ESPN’s Outside the Lines today was a special episode covering the biggest stories of the year. (As a side note, I love Outside the Lines — I’m a closet borderline sports junkie and binge on sports and sports news when I can. OTL in particular is a favorite of mine because it takes a deeper dive behind the superficial take on sports stories dominating the media and highlights important stories that have broader social resonance that are not well -covered in mainstream news.)
Today’s episode started with the conviction of Larry Nassar, former team doctor for USA Gymnastics. What struck me was the point brought up by Clinton Yates, that his biggest take away from it was how the tragic scandal and its aftermath revealed deep institutional problems that are far too commonplace.
Another host also made the point that resonates with us here at Outreach by Design, that organizations with a social mission in particular, that are expected to do good, and are faced with criminal or immoral or otherwise embarrassing behavior by a member of their institution, too often just circle the wagons. It seems to be in the DNA to protect the mission (or appearance of fulfilling the mission) at all costs, which only leads to more devastating irreparable damage. In the past, as long as that damage has fallen on the vulnerable and victimized who could be ignored by the dominant society (children, women, students, people of color, etc.) business as usual went on, and monsters roamed the land unchecked, or even protected and emboldened by the institutions they worked in or for.
The unique sports angle that the WNBA’s Chiney Ogwumike brought up on the panel is that women athletes in 2018 in the era of #MeToo basically said no more and were at the forefront of a movement that has been in the making for decades, one that sheds a bright spotlight into the dark corners of the toxic culture and enabling behaviors of powerful institutions.
The leadership challenge for all of us in organizations with a social mission is to be willing to take a wide-eyed look at our institutional cultures, our norms, our climate, our practices both formal and informal, our systems and procedures, our personnel composition and relationships — all of it — and be honest about if our internal operations are aligned with our external face.
What will you do when (not ‘if’) a member of your organization, especially someone in a powerful leadership position or trusted role or influential [e.g. a board member, a prominent donor, a talented executive, an excellent manager], acts in a way that violates your mission, or worse, breaks the law? Is your mission just your face? Are you ‘too big to fail’? How do you hope you and your organization would respond? Are you prepared to set up the internal systems and checks so that the right things that should happen actually can happen? Are you willing to take a good, hard look in the institutional mirror and deal with what you see, warts and all?
Real leadership is defined by what we do when no one is looking, how we handle difficult situations, what we do to prepare for hard times and success, and sometimes, the courage to confront, call out, or change things we know are just not right, based on having a deep sense of purpose and a strong, inner compass.
As 2019 approaches, how will you define what it means to lead? Will you take on the challenge of aligning your internal institutional culture with your mission and external face? Or transforming or expanding that mission to represent values so that the work you do truly improves the society we all live in?
If you want to learn about a system that will help you do exactly that, check out our free training.
