Guide
Due to workload, life pressure, growth pressure and other reasons, more and more people are caught in anxiety, burnout, depression. The same is true of social change leaders such as social entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
How can we emerge from these dilemmas?
The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 30 social change leaders to see how they meaningfully regulate their perceptions and behaviors through "self-inquiry" to positively influence the outside world. "Social change is not a sprint, but a marathon," the article said. Practicing self-exploration allows us to grow and be able to collaborate with others more humbly and deal with social issues. ”
This article also offers some advice for people who want to try their hand at exploring themselves, but don't know where to start.
Topic Editors: Zhao Shiyuan, Yao Sen
Academic Advisor: Ru Han
By Katherine Milligan, Jeffrey Milligan Jeffery C. Walker
Translation: Ding Siming, Ou Jierui
Image courtesy of SSIR website, graphic by Helena Pallarés
"I felt like I was in a bind and I was always angry. Working every day from early in the morning to late at night, I had no other means of communication in terms of emotional and intellectual needs than the staff and the local women we served. I've felt like I need more nourishing communication all this time, but at the same time feel guilty for wanting more. This state is really wrong. ”
—B-fit founder Bedriye Hülya
In our interactions with social entrepreneurs, we hear a lot of sentimental emotions like this. "For the first five years, my adrenaline was at a high level," says Mike Sani, founder of Bite the Ballot, a UK-based civic engagement company, "people only saw my glamorous side, but no one knew how bad my trough was." I blame myself for not achieving our agency's mission a little earlier. I suffered from imposter syndrome (also known as self-denial tendencies, which refers to the state of thinking that I do not deserve what I have achieved and that I am a "fake". ) pain. None of my family understands what I'm doing. I felt very lonely. ”
Other social entrepreneurs are also on the brink of burnout due to workload, anxiety, and social stress, especially those struggling with political or socially sensitive issues. "When you are in a system of oppression and aim to change it, you are always aware of how small your power is and how powerful the oppressor is." Wanja Muguongo shares. As founding executive director of UHAI EASHRI, Africa's first homegrown social activism fund to support the human rights of sexual minorities and sex workers, Mguango said: "I have not taken a single day off in seven years. When the parliaments of African countries were discussing and passing all kinds of terrible homophobic laws, I felt like I had no way to rest. ”
The constant pace of work and constant stress eventually led Mguango to burnout, and this change triggered her sustained, deep self-reflection, which eventually prompted her to make up her mind to resign. "As an adult, my whole life was occupied by human rights work," she said, "and for the first time I asked myself: 'Who the hell am I when I'm doing this?'" I started planning to leave, and then I submitted my resignation. I had to do it because I was already deeply tired and exhausted. ”
These are just a few of the things that courageous social change leaders like social entrepreneurs and philanthropists have shared with us over the past few years. In our research project with The Wellbeing Project, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 social change leaders to uncover fresh insights about themselves through self-inquiry and how those insights can guide them to change themselves. We also explored the nature of these self-explorations and which tools, programmes, and resources work best in self-exploration.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="36" > #1, how to explore yourself</h1>
We define self-exploration as a process of self-examination and reflection. The goal is to improve self-awareness, rebuild the connection with will and pleasure, recover from past trauma, and establish healthier behavioral habits in areas such as interpersonal interactions. Skills that can be developed through self-exploration include deep listening, patience, empathy, clear thinking, and a way of thinking that systematically analyzes how problems, people, and collaborators interact with each other.
The value of self-exploration, both in the social sector and in other fields, is increasingly recognized. Psychologist Richard Schwartz, the founder of The Center for Self-Leadership, a training institution dedicated to self-exploration, summarizes the benefits of self-exploration into 8 "C's":
Calmness, curiosity, clarity, compassion, confidence, creativity, courage, connectedness.
