The Nuances of Social Sector Leadership
Leadership in the social sector is distinct from the mainstream understanding of leadership due to the unique context, values, approaches, and challenges it entails. Nonprofit leadership skills involve navigating complex social issues, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, and demonstrating empathy, transparency, and accountability.
Drawing from such realities, Social Sector Leadership must be driven by the tenets of systemic leadership. Systemic leadership eschews orthodox designations of leader and follower as the starting point of its inquiry and focuses on leadership as an emergent phenomenon in the collective. Systemic leaders understand power relations and identity constructions that are inherent in social systems which play a direct role in legitimising and reproducing divisive and exclusive societal roles.
Leadership is considered a social process occurring among members in a social setting regardless of what position they hold. Formal and informal interactions, seen and unseen alliances, and differences and convergences align and mobilise the members in the social context towards a shared vision, making leadership an emergent phenomenon. Leadership becomes a practice that denotes an engagement with messy and complex realities of bringing about collective collaboration across multiple interests around a shared purpose to enable systemic shifts.
Primacy of working on the self
Social Sector Leadership shifts the focus from the individual to the collective. For such impact-driven leadership, leaders must go through a critical rethink of their own position and boldly embrace viewpoints from other stakeholders, who may have contrarian perspectives, in a process where they may often have to de-centre themselves in the path towards creating a shared future.
To navigate the challenges in social leadership, self-discovery, emotional balance, and resilience are foundational. Emotional balance is vital for maintaining perspective and making rational decisions in high-stress situations. Social sector leaders often face challenging environments marked by resource constraints, political pressures, and community expectations.
Following are some benefits of working on the self:
- By cultivating emotional intelligence, leaders can manage their own emotions, respond empathetically to others, and maintain composure during crises.
- Emotional stability enables leaders to navigate the social sector’s complexities with grace and efficacy, ensuring steady progress toward their goals.
- Resilient leaders can withstand pressures and maintain their focus on the mission, inspiring their teams to do the same.
- Resilience is crucial for sustaining momentum and achieving lasting impact.
Discussions presented above point toward the necessity of bringing together a variety of dimensions to equip leaders with the knowledge, skills, and mindset unique to the social sector. The next section elaborates on this thinking in further detail.
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Dimensions of Social Sector Leadership
Social Sector Leadership is a transdisciplinary endeavour that draws on the following dimensions:
- Developmental: Effective leadership must begin with self-discovery and self-awareness. Self-discovery is the process of gaining insight into one’s own personality, values, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses. It involves introspection and reflection, leading to a deeper understanding of oneself. Self-awareness is the ongoing conscious knowledge of one’s character, feelings, motives, and desires. It allows leaders to understand how their actions and decisions impact others and the environment in which they operate. Together, these processes help leaders align their personal values and motivations with their professional roles, enabling them to lead with authenticity and integrity.
- Perspectival: India’s social fabric is intricately woven with layers of cultural, economic, and political diversity. Each region has its unique challenges and opportunities, shaped by historical, geographical, and social factors. A one-size-fits-all approach to social impact interventions often fails to address the specific needs and circumstances of different communities. Therefore, a perspectival approach must be considered for crafting community leadership strategies. Such an approach considers the unique characteristics and needs of specific target geographies and populations, ensuring that strategies are tailored and contextually relevant. In the following discussion, we will touch upon some of the key perspectives that need consideration.
- Sectoral: Effective leadership in the social sector necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the various sectors in which interventions are designed and implemented. This mandates covering critical areas such as education, health, livelihoods, climate and sustainability, gender, civic area regeneration, and the restoration of places of historical and environmental importance, among others.
- Functional: Involves understanding of the policy context and program design that includes strategic planning, resource mobilisation, program development and evaluation through theory of change, programmatic communication and advocacy, the ability to think creatively, adapt to changing circumstances, and embrace innovation to address evolving social challenges and opportunities. Such understanding hinges on a systems thinking mindset that appreciates and accounts for interconnections, feedback, and emergent behaviours and patterns.
- Organisational: Effective social impact leadership demands a suite of organisational capabilities such as talent management (recruiting, developing, and engaging diverse sets of sectoral and crossover teams), fundraising (securing resources through grants and partnerships, marketing (storytelling, branding, reputation management), digital (tools and platforms process efficiency, knowledge management, analytics and innovation), and board governance (ensuring oversight, accountability, and strategic guidance).
Working in the social sector presents a unique set of intricacies due to its intersection of various factors, internal and external to the organisation. Being cognizant of these nuances and intricacies is crucial and the five dimensions of Social Sector Leadership can help us in navigating the complexities of the sector effectively.
About the Author
Dr Rajneesh Chowdhury leads the Centre of Excellence for Leadership at ILSS. A distinguished professional with over two decades of experience, his expertise spans management consulting, lifelong learning, social impact, and strategic communications. He played a pivotal role in designing and launching a master’s program in systems thinking and leadership for the UK civil service at the Birmingham Leadership Institute, University of Birmingham. Rajneesh holds an MA in Sociology, an MSc, and a PhD in Systems Thinking. He is the author of two books and several peer-reviewed publications and has been appointed a Fellow at the Centre for Systems Studies (UK) for his contributions to systems thinking and practice.
