This Moment Calls Us Each to Lead

Cause has long promoted the philosophy “everyone is a communicator,” and with that the importance of inspiring leaders and encouraging individual leadership. While we’re all focusing on leadership during this inauguration week, it’s a natural time to explore this topic further.

This quote from Benjamin Zander illustrates the concept beautifully:

“I had an amazing experience. I was 45 years old, I’d been conducting for 20 years, and I suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. It was totally life-changing… I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people.”

This idea can be applied to social change organizations and the role of communicators – and the implications are quite powerful. And as The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander underscores, you can lead from where you are within an organization or cause – or as they suggest, “any chair in the orchestra.”

What calls each of us to the edge of our chairs, committed and fully prepared to lead? Certainly, our causes. But what the Zanders want us to see is that we can create even greater possibility in the world when we call on each other to lead. Especially, those of us who actually hold titles of leadership, whether that’s CEO, program manager, board member, or communications director.

As authors of organizational brand stories, it’s natural to ask ourselves: Is what we have made beautiful, brilliant, moving, effecting? Even as we seek to empower others to tell their stories, are we staying stuck in conductor mode, directing the players? Does the pressure to achieve the desired outcome ever keep us feeling we need to control the results?

It can feel risky to lead any other way. But there is another way. Zander goes on to say, “A monumental question for leaders in any organization to consider is: How much greatness are we willing to grant people?”

Not how much responsibility or authority — how much greatness.

At its heart, granting greatness is about generosity. In practice, one can feel the shift physically, intellectually, and emotionally when we move out of ego to generosity. When we see our leadership role as making it possible for others to lead with their ability to energize, their insights, and their artistry. When we embrace the idea that everyone is a communicator.

It’s not about giving up control after all. It’s about opening up possibilities.

It’s a shift away from the role of author to one of igniter. It’s more than asking, “What do you think?” It’s even more than mentoring. It’s a belief that within others exists a profound desire to make a contribution to the world. It’s up to us, to offer “what lights [us] up and have no doubt that others are eager to catch the spark.”

In purpose-driven organizations with limited staff and limited resources, tapping into every player’s greatness maximizes our skills, assets, and opportunities to advance our cause.

As the new year begins, no matter our chair or our podium, how will we lead? If we gave our teams and our champions a moment to take up the baton, would they be engaged and committed enough to do it? How much possibility for greatness will we grant them?