Leading with dignity

A few years ago I attended Blueprints and the speaker was Loughlan Sofield. Br. Loughlan Sofield, S.T. is a Catholic brother, member of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, and leading consultant on ministry and personal development. He lectures and gives workshops around the world, has written several books on leadership and community and is the senior editor of Human Development magazine. His talks so intrigued me that I purchased his book, Building Community. In re-reading this book, I am struck by his view of leadership and how to build a culture of community.

Brother Sofield spoke upon the dynamics of forming a community, the stages of development of a cohesive community and what keeps them together. He says that "experiences determine beliefs. Beliefs produce emotions. Emotions influence behavior." If this is true, then I ask the question, what if your experiences of community have been mostly of a negative nature? Conversely, if your experiences of community have been, for the most part, positive, your beliefs will be positive and your resulting emotions would also be positive. Consequently, your behavior, too, then would be positive. What happens, however, when the chips are down?

We are talking about community as a noun describing a group of people with similar beliefs and culture. We are also talking about community as the type of culture itself. According to Brother Sofield, community is not the end result, but the way in which we live on our way to somewhere. "Effective Christian communities provide support, encouragement, growth, and comfort for their members." Community is a living entity enfolding the human person as they grow and develop into the person they are meant to be.

In a simple world, then, community would either create a people of hope or a people of cynicism and mistrust. Of course, it's not that simple. There are varying degrees of hope and the same of the absence of hope.

Personally, I have always been a person who looks at life through rose coloured glasses, not because I believe the world to be only of roses, but because I choose to look at life positively. Sometimes my family and colleagues shake their heads and ask, "How can you always be so naive?" It's not naivety, I say, but a way to look at life. My experiences from a child, growing up on a poor farm in a big family, going to church, playing hard and working hard, has given me this outlook. The community I experienced has created this person of hope.

What follows then? How does one build a culture of community? And when the chips are down, how does one lead?

...by modeling community: keeping a positive outlook, providing support where needed, showing people you value their work, encouraging the heart, sticking to your principles, standing up for those who cannot do so for themselves, having those hard conversations in a kind way.... in other words, by leading with dignity.