Our View: Leading through catalysis

Some years back, John McKnight introduced a new way of thinking about how neighborhoods and communities might confront their challenges, an approach that focused on assets rather than liabilities.

Up to that time, the norm had been this: If your neighborhood was crime-ridden or racked by poverty, you could tally the debilities and apply for nonprofit grants or government funding intended to solve those problems. Weaknesses had become strengths in the eyes of political figures who sought solutions outside their communities rather than from within.

McKnight, director of Community Studies at Northwestern University, encouraged community leaders to look instead for the internal capacities that could be harnessed to engage citizens in solving their own problems. His work and that of like-minded sociologists helped usher in an era of leaders as catalysts, people who would tap the talents and energy of those who had the most to gain from effective problem-solving.

One can look around today and question whether attitudes have really changed all that much overall, but the leadership model McKnight advocated is worth showcasing still.

Consider the analogy provided by the accompanying interview with Spokane Symphony conductor Eckart Preu, who is charged with bringing the individual talents of dozens of musicians together in full orchestral richness. In an hour-long conversation with representatives of The Spokesman-Review editorial board, Preu noted that he doesn’t achieve his task by pounding his expectations into the minds of his musicians, but by recognizing their individuality, listening to what they want him to hear, and being open to better ideas even if he wasn’t the first person to think of them.

In the wisdom of Preu and five other community figures whose interviews have appeared here in recent months, there is valuable information not only for the aspiring community leaders who are offering themselves as candidates in this year’s local elections but also for the citizens who, as voters, will be choosing whom they want to follow.

As the maestro points out, being in charge isn’t about power or having all the answers. The effective leader isn’t necessarily the person with a monopoly on wisdom and talent and ability. It’s the person who recognizes those assets in others and helps see that they’re put to good use.

There’s a vital message in that for citizens, too: They can’t expect leaders to succeed without the public’s support and engagement.

As the late Max De Pree, a Fortune 500 CEO, once wrote about the importance of integrating individual talents into a group effort: “The process of integration is simply abandoning oneself to the strengths of others, being vulnerable to what others can do better than we can.”

That reinforces Preu’s observation that conductors don’t make the music, musicians do.

In Spokane and other communities, the process of choosing political leaders needs to incorporate a sense of shared objectives in which citizen involvement doesn’t end on election day – it just begins.