Ubuntu, what?
Hello guys, its November, I’m behind due to additional work needed for the Tim Stead Trust, more of that later, soon!
I came across this wee article, much trimmed, that I am familiar with through work, oh, maybe 40 years go. I was keen youth worker but at the same time I found out how little I knew of the world and ‘being there and with people’.I knew little of the depths of being a youth and community worker, for sure.
Anyway I came across the idea of Ubuntu in and amongst the materials I was exploring in extra courses I took part in, all to make sense of work – there was a bunch of them, all to support me in the work I wanted too. So in brief, my first stage of training only prepared me to see that I needed to ‘do more’.
Ubuntu was something Nelson Mandela lived his life by – yep I know, ‘one persons freedom fighter is another persons terrorist’, – and was popularised by Bishop Tutu when he said: “I want you to be all you can, because that is the only way I can be all I am. When you diminish and oppress me, you diminish and oppress yourself.”
Whatever, I developed thinking around swinging between both ends of the continuum. Sometimes, needs must if things are going to change. Another conversation
Makes sense to me.
Leading with an Ubuntu spirit is so much more than that. It’s not simply a leadership skill, – work again, but – it’s a mindset change. A different way of approaching everything we do.
Again, makes sense.
So how can we, as individuals, embrace Ubuntu.
It’s not easy. Ultimately, we all need to recognise that our ego can get in the way sometimes (even if we don’t want to admit it does, or that we have one at all). Here’s a few suggestions on how to bring your Ubuntu.
Now, in the first few years I tried to apply these thinkings to me and my job, firstly realising I was being treated by the majority of my bosses in the negative of this.
1. Stay in touch with your compassionate side.
Recognise that what enables you to do great work is your connections with others, what impact do you want to have on those you come into contact with everyday? Do you affirm them and enable them to flourish? Or do you try to prove your importance, skills and wisdom and subtly help them see the errors of their ways? Be honest with yourself, none of us like to think we do this.
Why do we put people down. People I loved even did it. Why? Well, I reckon to give them peace and quiet in their frustrations about how they don’t cope – they got it wrong – instead of wrestling with their own ‘ego’s’, they find it easier to put others down.
2. Encourage a growth mindset
Work hard at creating a community that people feel they belong to and want to stay with, by developing and growing your team. And then when they take the skills and opportunities you have given them and move elsewhere, instead of feeling slightly resentful, feel proud that you have supported them to grow so they can make a contribution elsewhere. Helping another community to flourish – knowing that we are all part of the bigger whole.
3. Be generous in your partnership working
Be mindful of having debates in your head about what power or agenda you’re prepared to give up or concede. Rather, get creative and passionate about what you can contribute, about what connections you have that will benefit the partnership and make it thrive
You think you can bring it? Go on… tap into your compassionate side, make and broker connections, work truly collaboratively, and see the bigger picture by leading for the collective.
Compassion, growth, generosity!!
Can’t be bad!