Thriving in the middle: The value of intersectional leadership
Too often, we remain comfortable with those like us or issues that rile those within our circle. Real problem solving and progress comes from leading within intersections. Intersectional leaders are needed now to reduce polarization and collaborate forward.
"Stay in your lane." It is the language used to describe how to develop your personal brand or lead within an organization or community. Lanes are the bounded paths of where we lead, live, and determine a way forward. However, lanes are singular and generally unambiguous.
Leading in work and life is messy; it's reality. Without messiness, we become one-dimensional, and polarization takes hold. I'm right; you're wrong—a dangerous mindset.
Instead, we need to lead intentionally within intersections.
Polarization grows, supported by 24-hour news and social media.
Political parties have become more homogeneous, and the 24-hour news channels push individuals into lanes rather than intersections (especially Fox News). Social media contributes to this effort. Consequently, the U.S. is more polarized than other democracies.
Polarization intensifies as too many only talk to those like them. We need diversity of friendships, thought, relationships, and interactions to lower our polarization.
Stalemate increases without moderation.
Even though a bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed in the U.S. Senate, moderation within our legislative bodies is, unfortunately, not the norm. Moderation happens when individuals are in the middle of intersections. However, studies show how our moderation has declined, resulting in a rise in policy stalemate. When stalemate is ubiquitous, society and organizations lose, meaning citizens and employees lose. Change cannot be stopped, but it can be addressed and molded to benefit society and organizations.
Without intersectional leading, we get off track.
Intersections should be complementary but still have some level of conflict. For example, leading at the intersection of compassion and empathy are similar traits with few disagreeing characteristics. Leading at the intersection of business and society contains conflicting ideas. Conflict may be too strong of a term. Tension may be a better description, and tensions create opportunities to engage, learn, grow, and collaborate.
Not attempting to understand the other side of an intersection typically results in dogmatic views. Leading as a demagogue is not productive leadership. Too many leaders are abdicating their responsibilities. The same goes for personal branding; it is out-of-sync, focused too much on self rather than a larger good. Today, personal branding instills narrow-mindedness and selfishness. Instead, all branding should be done within an intersection of self and community. Leaders need to engage relevant intersections, too.
We need to lead within intersections.
It is no different than leading at the intersection of conservative and liberal. In the middle, it takes intelligence to understand differing perspectives, and it takes integrity to dive in with an intent to learn and resolve rather than play to one side or the other.
Consider different intersections requiring engaged leaders:
Profit and purpose
Business and society
Idealism and pragmatism
Transformation and status quo
Future and present
Tradition and progress
Economic and cultural
Freedom and responsibility
If we want stakeholder capitalism to be a reality, we need to gain more experience leading within intersections. If you're going to move organizations (and society) forward, you need to gain more experience leading within intersections.
Intersectional leadership means adapting.
Many types of leadership exist. A favorite of mine is adaptive leadership. Adaptive leadership is "the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive." Thriving means having the capacity to grasp new strategies and skills and choreograph priorities across stakeholders. Adaptive leadership is not a solo venture; it is intersectional.
We need more adaptive leaders, which translates to needing more adaptive skills. A place to begin is by ensuring you are leading in an intersection rather than a lane. To become an adaptive leader, start by becoming an intersectional leader. Learn by intersecting between two areas and involve others in the collaborative effort to produce an outcome containing different perspectives and principles. We need to honor more than one perspective to lessen polarization and increase moderation.
Which intersections are you leading intentionally?
References
Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.
How political polarization creates stalemate and undermines lawmaking. (2014, January 13). The Washington Post.
Kimball, J. (2020, January 21). U.S. is polarizing faster than other democracies, study finds. Brown University.
Talisse, R. B. (2019, July 31). Political polarization is about feelings, not facts. The Conversation.