On the eighth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael continues to analyze and discuss Ron Heifetz’s book, Leadership Without Easy Answers. This time he does so with the input of Julia Fabris McBride, actor, author, and President and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center. McBride is interested in leadership as it functions without authority and authority as it bridges opposing factions.
Bridging Factions and Embracing Diversity
At KLC, Julia works daily to foster civic leadership and create a stronger and healthier Kansan community: one that embraces diversity while fostering understanding of others’ viewpoints. It can be hard fulfilling an authority role though, when the people you lead all have differing versions of success.
But there is great strength in diversity too. Progress happens when we embrace diverse opinions and backgrounds, seek to understand one another, and make decisions that benefit the group, rather than just a select few.
“In fact, many people daily go beyond both their job description and the informal expectations they carry within their organization, and do what they are not authorized to do.”
Ronald Heifetz
Leadership Beyond Authority
In Julia’s experience, many people do work beyond the informal expectations and duties of the role, doing what they’re not authorized to do. And these people are the ones that aren’t afraid to make the biggest waves– for better or for worse.
Take a few of these examples: Gandhi, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King Jr - all people woh acted outside their scope of authority, because they simply weren’t given any. And because they led without being granted authority in the first place, they were able to ask the provocative questions and influence society to think differently. As a result, they made waves in domains where oftentimes they weren’t even welcomed.
The Risk Myth
It can be risky to practice leadership without the legitimacy of authority, but we often forget just how risky it is to operate with authority, too. Wrong moves still make you vulnerable; you could lose your job faster than you got it or get kicked out of office.
If we practice leadership successfully though, all of those “risky” efforts pay off. At the end of the day, people like Julia and Michael are strong believers in speaking your mind and asking hard questions. So as we close out today’s blog post, I encourage you to do the same. We need people on the front line that are willing to stretch beyond their comfort zones. We need people to stand up and practice leadership without authority.