Ubuntu: Leading From Ahead

Ubuntu – the idea that we are empowered by other people, and then we become our best selves through unselfish interaction with others. 

During our days in elementary school, everyone wanted to be the line leader yet the teacher had a preselected list of which students performed the role for that week. The line leader was the student who got to lead his or her class to morning activity, received a hot lunch first, drink from the hallway water fountain, and be the first to the bathroom. While other students held varying roles as helpers (pencil sharpener, bathroom monitors, door holders, etc.), no other child felt as proud as the line leader. Because of my surname, I was frequently the line leader whenever we had a substitute teacher: It was easier for her to line all of us up in alphabetical order than to continue our beloved educator’s routine. The major sticking point we learned from those days is that good leaders not only lead, but also they are seen leading the way. 

Leading from ahead does involve risk taking in its job description. Not everything we do is guaranteed for success; we sometimes trip over our own feet into a lemon meringue pie in front of our contemporaries or say the wrong thing at an inopportune moment. For example, Nelson Mandela took his job description of leader literally when he stepped to the front of the line of prisoners entering Robben Island under stares and taunts of the guards to show the other inmates how to react. His message:  Stand up for yourselves. As evidenced from Mandela’s stand, leading from ahead also means doing things that do not necessarily attract attention. It does not allow us to accept special privileges; instead it keeps us grounded by performing the same tasks as the followers. In other words, nothing is beneath a leader. More importantly, seize the initiative to stand out – even if no one else understands the vision appearing before our eyes. In the religious community, that is called stepping out on faith. We may not know where the journey will take us, but we believe that the reward is precisely one we have sought after. 

A core principle in leading from ahead is remembering not to let our colleagues fall too far behind. Snoop Dogg once eloquently stated “ain’t no fun if the homies can’t get none.” We need to include our angel investors to confer with them and confirm (or reaffirm) their commitments toward our common goal. Notice I did not say closest confidants, as some of them want to be up close and personal when we fall. At times, real leadership may require us to negotiate with our opposition, opening us to calls of betrayal all in the name of problem solving. President Abraham Lincoln is legendary for his team of rivals – his Cabinet consisted of both Republicans and Democrats who primarily operated not in the name of the United States of America, rather their own self-serving ideologues – to preserve and restore the Union post-Civil War. His leadership from the front meant that he was accountable for all of the successes in addition to the failures. By owning the decisions made, we knew who to blame if wins did not materialize.

Part II of Ubuntu continues with the next post.