BUILDING SUSTAINED LONG-TERM CHANGE THROUGH TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
- andrewgasnolar
- Jul 12, 2021
- 6 min read
If you're passionate about leadership, civic and community engagement, then read on. Our CEO Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar recently participated in a programme hosted by the University of Georgia's Leadership in Civic Engagement Fellowship Institute as a part of their programming for the virtual African Civic Engagement Academy (ACEA), supported by the US Government. Here is the interview from his talk — an astute and honest account of the challenges and blessings of working in the sector, with many valuable takeaways to help you along your leadership journey.
Andrew Ihsaan begins by reflecting broadly on building sustained and sustainable change in specific sectors through leadership.
I am the founder of a public policy consultancy called Kembali Consulting, and I'm from South Africa. I will reflect broadly on the topic of sustained and sustainable change in the sort of private/public sector work I've been involved in, the civic engagement, the party-political environment that I've been involved in, and broadly, the non-profit sector. And this extends from peacebuilding efforts in South Sudan to poverty alleviation projects in South Africa or the pressing global issue of youth, joblessness, and hopelessness. And I think for me; crucially, from a leadership values perspective, I think the first competency has to be collaboration. And collaboration often comes with power dynamics.
He goes on to dive into the importance and benefits of collaboration and building partnerships, especially those that cut across borders, gender, race, and class, among others
In the world that we currently operate in, if you're a young person or a woman, or you're a person of colour, collaboration is often a tool to use you or be used. And I think; generally, the shift is becoming more prevalent where there's a collaboration with young people or womxn or people of colour.
Collaboration is an essential tool for change. And it's no longer just "I'm ticking a box." And I think collaboration as a leadership value is intentional because what collaboration says is: I am willing to create partnerships with others. And those partnerships are not transactional. I think, crucially, they can't be transactional. Those partnerships have to be around shared common values.
And suppose you look at something like the sustainable development goals. In that case, you have communities of practice of young people, womxn, people of colour globally, from Asia to Alaska and onto the subcontinent and into Africa itself and to South America and Europe. Across the world, you have communities of young people who are talented, skilled, and able, building a new type of partnership. Building partnerships across borders, gender, race, class, any of those sorts of -isms. And that's the kind of collaboration I would encourage all of you to try and think about as you're adopting and embarking on your leadership journeys. Collaboration and creating sustained and meaningful partnerships are the most effective ways to sustain, enable, and make a change that we want to see, that we want to benefit from. But also, for generations beyond us to benefit from.
Amid the blessings and beauty of the work, many obstacles are plaguing the sector, making endurance a key skill:
The second leadership value for me in all of this work, and I remind all of you, it is hard and requires resilience and commitment. It is hard work that is often thankless. This work has a number of obstacles, whether it's regulatory, whether it's repressive regimes, whether it's structural reality issues, the work is difficult and treacherous. And so crucial for me is endurance and a deep understanding that endurance is rooted in something. So, rooted in your beliefs, rooted in your faith, rooted in your mission to change the world. And endurance is not simply resilience; it's not about being able to pivot and adapt and jump and respond to crises.
Endurance is far more meaningful. Endurance is what pushed many of our grandmothers to provide more for their children, pushing more for their grandchildren against all odds. Many womxn across the continents have pushed themselves to their physical end to provide more. That is the type of endurance I'm talking about, and it's spiritual, philosophical, but it's also a leadership journey where you need to endure to achieve the outcomes.
He stresses the importance of asking yourself: "Why am I doing what I'm doing?".
And you need to know why you're doing what you're doing. And so, I think that endurance is a blind appreciation that I'll be doing this no matter what. I believe that endurance is rooted in your work and created in what you do. And I think coupled with that, it's also about knowing those limitations, and that's where the partnerships come in, right? And the collaboration. So, if you work with others, it's just about knowing at what point do I need a break from this? At what point do I need to recharge? And so, I think that endurance needs to be coupled with an appreciation for the work we are doing, which is difficult and taxing—and knowing when to step back and knowing when to plough ahead.
Inspired by the likes of late leaders and revolutionaries like Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Andrew Ihsaan reinforces the leadership value of service.
And then finally, for me, and it's not often a leadership value that's spoken of, and many of you would notice what I have behind me. I have an image of a leader that, in many respects, is celebrated across the world—the founding president of South Africa's democracy, Nelson Mandela. And in many respects, I think it's a value that is often forgotten. It's a value that COVID-19 has reminded us about. And it's a value where we've seen frontline workers, often neglected people, people who are often dismissed, people who are often disregarded. These frontline workers have enabled our society to function while facing a global pandemic. And often these people are disregarded, and I think that leadership value for me and as my final third leadership value to share with you is the leadership value of service.
You may meet some greats (like he has), and that's great, but it's so much more than just that.
And so, the work I have found, over more than 15 years that I've been doing this work, has not been about me or being able to meet important people, which I've been fortunate to do. You know whether it's President Barack Obama or Bill Gates or Nelson Mandela, those are momentous and amazing moments. I don't discount that. But I have found that in convening, through their name and their person, they convened young people, people of colour and womxn and people passionate about changing the world, rooted and connected around the idea of service. And that is what I want to encourage all of you to think about: What am I doing in service of a community, in service of others, in service of a big, bold idea like creating sustainable and connected cities and communities or eradicating inequality or confronting gender violence? I think these are crucial and big issues, and they can also be micro issues. It's about how do I change the community that I grew up in? How do I redevelop the primary school that I went to? How do I start encouraging young womxn to complete their schooling and confronting the system that prevents them from accessing high school?
Ending off the talk, he emphasises the importance of remaining committed to service—the value and gravity of helping those behind you to empower them and bring them with you so that they, too, may prosper.
These are important issues, but ultimately, I think it's about asking yourself, as many leaders before us have done: Why am I doing it? And I think if you can identify how you can be of service to those issues, to the world, to communities, and to individuals. Importantly, I think for all of you, ask yourselves how you are of service to each other in this amazing community you all are a part of and participating in.
You know, 2000 people, such as yourselves, are connected in ways that previous generations weren't. And I think that is what you need to be thinking about. How can I be of service, not just to my passions, but how can I be of service to this community? And to others who cannot be in this community, how do I bring the people behind me with me? How do I look forward and allow others to come ahead of me? And I think that's crucial for me. I encourage all of you to reflect on the leadership of service and adopt that as a cornerstone value in what you want to do in this world. And all I want to say is I wish you all the very best. I know many of you are already changing the world in profound and meaningful ways—my deepest respect to all of you. And I want to wish you all very well. And remember, this journey is long, but it is meaningful, and many people are excited and are backing you.
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