In addition, Jerry Colonna, CEO and co-founder of the leadership development firm Reboot.io, has helped dozens of executives and entrepreneurs become more caring, resilience, and stable leaders. In Colonna's new book, Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, he writes, "Radical self-exploration allows us to take a step back and see the laws of life and the forces that shape us." "Colonna thinks self-exploration is radical in some ways because it's rare and often discouraged." We are socialized to think of self-exploration as an act of self-indulgence, but this is absolutely wrong. Self-exploration not only makes us better leaders, but also better, happier, and more mentally resilient people. ”
The causal relationship between self-examination and behavioral change is at the heart of self-exploration. David Germano, executive director of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia, teaches a course on "human flourishing, dedicated to guiding students to live healthier, more engaged lives."
"If we want to do better," he shared in our interviews, "we need to focus on what we do every day and reflect on whether the results of those things are in line with our values." The argument that I am spiritually rich, but my body has collapsed is untenable, and we need to understand the correlation between what we do and the results they produce. ”
In Sacred Economics, author Charles Eisenstein similarly emphasizes this connection: "In the final analysis, the work we do in ourselves is inseparable from our work in the outside world. The two mirror each other and achieve each other. When we change ourselves, so do our values and behaviors. ”
For leaders who want to experiment with self-exploration but don't know where to start, we have the following advice:
Get started today. Don't wait until you're burned out or your agency has asked you to leave. If you're planning to wait until six months before you start exploring yourself, or if you're struggling with scheduling time, then note that self-exploration is not the same as indulging yourself. Self-exploration is not a luxury, but the foundation of your success and psychological resilience in your work life.
Start with a little bit. Make it a habit to practice mindfulness every day so that you can better live in the moment. You can do a 5-minute deep breathing exercise each morning or before important communication (in conjunction with a meditation assist app like Headspace or Insight Timer), or you can take a little time each day to take a closer look at the sights and sounds around you on your commute or in your local park.
Build your social support system. Deliberately establish sincere, close, one-on-one peer communication. Find other people who are also exploring themselves and have a private conversation with them about your self-exploration practice and what you know about yourself.
Bring self-exploration to your institution. You can ask your colleagues before and after group meetings how they have been doing, have lunch with colleagues, or you can establish a safe space with the help of a coordinator or the opportunity of team building, so that everyone can give frank feedback and form a more transparent and sincere working relationship.
Find a counselor or therapist. Professional support can help you better understand where your emotions came from, guide you to reconcile with past traumatic experiences, and recover from trauma. Professional support can also help you focus on unhealthy and destructive aspects of your personality, such as inner criticism or the superego.
Find a plan that's right for you. There are many options that can help you master and advance self-exploration. The Wellbeing Project, for example, offers an 18-month "Inner Growth Program" that teaches self-exploration techniques. Other programs include participation in Events at The Philanthropy Workshop and Tendrel.
Retreat retreat. Most of the interviewees mentioned the benefits of regular retreats. In the process, they will re-sort out what is more important and understand themselves better in the moment. Retreats can be led by a mentor or facilitator, but you can also spend some quiet time alone somewhere. Retreats allow you to self-reflect without interruption and help you pick yourself up and reintegrate yourself into your daily routine with a new self.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="201" > #2, five changes brought about by self-exploration</h1>
All of the social change leaders we interviewed, whether social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, or nonprofit leaders, acknowledge the importance of self-exploration. Self-exploration helps them build the ability to listen deeply and introspect, allowing them to maintain a healthy relationship with their selves. Our research summarizes five things that self-exploration has made for social change leaders:
A change in self-perception
A clearer perception of one's own emotional triggers and a better ability to cope with negative emotions such as anxiety
Changes in organizational practices and organizational culture
The ability to build more genuine and trusted partnerships with other leaders and institutions
and a more nuanced look at the relationships between individuals, issues, and institutions
01, the change of self-perception
Self-perception changes include seeing oneself in a new light and the role one can play in social change. Changing your self-perception requires you to proactively reveal yourself to others in order for them to help you build stronger self-awareness. As Peggy Dulany, president of the Synergos Foundation, put it:
It is in our nature to protect the wound and build defense mechanisms around it. This means that we usually need to wear a mask to make ourselves feel safe. But the key to achieving the change each of us needs is to feel secure enough to expose our vulnerable side. When our minds and state of mind remain open, we are less afraid. Open our hearts and let others see our open mind, so that we can get more presence, connection, and love, and let others dare to try the same thing. In this way, we can harvest a more participatory life.
