A Call to Leaders in Our Social Justice and COVID-19 Era

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A recent article in Intelligencer reviewed an economist’s prediction of an impending economic depression in the next decade. In the article, multiple variables (e.g., rising global debt, declining wages, natural disasters) were noted as likely contributors to a future economic depression. In the last two weeks, we have also observed necessary calls for immediate racial and social justice reform for people of color in the United States. For me, these collective events underscore our nation’s misplaced investments at the expense of investments in intellectual and social capital, and relatedly, social justice.

Despite the prediction in the aforementioned article, leadership can mitigate negative macro-environmental events and elevate organizations to reach new outcomes during transitional periods. As we simultaneously face sociocultural (e.g., the Black Lives Matter movement) and economic changes, our organizational leaders are called to rely on the intellectual and social capital among racially and culturally diverse individuals to help us overcome these immense challenges. Intellectual and social capital is indeed the most valuable resource in organizations today. Informed by a research-based model of leadership (Complexity Leadership Theory; Uhl-Bien, Marion, & McKelvey, 2007) and my experience, I propose organizations need what can be referred to as enabling leadership. Enabling leadership is defined as a form of leadership that facilitates adaptive problem-solving and change among complex systems of individuals (Uhl-Bien, Marion, & McKelvey, 2007). I will review enabling leadership as a framework and discuss action steps to enact this form of leadership now.

What It Is

First, let’s begin with a central premise of Complexity Leadership Theory (note: this premise is also present in other research that assesses dynamic relations and networks). Leadership can be viewed as a dynamic, interactive process between ever-changing actors-not a set of defined actions from a static and exclusive group of individuals within the organization (Uhl-Bien, Marion, & McKelvey, 2007). In order for organizations to thrive in light of COVID-19 and necessary social justice changes, the framework would underscore that leadership cannot be an exclusively “top-down” process, or hierarchical decision-making process from top organizational leaders. It must also incorporate “bottom-up” processes, or processes that incorporate a matrix of interdependent social networks across the organization.

According to Complexity Leadership Theory, there are three forms of leadership. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on enabling leadership, which can bridge the gap between formal leadership processes, structures, and individuals and informal networks, structures, and mechanisms. Enabling leadership aims to create the conditions whereby knowledge and solutions are created by systems to address current problems. It also aims to utilize that knowledge to advance the entire system or organization.

Why It Is Needed

You may ask yourself why this form of leadership is required to address COVID-19 and generations of social injustice in the United States. COVID-19 can be viewed as a contextual, macro-environmental force generating indirect and direct effects on organizational outcomes. In addition, social and racial injustice have been embedded within every major system of the United States since the nation’s founding. As a result, the collective “solutions” or adaptive responses will not be found within the dominant points of view, discourse, or top leaders. Simplistic and linear solutions will not generate the social and economic changes that are ultimately required.

Rather, the challenges we face require unique knowledge, skills, abilities, and solutions (actively including people of color across all organizational levels) if organizations are to survive and subsequently thrive in our new landscape. Enabling leadership among racially and culturally diverse individuals can facilitate the creation of novel forms of knowledge, skills, abilities, and solutions required for our nation to move forward in the most adaptive way possible.

Importantly, it should be noted that enabling leadership does not require a relinquishing of formal processes and structures, such as strategic planning and financial management. Instead, enabling leadership creates a symbiosis between formal leadership and the informal processes that can lead to novel problem-solving and solutions. So, organizations are still encouraged to maintain the most important and functional elements of formal leadership in order to create a foundation whereby enabling leadership actions may occur.

How to Do It

In terms of strategic steps to enact enabling leadership, the three major objectives I propose include: 1) Organizations and leaders must enact radical (not politically neutral) diversity and inclusion strategies, 2) Leaders must facilitate cross-functional team communication and problem-solving, and 3) Organizations must promote interconnectivity among systems.

Objective 1: Promote Radical (Not Politically Neutral) Diversity and Inclusion Strategies with Sincerity and Alignment

The days of neutral D&I strategies must be gone. In order for true social and organizational change to occur, organizations and leaders must understand that social injustice impacts their employees, customers, and stakeholders. D&I strategies must explicitly address “difficult” topics that are often ignored in the workplace, such as privilege, racial microaggressions in the workplace, and racially biased hiring and promoting practices. These topics must be in alignment with the organization’s strategy, and they must be approached with authenticity from each leader or they will not result in true change.

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Action item: Organizations and leaders must work with adequately trained experts in these areas, such as diversity and inclusion behavioral/psychological scientists, and consultants who understand racial discrimination and prejudice on a personal and professional level. Indeed, not all consultants provide truly evidence-based services, especially when it comes to D&I consulting. In fact, when consulting is not informed by evidence-based perspectives and expertise, it can lead to poor outcomes and misdirected resources.

Action item: Leaders must adopt a radical and evidence-based model of social justice to apply at each level of the organization. The following is an example of a counseling psychology evidence-based model by Goodman et al. 2004. I have modified it to apply to people of color in the workplace.

1. Ongoing self-examination of leaders and organizations related to the assumptions and values underlying views, goals, and commitments as they relate to people of color
2. Sharing power, particularly in regard to decision-making with employees, as well as explicit discussions of inabilities to share power when relevant
3. Amplifying and truly listening to the voices and experiences of people of color in the workplace
4. Consciousness-raising by attending to how experiences and challenges of people of color may be shaped by political, societal, institutional, interpersonal, and other contextual power imbalances
5. Focusing on people of color’s strengths and engaging these strengths to address organizational and even societal change
6. Developing employees by promoting self-determination and strengths that can be applied in future roles and settings

Objective 2: Leaders Must Facilitate Cross-Functional Team Communication and Problem-Solving

Leaders should aim to facilitate within and between team communication and collaboration. Under the right conditions, groups will be able to solve novel COVID-19 and social injustice challenges. The following are related action items:

Action Item: Critical thinking methods and tools should be utilized by workgroups and teams. Workgroups and teams must utilize critical thinking processes whereby fundamental assumptions and beliefs are questioned and tested. The scientific method is one approach that encourages this form of thinking and may be used by workgroups and teams.

Action Item: Executive functioning skills must be facilitated among individuals and teams. Executive Functioning is defined as a set of higher-order cognitive processes that organize and regulate behavior in challenging situations (Anderson, 2001). Executive functioning skills include: cognitive flexibility, task initiation and response inhibition, planning and organizing, working memory, and emotion and behavioral regulation. Executive functioning skills can be facilitated through identification of existing skill gaps and use of compensatory strategies, or strategies that allow employees to circumscribe limitations.

Action Item: Organizations must encourage employees to actively voice their concerns and dissenting perspectives within groups. According to Complexity Leadership Theory, in order for systems-based thinking to generate novel solutions, tension within the system must occur. Tension, in this case, is viewed as a positive force that allows the system to evolve as a function of diversity of perspectives and challenges of the status quo within an interdependent system.

Objective 3: Organizations and Leaders Must Prioritize Interconnectivity

Leaders and organizations should prioritize interconnectivity among individual employees and teams in order for these “systems" to begin generating novel outcomes through interactive and dynamic processes. The following is a related action items:

Action Item: Team members must be encouraged to engage in collective problem-solving within the team and not exclusively at the individual level. Individual employees must feel a sense of interdependency. Although some roles may be categorized as “individual contributor” roles, these positions must also be challenged to consider themselves a part of a larger system that engages in collective decision-making and problem-solving. Team members should be evaluated based on how they demonstrate interconnectivity.

In sum, we need enabling leadership from our leaders and organizations now—not later—if we are to evolve as a society and nation in this era of change.