7 Habits of Highly Revolutionary Leaders: Which Ones Do You Have?

Random Acts of Vulnerability Blog: Volume 1, July 2020

“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature.” – Sonya Renee Taylor

For decades I have often heard countless leaders from all walks of life discussing what can be done to get a competitive edge regarding success for the teams that they lead. I have personally and professionally lived through and witnessed the progressive movements attributed to the values of transformational leadership, adaptive leadership and more recently courageous or brave leadership. As a millennial, if I am honest, something has generally felt like it was missing with respect to how leadership theories and frameworks often neglect to directly make a large-scale commitment and connection to the authentic lived experiences of marginalized groups.

This consistent and pervasive void sent me on a quest over the course of my educational and professional career to locate, name and hold space for a leadership framework that encompasses the purest humanity of all people, not just those at fancy universities, colleges, Fortune-500 companies or notable organizations but those of regular people, who possess talents that are beyond measure and have been longing to have their voices heard for over 400 years.

Like Brene’ Brown, I define a leader as “anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people.”

Similarly, vulnerability is described as “the emotion that we experience during times of uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.”

It is important to highlight the values of the common most popular leadership theories and frameworks in order to trace the evolution of my journey to revolutionary leadership.

As I began preparing to be a school principal in 2008, I was introduced to transformational leadership. It is the concept that James MacGregor Burns and Bernard M. Bass created and it suggests that the most effective leaders master the ability to adapt to different situations, have collective consciousness, can self-manage and are able to be inspirational when leading their teams. In short, these leaders raise performance through motivation and inspiration.

As I started my doctoral studies in education, supervision and leadership in 2011, I became familiar with adaptive leadership. It is credited to Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky and focuses on helping leaders “adapt and thrive in challenging environments.” In short, adaptive leaders use their knowledge of character, organizational justice, development and emotional intelligence (EQ) to drive performance.

Over the last few years, I have grown an affinity for courageous leadership, which traces back to Brene’ Brown. She argues that courageous leadership is the opposite of fear. Courageous or brave leaders are effective with respect to vulnerability, clarity of values, trust, and rising skills and use these pillars to drive performance in their organizations.

Based on my recent experiences as a school leader as well as a mentor and resource for leaders from all walks of life, I have endorsed the concept of revolutionary leadership. It is an approach that is most similar to courageous leadership when compared to the others referenced in that there is a foundational focus rooted in vulnerability, values, trust and resiliency. However, the major difference is that there is an explicit and actionable commitment that effective leaders must take and model regarding understanding, managing and healing from their past pain, hurt and letdowns. At its’ core, it is the radical act of embracing vulnerability as a framework for growth. It is a hybrid approach to success grounded in the notion of preserving the best parts of our current leadership practices, and combining them with the dedicated effort to address our own areas of unfinished learning.

The goal is balance and wholeness. Revolutionary leaders combine emotional intelligence, vulnerability with deep and honest reflection to drive performance.

(Please click on the link above to view the trailer of Michael Jordan's series The Last Dance)

One explicit example of revolutionary leadership was conveyed in the recent popular series The Last Dance, which highlighted the legacy of Michael Jordan as well as the dominance of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. I am sure that I could make a case that Phil Jackson was the most effective leader in the history of sports, but for the sake of this blog I will focus on Michael Jordan’s evolution as a leader as a result of vulnerability. Before the 1990 season, Jordan hadn’t won a championship and he was known for being a perfectionist who struggled with anger and showing compassion to his teammates.

I believe that the legacy that we now know today is a result of Jordan’s ability to admit that the way he treated his teammates was unhealthy and unproductive during the 1990 season. He said, “I knew I had to be more respectful of my teammates. And I had to be more respectful of what was happening to me in terms of trying to get back into the game. I had to get more internal.”

Despite Jordan’s efforts to inspire his team to victory, they didn’t get over the hump with respect to winning until Bill Cartwright became co-captain. He was in essence Jordan’s vulnerability voice, his secret weapon or x-factor. Cartwright was the patient, understanding and compassionate big brother of the team, and all of the players knew it, including Michael Jordan. The revolutionary part of Jordan’s leadership surfaced when he accepted Cartwright’s differences as being uniquely valuable for the team and he had the humility to get out of the way.

The most powerful words that Jordan said about leadership in the entire series regarding the legacy of the Chicago Bulls was, “Bill made the difference.”

Of course, none of us are the next Michael Jordan, but I believe that we all have the ability to take our success with leadership to the next level if we consider the attributes of current effective leadership practices.

What are the 7 Habits of Highly Revolutionary Leaders?

1. Encourage people to speak their truth

You have to get comfortable with hearing, understanding and holding space for other people’s truth, even if it conflicts with yours.

2. Normalize vulnerability through sharing your mistakes and imperfections

(Please click on the video above to hear Simon Sinek's thoughts on Vulnerability)

Perfection simply doesn’t exist so the idea of having to meet a rigid or “perfect” standard suffocates others. Sharing your mistakes within a responsible and professional context will normalize that for the entire team.

3. Learn side by side with your team

There is time to be at the front of the class teaching, and there is a time where you must understand that it is perfectly acceptable to be a student with your staff.

4. Develop meaningful relationships

You have to know what drives all members of your team and in order to do so you must invest in developing authentic relationships with each of them.

5. Know the difference between constructive criticism and judgment

Generally, feedback should be provided as a form of guidance and discovery not from a mountain or seat that makes people seem beneath you. I try to have my favorite poet, India Arie’s voice in mind specifically when she said, "Talk like you want somebody to talk to your momma…everything you do or say you got to live with everyday.”

6. Apologize

Perhaps the most revolutionary words that you can sincerely say as a leader is “I am sorry.” This is a humble and profound way to hold yourself accountable in front of your team.

7. Find peace by staying focused on the present moment

(Please click on the picture above to take part in Dora Kamau's Feel to Heal mediation)

One value to practicing mindfulness is that the skills can show up in your daily life. Often times, in difficult moments we find various emotions being triggered and our minds wonder to other places. This is the time to remember to “fear nothing but respect everything” and focus on staying in that space.

As leaders we are charged to utilize our skills to facilitate improvements but we must equally gauge and understand the impact of our own areas of unfinished learning.

This should compel us to accept and capitalize off of the tremendous power that comes with authentically engaging and empowering others. I believe that when leaders force their staff to merely replicate the actions and behaviors of their colleagues without taking the time to wrestle with their own philosophies, lived experiences and beliefs then much is lost. Simply put, people who are forced to adhere to a standard that doesn’t allow for innovation and personal mastery limits creativity which can have a massive impact on productivity.. You don’t have to have all the answers, questions or ideas but in many cases you are charged with the responsibility of crafting a vision. Balance and organizational homeostasis should be the goal. When considering everything that is going on in the world right now, I believe that it is time to build a new blueprint for leadership in our society that values incorporating the purest parts of humanity in a holistic way. You must rapidly develop a level of vulnerability that enables you to frequently look into the mirror and ask, “How can I continue to see and explore different levels of myself and how does this impact those that I lead?” The biggest investment that you can make is to authentically commit yourself to healing, while recognizing that it is a journey not a destination. There is no perfect person and there is no perfect leadership style, but there is always a way to grow into a higher level of you. As India Arie said, “The choice is yours...shake that weight off and you will be ready to fly.” It’s time to revolutionize how we see, experience and respond to our emotions Vulnerability Village so that we can do our part in healing ourselves and humanity.