An important change in thinking is to let go of the pressure to "save the world" imposed on oneself. "I allow myself to doubt my sense of responsibility to others and to the world," says Mguango of UHAI EASHRI, "and throughout my life, what I want to do is not always consistent with what I have done." Now I know better what I want. I'm after things that bring me joy. These things are still about social change, but for me, it's a new way of leadership and a way of life. ”
José María Luzárraga, founder of the collaborative education model Mondragon Team Academy, has also struggled to overcome the "self-sacrificing" mindset. Growing up in a Catholic background, he was always taught to love others as much as he loved himself, but he said:
My thought was to sacrifice myself to serve others. This responsibility and burden overwhelmed me, like carrying a heavy burden. The change in thinking allowed me to stop seeing my mission as a burden and as an adventure. When I feel scared or anxious, I accept this inner torment and remember that I am free to choose the direction I want to move on at any time.
For Premal Shah, founder of crowdfunding platform Kiva and commercial director at Punch International, the change in self-perception revolves around his deep understanding of personal motivation. "Many of us start from a spirit of sacrifice or 'specialness,' but let's imagine what it would be like to start with a 'wholeness,'" he says. It's a completely different way of behaving. ”
Finally, some leaders talk about how changes in mindset have helped them heal from past trauma. "Self-exploration has given me a fuller experience of life," says Jasmeen Patheja, founder and director of Blank Noise, an Indian agency. Her agency was dedicated to addressing sexual harassment by women and girls, and she herself had suffered from it.
Revealing my vulnerable side and accepting myself allowed me to release what was buried deep inside me that I was unaware of. Now I can tap into the shame I have internalized and recover from this experience that has profoundly affected me and my career. My life has never been more settled.
02, the change of emotional awareness
Changes in emotional awareness include building leaders' ability to manage stress, anxiety, fear, and other emotions that normally accompany their work, allowing them to embrace positive, more conducive states of success —such as curiosity, empathy, compassion, happiness, and so on.
Unfortunately, social change leaders often lack the system to assess emotions and the outlets to release them, which constantly erode their work and communication with other leaders. "Most investors and philanthropists are unaware of the burnout and enormous pressures facing social change leaders," said Renee Kaplan, CEO of The Philanthropist Workshop. ”
Jealousy is an emotion that is common to social change leaders but rarely mentions. On this point, Sasha Chanoff, executive director of Refugee Support Point, gives his insight based on his own experience. "Whenever another agency or agency founder gets a big grant, when someone else wins a big award, when someone else is mediataped, I have to constantly deal with jealousy within me, and I understand that other leaders are fighting jealousy," he says. I strive to develop an ability to be happy with the accomplishments of others rather than indulge in self-centered emotions. "Self-exploration courses can help people spot their jealous tendencies and help them build their ability to cope with jealousy."
Too often, male leaders are victimized by the norms of male behavior that they have heard about since childhood. "I grew up in a working-class community and, like most British men, was taught from an early age that expressing their emotions was a sign of cowardice and femininity," says Sani of Bite the Ballot. When I feel gloomy or anxious, I acknowledge the feeling and don't need to run away or take coping measures. I'll live with these emotions and stop feeling like I have to deal with them. ”
Increased self-awareness of individual emotions can also lead to new, perceptual insights into the behavior of other leaders. "I used to feel insulted or offended by the practices of leaders in other fields of education defending their 'territory' or touting their actions," Lusaraga said, "but now I look at them and myself from another perspective." They're fighting with their own hearts, and that doesn't have much to do with me. Instead, I would ask myself – 'How can I help him?' ’”
03. Changes in organizational practice and organizational culture
Leaders, of course, don't do everything themselves, they have to manage the team. Together with directors, stakeholders, partners, etc., they set the tone and shape the organizational culture at all levels of the organization. Self-exploration has helped many leaders in the social realm gain a deeper understanding of their personal impact on organizational culture.
