The Path Forward: Lessons from Ubuntu Leadership

As a business leader, what is your path forward?

Regardless of the outcome of the elections, we’ve got a long road ahead of us to overcome the economic, social, physical, and psychological effects of the pandemic crisis.  But I have faith that this period of transition can lead us to a better future. You see, every day I encounter big-hearted business leaders with a heightened feeling for social justice and the knowledge and resolve for positive change.

In times of uncertainty, people search for personal and spiritual refuge. At the same time, they search for group identity, driven by the human need to belong. In many cases, our groups allow us to connect and share in a meaningful, positive purpose. Great leaders understand this, and foster the conditions essential for group effectiveness:

1. Trust among members
2. A sense of group identity
3. A sense of group efficacy

Given this time of uncertainty and tension, how do we foster trust, unify our groups, and achieve greater efficacy? Let’s remind ourselves of the lessons from Ubuntu leadership.

Ubuntu Leadership

What is Ubuntu Leadership?

Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company, once shared a quote in from Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a Harvard Business Review article that epitomizes Ubuntu Leadership:

“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished…”

Ubuntu can be translated as human kindness in attitude and action. At its core, Ubuntu is the acknowledgement of our connection to others, our need for community, and our mutual caring for all.

Our Path Forward

Some of our greatest leaders have embraced Ubuntu Leadership to foster trust, unify those they lead, and achieve great efficacy. They embody the principles of Ubuntu.

In The Lessons of Ubuntu, (Skyhorse, 2018), author and professor Mark Mathabane identifies 10 principles of Ubunto:

1. Empathy: listening instead of labeling
2. Compromise: talking to the enemy
3. Learning: the power of education
4. Nonviolence: the key to social change
5. Change: even racists can be transformed
6. Forgiveness: the pathway to healing
7. Restorative justice: saving the future
8. Love: healing through agape
9. Spirituality: the instrument of our common humanity
10. Hope: rebirth of the American dream

Leaders who practice these principles in attitude and action, and support those they lead to do the same, can foster a clear path forward.

What do you think? What is happening in your organization? I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached here, on LinkedIn, or give me a call: 561-582-6060.