Integer Leadership Consulting

One of the temptations for busy executives is the tendency to become insulated and distanced from human need. As business leaders become consumed with the responsibilities of leadership, it is difficult to justify the time and energy required to volunteer. If the act of volunteering has a perceived lack of a value-added return to a leader’s business and personal life, leaders will often decline.

Many leaders do not make the time or possess the inclination to intersect those who live on the margins of society. This isolation and detachment from others is exacerbated over time. Leaders can find themselves emotionally disconnected from the personal struggles of those with whom they work. For organizational leaders, indifference to or the benign neglect of the painful and unseemly side of the human condition is extremely costly personally and operationally.

Executive leaders know all too well the justifications for sacrificing their involvement with human need for the sake of time and competing priorities. Despite the best of intentions, leaders can easily succumb to the “tyranny of the urgent” and seldom connect with the hopes and needs of those individuals who are hurting. Time and responsibilities are always an issue for those in positions of significant responsibility.

However, I think there is something deeper at work that keeps many leaders distanced from the hurts and needs of others: a fear of being drawn too close to suffering and pain. In reality, volunteering not only provides leaders with an opportunity to “do good” for others, it also offers a subtle and transformational opportunity to experience significant personal change. In reality, entering into the struggle of others can actually boomerang back to impact the effectiveness of the leader within the organization. Specifically, volunteering provides competent and responsible leaders with five specific benefits.

Authenticity: Caring for others offers a level of authenticity that could transform both the lives of the one served and the one serving. Entering into the pain of others means the volunteer must be willing to shed titles and prerogatives and reveal his or her own humanity and frailty, his or her own vulnerability to personal struggle. Serving invites volunteers to be open enough to feel the ignominy of others to communicate value and hope. If leaders can allow their own hearts to be broken, they are more fully capable and willing to enter into the brokenness of those with whom they lead.

Compassion: The Latin definition of the word compassion means to “suffer with.” As much as we would like to ignore it, our suffering or that of others expands our capacity to feel deeply. Volunteering can place people of power and privilege alongside others who are absolutely powerless and disenfranchised…those who are exposed to the brutal realities of man’s inhumanity to man. In these situations, we are awakened to feelings and emotions for others because we are willing to “suffer with” them.

Vulnerability: When leaders encounter the suffering of others, they are reminded of their own fragility. Regardless of position, power, wealth or social standing, all of us share the dilemma of coping with our frail human flesh. We are all susceptible to suffering. When leaders are involved with people who hurt, they are reminded that they also are vulnerable to the harsh interruptions of unplanned suffering. It is true that those who suffer teach those who draw near to serve. The unexpected “take-aways” for leaders are powerful. When leaders are appropriately vulnerable with the people they lead, others around them are given tacit “permission” to express their humanity long enough to communicate their own vulnerabilities.

Responsibility: Organizational leaders are uniquely responsible and, perhaps, even morally obligated to do good because they are in a strategic position to do so. Leaders can leverage their position, resources and influence to impact people and communities in ways that others cannot. Because of their position, they can walk alongside others offering encouragement, empowerment and, most importantly, hope. These heart-to-heart transactions change lives. When powerful leaders serve, they are impacting far more than an individual life, they are incrementally and positively augmenting the trajectory of their communities.

Humility: Service to others is most rewarding when it is offered in quietness, anonymity and obscurity. This is especially true for those in visible positions of leadership. There is something hollow about prominent leaders who want to be seen by the media serving food or pounding nails. While there is a place for marketing a businesses’ involvement in volunteer opportunities, volunteerism that is purposefully offered unannounced has a synergistic impact. Serving that draws no attention to itself - that is offered in quietness and simplicity - deepens lives and expands hearts in ways that heralded announcements and media coverage cannot match.

One of the temptations for busy executives is the tendency to become insulated and distanced from human need. As business leaders become consumed with the responsibilities of leadership, it is difficult to justify the time and energy required to volunteer. If the act of volunteering has a perceived lack of a value-added return to a leader’s business and personal life, leaders will often decline.

Many leaders do not make the time or possess the inclination to intersect those who live on the margins of society. This isolation and detachment from others is exacerbated over time. Leaders can find themselves emotionally disconnected from the personal struggles of those with whom they work. For organizational leaders, indifference to or the benign neglect of the painful and unseemly side of the human condition is extremely costly personally and operationally.

Executive leaders know all too well the justifications for sacrificing their involvement with human need for the sake of time and competing priorities. Despite the best of intentions, leaders can easily succumb to the “tyranny of the urgent” and seldom connect with the hopes and needs of those individuals who are hurting. Time and responsibilities are always an issue for those in positions of significant responsibility.

However, I think there is something deeper at work that keeps many leaders distanced from the hurts and needs of others: a fear of being drawn too close to suffering and pain. In reality, volunteering not only provides leaders with an opportunity to “do good” for others, it also offers a subtle and transformational opportunity to experience significant personal change. In reality, entering into the struggle of others can actually boomerang back to impact the effectiveness of the leader within the organization. Specifically, volunteering provides competent and responsible leaders with five specific benefits.

Authenticity: Caring for others offers a level of authenticity that could transform both the lives of the one served and the one serving. Entering into the pain of others means the volunteer must be willing to shed titles and prerogatives and reveal his or her own humanity and frailty, his or her own vulnerability to personal struggle. Serving invites volunteers to be open enough to feel the ignominy of others to communicate value and hope. If leaders can allow their own hearts to be broken, they are more fully capable and willing to enter into the brokenness of those with whom they lead.

Compassion: The Latin definition of the word compassion means to “suffer with.” As much as we would like to ignore it, our suffering or that of others expands our capacity to feel deeply. Volunteering can place people of power and privilege alongside others who are absolutely powerless and disenfranchised…those who are exposed to the brutal realities of man’s inhumanity to man. In these situations, we are awakened to feelings and emotions for others because we are willing to “suffer with” them.

Vulnerability: When leaders encounter the suffering of others, they are reminded of their own fragility. Regardless of position, power, wealth or social standing, all of us share the dilemma of coping with our frail human flesh. We are all susceptible to suffering. When leaders are involved with people who hurt, they are reminded that they also are vulnerable to the harsh interruptions of unplanned suffering. It is true that those who suffer teach those who draw near to serve. The unexpected “take-aways” for leaders are powerful. When leaders are appropriately vulnerable with the people they lead, others around them are given tacit “permission” to express their humanity long enough to communicate their own vulnerabilities.

Responsibility: Organizational leaders are uniquely responsible and, perhaps, even morally obligated to do good because they are in a strategic position to do so. Leaders can leverage their position, resources and influence to impact people and communities in ways that others cannot. Because of their position, they can walk alongside others offering encouragement, empowerment and, most importantly, hope. These heart-to-heart transactions change lives. When powerful leaders serve, they are impacting far more than an individual life, they are incrementally and positively augmenting the trajectory of their communities.

Humility: Service to others is most rewarding when it is offered in quietness, anonymity and obscurity. This is especially true for those in visible positions of leadership. There is something hollow about prominent leaders who want to be seen by the media serving food or pounding nails. While there is a place for marketing a businesses’ involvement in volunteer opportunities, volunteerism that is purposefully offered unannounced has a synergistic impact. Serving that draws no attention to itself - that is offered in quietness and simplicity - deepens lives and expands hearts in ways that heralded announcements and media coverage cannot match.