ‘radical connectivity’ across vast spaces is a core feature of the Social Age. I asked about the importance of meeting face to face:
“In my experience, face-to-face contributes to another level of connection and affection, but it’s certainly not necessary. I interview people all over the world— the high percentage of them strangers—and there’s often an almost immediate warmth and comfort in the relationship resulting from a shared interest in and advocacy for a topic.”
“My social media feed is largely comprised of people I’ve only met virtually, or in person only a few times. We’ve built robust communities over topics like housing precarity, bicycles, indigeneity, abandoned cats and dogs, politics, environmental issues, and those communities are usually keen to regularly update everyone on the feed. I’d guess that people are programmed for face-to-face, but that we’re very good at making virtual work because we want to succeed regardless.”
I was unsurprised to read that Christine is part of so many communities: across the ‘Landscape of Communities’ research, we see people describing that they are, on average, a member of 15 different communities.
Finally, i asked “What is ‘authenticity’?”, as this is a feature that people value most highly in Social Leadership:
“My most authentic friends and contacts are those who demonstrate an elevated level of honesty, both with themselves and with others. There’s a credibility to their values, an openness, and an innocence to their approach to life. It’s one of the most attractive qualities in a leader, in my opinion.”
I’m grateful to Christine (and Barry, whose thoughts i shared the week before last) for sharing their thoughts on Social Leadership: if you would like to share your own stories of practice, of challenge, or experimentation, do get in touch.
This week i have also launched a second new book, about ‘Power and Potential’ in Social Leadership: you can download it for free here.