Leadership Is Convening

Occasionally I have been fortunate enough to learn from leaders I admire in settings where they model the principles and behaviors they are teaching. One of those times took place nearly 20 years ago at McCormick Place in Chicago where I encountered author Lance Secretan’s inspirational leadership model in a standing-room-only workshop. Another happened this past Wednesday when I heard author Peter Block share his insights about building vibrant communities through conversations that matter as the keynote speaker for a local community summit. It is this latter circumstance that prompted me to write this post.

One of the key points Block made during his engaging presentation was how community transformation requires a different type of leader. Instead of a focus on personality, style, or role modeling this new leadership is about intention, convening, valuing relatedness, and presenting choices. Our current business models often elevate leaders in a way that creates a level of isolation and entitlement. What is needed instead are leaders who know how to encourage citizen engagement in a way that produces accountability and commitment.

Block maintains that leaders who master the art of convening have three tasks:

• To create a context that nurtures a future based on gifts and generosity.
• To initiate conversations that shift the way people are brought together and the questions used to engage them.
• To listen and pay attention.

Under this new approach, the leader convenes, names the questions, and spends most of their time listening. This will be difficult for many leaders whose training has stressed the importance of speaking, perhaps as an expert or authority. Yet, when we are trying to restore social fabric or transform communities, listening become a lynchpin of sorts. Leaders who convene and listen will discover how restorative and energy-producing this process really is.

My first-hand knowledge of convening grows out of a community engagement project I have been part of over the past four years with our local United Way. During a series of community-wide events and hundreds of smaller volunteer-driven gatherings, we have convened, named the key questions, and then listened to participants. The results have been stunning as new ideas and energy have emerged around three distinct community goals that are currently being implemented.

It is likely that not every leader will be willing to give up control or shift their thinking from solving problems to exploring possibilities. We have many centuries of teaching and practice to overcome. But Peter Block’s advice is prescriptive for a world that is desperately seeking solutions to some very pressing problems. Let the convening begin!