Economic Development Now

Leaders who stand out are prepared for adversity long before they know how and when adversity will present itself. The truth is, leaders don’t have to know the specifics about what challenges are coming—they simply need to remain vigilant and prepared for the unfamiliar. They know they will have to make tough decisions in response to factors outside their control…. Leadership, in this way, is the art of continuous reinvention.

– Hamza Khan

In recent years, our economic development profession, organizations, and the communities we serve have faced seemingly unprecedented challenges and uncertainties. In such chaotic times, those who have truly led their teams to a better place are nothing short of inspirational as they have seized the “leadership moment.”

What makes leaders so effective in turbulent times?

The answer has nothing to do with “stepping up,” says leadership expert Hamza Khan, and everything to do with spending each day preparing for the moment. In other words, their leadership is quite intentional.

In his book Leadership Reinvented, Khan discusses how leaders and those they lead can thrive during times of adversity. The author points to four strategies such leaders employ in their everyday leadership: practicing empathy, exercising servitude, driving diversity, and sparking innovation.

Whether we’re new to leadership or further along in our economic development leadership journey, Khan’s book provides a proverbial cookbook for how we can each lead our teams to better places in times of crisis as well as peace.

Practice empathy

“As a leader, it is imperative that you step into your leadership moment with optimal situational awareness, with your mind and heart wide open,” Khan writes. This requires getting real about your organization’s internal and external environments which can only be done through empathy with respect to what others are experiencing, feeling, and seeing, he explains. “It’s all about developing true alignment with the world around you.”

Khan advises moving from surface-level, water cooler chats about mundane topics to deeper conversations about things that really matter. This means asking hard questions and encouraging sincere responses, he says. Examples of such questions are:

• Why did you join this particular organization?

• Are you proud to work here?

• What gets you out of bed every morning?

• Do you respect our leadership?

• What are your personal and professional dreams?

• Are we headed in the right direction?

• How am I doing as a leader?

• Where can I improve my leadership?

• How would you do things differently?

• Do you envision a future for yourself at this organization?

Deeper conversations with team members will not only help us continuously improve culture and productivity within our organization, but we’ll also likely unearth details that will enhance our ability to lead and support our colleagues along the way, Khan explains.

In economic development, we understand the importance of developing true alignment with those around us. This is one of biggest factors contributing to whether a community, region, or state reaches its true economic development potential. And we know this alignment is based on trusted relationships made possible through genuinely connecting with each other—something that is not possible without having a sense of empathy toward one another.

Exercise servitude

Khan writes that “organizations that are built to last tend to have a very peculiar structure. The boss is rarely on top. And even if they are listed in the apex of their people pyramid, in function the leader tends to be at the bottom—in service of everyone else in the organization.” Khan notes that these leaders are profoundly human-centric, “lead from behind,” share the power, and are focused on others. They are focused on helping others grow, creating more leaders, and building a system that continues this work, Khan says. And as they engage in the art of continuous reinvention, these leaders are driven by how they can better serve one another.

Referring to these leaders as “servant-leaders,” Khan references the Rotterdam School of Management in identifying eight traits of such leaders. Paraphrased here, these leaders:

1. empower others to realize their own potential.

2. hold themselves accountable for their actions.

3. put others before themselves.

4. have humility and self-awareness—be willing to admit errors and ask for assistance.

5. exhibit authenticity—be true to themselves.

6. drive innovation by taking risks and overcoming adversity.

7. understand the perspectives and experiences of others.

8. take responsibility for the common interest of others.

This concept of servant-leadership is nothing new to successful economic development leaders. They answer the “leadership for what” question with the basic response that leadership exists to serve—period. And they build teams who understand that they are stewards of the public trust in their ability to shepherd their communities to a better place.

Drive diversity

“A leader with a deep commitment to doing the right thing for the right reason is genuinely inspirational and can lead by example,” Khan writes. “But a leader who brings this integrity to the plate through their commitment to diversity can truly make a difference.”

Noting that the importance of diversity in the future of work cannot be overstated, Khan advises that the engagement of a diversity of people, when properly operationalized, unlocks a diversity of expertise, experiences, and perspectives that offers a distinct competitive advantage and even increases the likelihood that an organization will visualize and realize change before it happens.

“An investment in diversity is an investment in your organization’s longevity,” Khan says. He advises that leaders intentionally do the following:

• Leave an empty chair. When convening the team, purposely leave an empty chair and ask who is not in the room that needs to be.

• Examine and challenge unconscious bias. Allocate time and money toward examining and challenging unconscious bias when it comes to ourselves, boards, processes, and teams.

• Perform leadership trials. Regularly invite people to take on leadership opportunities through coordinating a project, changing a process, or managing people on a task (especially those who may not be extroverted or fiercely competitive for a leadership position).

In addition to understanding that driving diversity leads to higher-performing teams and continuous reinvention, successful economic developers build leadership teams that represent the diversity of their communities so that their teams can truly represent the whole community. By building diverse teams, they work to assure that all economic development activities are conducted with equality of opportunity for all segments of the community.

Spark innovation

Khan calls on leaders to return to a childlike state of wonderment and ask the following question: “What would we do differently if we weren’t afraid to fail?” In the face of ever-changing times, he calls upon us to continually reinvent our approaches, organizations, and communities to not only best meet the needs of the day but anticipate the needs of the future.

Khan advises being intentional in creating the ideal conditions for fostering creative thinking amongst our team members. Specifically, he advises that we:

• launch a dedicated innovation division—a small team to define innovation opportunities, zero in on a few strategic opportunity areas, develop innovations, and shepherd projects.

• engineer chaos—scenario-based experiments to test team resilience, cooperation, creative thinking, observation, and other skills needed during a crisis.

• assign time for innovation—structured time and events to focus on generating ideas.

• get real about competition—both direct and indirect competitors.

• truly know your end-user—customer goals, activities, emotions, and barriers.

• dream without constraints—intentional space to consider a world without limits.

As we consider how to build more resilient communities in the days ahead, Khan’s advice seems ever more important and yet is par for the course for the profession of economic development where every day is truly a new day when it comes to our approaches and practices.

Closing thoughts

Each of us has the everyday opportunity to practice empathy and servitude and drive diversity and innovation in the world around us as Khan describes. In other words, we each have the potential to continually reinvent ourselves for more impactful leadership. How exciting! And regardless of the year or decade and no matter the community or organizational situation, success boils down to such leadership.