Here’s the email I sent out to Leadership Reno County alum on 2/18/13:
Good morning, everyone. We’ve been looking at the KLC Civic Leadership Principles:
1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.
2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.
3) It starts with you and must engage others.
4) Your purpose must be clear.
And, today, we finish up with the 5th principle: “It’s risky.” I grew up loving the concept of the game Risk. I was fascinated that the “older kids” could maneuver those wooden pieces around the board and seem to have so much fun. There’s a risk to playing risk and achieving global domination.
For those engaging in acts of leadership, we probably don’t need to be reminded that “It’s risky,” but it certainly is. When we make a conscious choice to intervene (even if we’ve been effective at managing ourselves and diagnosing the situation), there is a risk involved. That’s why, we’re encouraged to act experimentally or take a “smart risk” with our actions. When it comes to deeply adaptive work, where neither the problem nor the solution of our adaptive problem is clear and there are many stakeholders involved, we should be very aware of the risk inherent to an act of leadership.
Deeper still, since leadership is risky, it calls for courage. We can’t let the risk that goes along with acts of leadership paralyze us from this activity. In this sense, this final point works well with the other principles we’ve seen. Since leadership is activity done by anyone, anytime, anywhere and it begins with me and engages others out of a clear purpose, I can courageously step into this risky adventure and see what progress can be made, little by little, on the issues I care about so deeply.
Today, then, will you resolve to remember that leadership is risky and courageously act to make progress for the good of our community? With you to that end…
