Giving Compass' Take:

• Vu Le is the executive director of The Rainier Valley Corps writing about what he thinks successful leadership looks like. Le shares that effective leaders must exhibit sacrifice, and how to give up their power so others can thrive. 

• What types of leadership styles are not effective in the social sector? 

• Read about organizations that strive to make their leadership inclusive and share power thoughtfully in order to strengthen the company. 

That is required for successful leadership in 21st-century civil society?

At first, I thought of the leadership paradigms that must shift. In this very challenging time in America’s history, we need leaders who are humble, not arrogant; servants, not heroes; adaptive, not technical; curious, not certain; uniters, not dividers.

It made me think that while the leadership traits I note above are all necessary, another trait—one we do not talk about often—may be the most important leadership quality of all: The leaders we need in this time and place must be willing to give up things that make their existence comfortable, even meaningful.

A few months ago, I learned about an organization called Can You Not PAC. While there are organizations that encourage and support women, people of color, and LGBTQIA candidates to run for public office, Can You Not’s mission is to discourage straight, white men—who have dominated public office for hundreds of years—from running.

How is this relevant to civil society? The societal disparities that we as a sector are trying to address are many, but we may be perpetuating them through our own practices and unwillingness to surrender our privilege. For example, the vast majority of nonprofit directors, foundations CEOs, and board members are white.

In light of the challenges facing our communities, civil society leaders must be willing to give up the things they care about, not out of pity and charity, but in recognition of and in response to systemic injustice.  When each of us, following our leaders, examines our own privileges, power, and resources, and thoughtfully understands how we got them and when to intentionally let them go, it leads to a better community—one we all benefit from.

Read the full article about effective leaders by Vu Le at Stanford Social Innovation Review