"My personal style was so ingrained that a few years later, my personal style became the style of our entire company," Says Julia. Juria comes from b-fit, a female-specific gym chain dedicated to empowering women in Turkey. "I keep emailing my staff to confirm this and that, and even often late at night." Self-exploration helped her recognize the impact this style had on her team. "I realized that they were always feeling overwhelmed and that my actions were draining their creativity. We've overturned all communication mechanisms. Now, employees make their own way of doing things, which makes our entire company better. ”
In their communication with employees, many leaders have begun to try to communicate in a sincere, unflinching leadership style learned in self-exploration. "I'm going to be very careful about what I'm going to share with my employees and how I'm going to share it at work, but I don't hesitate to share why I find self-exploration very beneficial, both as a leader and as a person," Saynny says. Employees also give me feedback on the open culture we've built and share their own changes in their lives. ”
Ellen Agler, CEO of The END Fund, an organization dedicated to treating neglected tropical diseases, had a similar experience. "My personal self-exploration exercises helped me build skills such as deep listening, patience, empathy, clear thinking, and a holistic view of systems," she says, "and I also intentionally introduced a number of self-exploration tools to my institution, including strengthsfinder and myers-Briggs." We also held team workshops and organized group trips in partnership with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. The association, once affiliated with Google, is now dedicated to passing on neuroscience research and how mindfulness can boost team vitality and productivity to the leadership team. ”
Unlike other leaders we interviewed, Agler has been practicing self-discovery for over 20 years and believes that self-discovery has played a vital role in the growth and growth of The END Fund. She told us:
I try to be open to issues I'm dealing with or are difficult to deal with, and from time to time I ask others for help. Each of us has blind spots. As leaders, the more openly we admit that we are not omnipotent, the more relaxed the people around us are to co-create solutions with us. This is not only the key to building an organization, but also the key to leading a trend. I would never have been able to do this without self-exploration and mindfulness.
Our interviewees have asked others for help in order to better understand themselves and improve their leadership skills, thereby creating a healthier (work) environment. Some have also introduced programmes to their own institutions. For example, Mark Bertolini, the former CEO of the health insurance company Aetna, spearheaded the creation of the Employee Mindfulness Program after suffering a serious ski accident. The accident left him in severe pain for a long time, and he was eventually liberated from meditation, yoga, and other Eastern practices. He then applied these practices to the health sector and to Aetna's workforce.
Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year, an American nonprofit, has shown his vulnerable side in public in a rare way. She published a user manual she wrote herself on the content platform Medium. The handbook, which has gone viral on social media, tells the story of her approach to leadership and the practice of self-exploration. Global Citizen Year also hosts voluntary group meditations for employees every Monday morning and reimburses employee retreats. Self-exploration has become so ingrained in this culture that it is often asked when hiring employees.
04, the ability to cooperate with others to change
Philanthropists are increasingly being blamed for not understanding the complexity of the social problems they seek to solve. Sometimes, this gap is even larger than it hurts the relationship between management and the agents of social change who are in desperate need of funding. As Edgar Villanueva, chairman of the board of Native Americans in Philanthropy, wrote:
Those who manage philanthropic resources, including those who decide on the process of allocating philanthropic resources, often lack deep communication with groups that suffer from social, ethnic, and economic segmentation. Management often imposes on them their one-sided understanding of the recipient groups, rather than listening to their voices and acting according to their advice.
