Good leaders are willing to put themselves at risk by inviting other decision-makers to the table, said Ron Alexander.
“Are you extending an invitation? Leadership starts with you, but it should involve other people,” he said.
Alexander addressed a group of about 30 participants Wednesday evening as the first of four Leadership and Faith exercises. The forums are designed to tap into people of faith and help them use their sense of mission to the betterment of their community as a whole.
“We believe churches and people of faith are key leverage points in helping build healthy communities,” Alexander said.
Alexander is on the faculty of the Kansas Leadership Center out of Wichita. KLC is sponsoring the workshops in five communities, Iola, Eureka, Pittsburg, Chanute and Independence.
KLC began five years ago with the mission to build healthier, stronger and more prosperous Kansas communities.
“We believe in order to do that, we need more people exercising more leadership, more often, more effectively,” Alexander said.
A GOOD LEADER realizes problems are multi-faceted, and answers often require a change of behavior, Alexander said. He differentiated between two types of problems — technical and adaptive.
“If logic and reason will work, it’s probably a technical problem,” he said. “If you find yourself saying, ‘people just aren’t getting it,’ then it’s an adaptive problem.”
Questions then must be “teased out” of the problem and answered separately, Alexander said.
The first step is to properly identify a problem — say a community needs a new hospital. First off, many may not agree a 50-year-old hospital is all that old. Others may think renovation would be as satisfactory as building new.
Others may question the motive of those wanting a new hospital. Is it self-serving? How will it help the community as a whole?
A clear purpose is necessary so that with enough communication people better understand the true issue.
“It can be a little heat-inducing — these conversations,” Alexander said. Still, the better the diagnosis of a problem, the better the treatment.
EVERYONE HOLDS different opinions of leaders, Alexander said. Good leaders are willing to risk popular opinion by “putting themselves out there” to promote a cause. The more change demanded for success, the higher the dissent, he said.
“But if you keep doing what you’re doing, and there’s no change, that’s a recipe for failure,” Alexander said.