Self-exploration can help solve this problem. All of the leaders we interviewed agreed that self-exploration allowed them to communicate better with others. "The more caring I am, the easier it is for me to communicate with people who are in vulnerable situations," says Dulany of the Synergos Foundation. In addition, Bertolini mentioned that after self-exploration, he developed deeper connections with the CEOs of the institutions he was on his board and other members, thus building more productive working relationships.
05, the change of system consciousness
Traditionally, the sole focus of an agency founder has been on the growth of the organization. However, the growing popularity of dealing with social issues from a systems perspective requires additional leadership skills. A system change leader or "system entrepreneur" does not intervene merely at a single entry point, but seeks to influence other individuals and institutions in a particular system in order to change the rules, flow of resources, dynamics of power, norms, relationships, and correlations of the system. This co-creation solution is generally more efficient and sustainable than linear organizational growth.
In this case, the leader's personal insight, as well as the keen self-awareness gained through self-exploration, are crucial. Humility, empathy, and active listening are traits that a well-managed self exhibits are important for leaders who want to gain the trust of their partners, especially when partners have completely different interests, institutional agendas, and perspectives.
Lusaraga described the massive system he perceived as in need of change:
When you're particularly passionate about something, you may get too close to it. If you can take a step back and see the whole system, you'll be less stressed emotionally. I no longer felt like I needed to be in control of everything. This allows me to perceive myself and see more clearly what positive actions are being taken to optimize the entire education system. It's all not about me, it's about changing the system to the maximum.
Self-exploration can help you master the "aerial view", allowing you to see the whole system and get things done down-to-earth in the next step. For leaders under enormous pressure, this ability to swim "high in the air" and "on the ground" is important. RefugePoint's Chanov uses the dominant mindset of "scarcity" to illustrate the biggest obstacle to "building more cooperative and systematic cross-organizational action." He observes: "The incentives for all the leaders who drive nonprofits usually focus on the development of a single organization itself. In response to this tendency, he and his leadership team developed a new employee performance appraisal system that takes into account all avenues of value creation, including fundraising for other organizations serving refugees.
Around this ubiquitous new evaluation system, the systems view gives RecoverPoint's leadership team the opportunity to work with industry leaders. They work with the Women's Refugee Commission, Mercy Corps, and the U.S. Department of State. Chanov attributes these collaborations to the good self-management, strong listening ability and systematic view that self-exploration has brought him.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="211" > #3, conclusion</h1>
Self-exploration has played an important role in the lives of many social change leaders. From experience, we know the effects of self-exploration. We are also thrilled to find that more and more leaders and people influenced by them are also beginning to use self-exploration to enrich their lives and improve their personal effectiveness. "The process of self-exploration helped me get out of my default position, temporarily stopped, and gave me a stronger consciousness," Sha said, "and strong curiosity also gave me more potential to make a real contribution." ”
Although there is no universally applicable means of self-exploration, and although we have no intention of promoting any specific approach to self-exploration, we believe that continuous self-exploration can lead to more successful, more resilient, better self-managed leaders and allow them to go further. Social change is not a sprint, but a marathon. Practicing self-exploration allows us to grow and be able to collaborate with others more humbly and deal with social issues. As Durrani puts it: "Only by clearing the inner barriers and inherent patterns of behavior can we better play our role in the work of the outside world." ”
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review official website, first published on April 8, 2020
原标题：Self-Inquiry for Social Change Leaders
Katherine Milligan is director of gender and diversity at Bamboo Capital Partners, Gabelli Fellow at Fordham University, and graduate institute of international and development in Geneva Development Studies) and Associate Professor of Social Innovation at the University of Geneva;
Jeffrey M. C. Walker is Chair of New Profit, Chair of the Advisory Board of the University of Virginia Meditation Science Center, and Vice Chair of the WHO/CHAP Frontline Mental Health Initiative.