Introduction
I have been reading some interesting material lately on how people think about Disability Inclusion and what motivates their actions. Some are born with their disability. Some acquire it while they are young. Others acquire their disabilities at various stages of adulthood. I was on the more mature side of the adult spectrum when I acquired my disabilities.
One of the things about acquiring a significant disability later in life is that there’s a chance you might have some life experiences to draw on for the process of adapting and responding.
In 2008 I contracted GBS and acquired mobility and grip disabilities. My ankles ceased functioning as they used to, and I required Canadian crutches to get around. I started off with a rollator – essentially a tray mobile with a seat but that was a nightmare on the train during my daily commute when I returned to work.
I loved walking, reading and real-life problem solving. My past work experience was almost exclusively in the public sector (4 federal and 6 state agencies) – and most of that was about engaging with the public or the community. My roles were very people oriented (from intimate personal care to problem solving interviews to conflict resolution) Also a substantial portion of my work was disability related in some way. In my last agency I was initially employed as a Support Manager – coordinating health and community access services for residents of privately run accommodation services for people with disabilities.
When I acquired my disability, I was developing and running tendering processes mostly to acquire disability accommodation services. A lot of what I had done previously involved monitoring and assessing performance of service providers and negotiating compliance or developing solutions.
Walking used to be enjoyable but now is slow and perilous. I could still read but, because of my accompanying grip disabilities, I switched to ebooks and audiobooks.
When I became a founding member of my department’s Disability Employee Network in July 2010 I was interested to discover that the majority of members were from the community disability support teams. These were people with disabilities whose jobs were working with people with disabilities in the community. They were engaged in practical problem solving. The advent of the NDIS saw the end of those jobs. By the time I became DEN Chair in November 2016 none of these members were left.
In June 2023 I commenced a consultancy, working with staff network leads with my former employer. This was a novel experience, and I had to discover what made me a successful lead. While there are leadership skills that can be learned we all have a foundation of experiences and attitudes upon which we construct later philosophies and skills. It wasn’t a case of trying to make other people lead the way I did. I had experience as an effective leader but that didn’t necessarily mean I knew how to help others be effective leaders because of that experience. I had to quickly develop insight into myself and the leads I worked with. That was hard work. It was also deeply rewarding.
I especially had to remember that other people didn’t necessarily see the world through my eyes – and hence while my hammer led me to see nails everywhere not everyone had the same tool.
One great lesson for me came by accident in around 1991. I was Advisor Disability Licensing cover northern NSW with a brief to inspect and license over 130 aged and disability residential and employment services. I had no previous experience in this area. Because I sometimes spent all week in the field, I had a lot of time to listen to radio shows and audiocassettes. I didn’t listen to music because I was on paid time and figured I should be educating myself. I came across an audio course on conflict resolution in my department’s library. There were 6 audio cassettes which I played repeatedly over about 3 months. When I stopped at a service, I practiced what I had been listening to. I got to be very good at conflict resolution – a skillset that has served me well since.
I brought those conflict resolution skills into my role as DEN lead. As my consultancy progressed, I became more aware of other experiences and skills I had brought into that role. I became more able to talk with ERG leads about tapping into life experiences that could inform their sense of leadership.
Diverse leadership inspiration
A few recent experiences, including my consultancy, have made it clear to me that being effective leader for any ERG is vital, and that allowing one person to dominate can be a problem. There are, of course, individuals who are great leaders. When I was an ERG lead, I realised I needed more eyes and minds than just mine on the job. That was an attitude I developed when I was contract managing employment programs and Business Enterprise Centres – develop collective leadership commitment to identify and address issues of concern. I created regional coalitions of services to enhance service delivery, share insights and imagine potentials.
This experience inspired me to create the DEN’s Guidance and Action Team (GAT) – 15 members who volunteered to be more involved in helping the DEN address inclusion and equity issues.
Another useful experience was my time in 1997 as a Community Recovery Coordinator on the Tasman Peninsula after the 1996 shootings at Port Arthur. I learned just how important it was to listen to multiple voices and back off if you are the wrong solution for the problem. My employer had developed an idea of unmet need through talking to community ‘leaders’ but didn’t talk to the community itself. It needed some gentle support but not some clown running around organising meetings they didn’t want. Mostly they wanted to be left alone. There was a need to be met, but it was the one articulated, not the one imagined.
This taught me to not assume my take was the best one, and to listen with care and respect to what others were saying.
The leader as hero isn’t a good idea
Leadership isn’t about control, though it might be about being in control of oneself. It is more about influence. This is a modern development arising because the old hierarchies no longer exist. Now we may be leading people who are older, more experienced, better qualified or who have greater expertise – people who are our equals.
My predecessor on the Tasman Peninsula spoke only to the community and government leaders. They assumed the existence of a need but did not check it out. Only a few people thought there was a need to ‘lead’ community recovery. This was old hierarchical thinking.
There is an abundance of very good books on leadership available. They reflect a contemporary data-driven approach which is grounded in psychology at an individual and organizational level.
My favourite is Loretta Malandro’s Fearless Leadership because it was ideal for me as an ERG lead getting my head around being in a leadership role that really had no formal status. Malandro introduced me to the idea of situational leadership. Brené Brown’s Dare to Leadwas also inspirational. I was keenly aware that both had the theme of courage in their titles. But this wasn’t about being heroic so much as overcoming one’s own doubts and committing to influencing – being bold enough to share one’s vision (sourced, of course, from many people).
I think the GAT was an ideal manifestation of this new way of thinking. In September 2018 I called for volunteers from the DEN membership. Fifteen responded. They were smart, passionate and hurting. They were cranky too. It took 12 months to persuade them to be a disciplined and professional force for good. I have since repeatedly referred to the GAT as the heart of the DEN and I was surprised when one of the original members said I was just saying that. I wasn’t. The DEN’s success would not have been possible without them.
Culturally we have moved out of hierarchies into communities of equals. Our organizational structures are slow to reflect this, but we know it as individuals. We see this in the language of teams, and we know it from our direct experiences. We respect competence and capability, not position.
Organizations demonstrate the degree to which they are slow to catch up with this reality by the fact that narcissists and psychopaths are disproportionately represented amongst the ranks of executives. Similarly, people who are psychologically ill-equipped to work well in teams aspire to leadership and management roles – and often succeed.
Effective leadership in ERGs
ERGs are modern phenomena that reflect our contemporary values of representation by peers. When I became a founding member of my department’s DEN in 2010 there was still a hierarchical spirit around. But that was 15 years ago when some ideas and values were still in the early stage of definition and transition.
ERG leadership is still seen by some as a heroic individual or two co-chairs or co-leads. The term ‘chair’ reflects the legacy of an ERG being seen as a staff association of amateurs and volunteers rather than a vital employee-led group of competent and professional peers. I now prefer the term ‘coordinator’. The need for effective leadership is still there but the term reflects less reliance on hierarchical status and more reliance on functional skills like inspiration and persuasion. I am constantly reminded of Ernesto Sirolli’s advice – “You cannot motivate, only inspire!”
ERGs operate outside the normal organizational hierarchy. As DEN lead I had direct access to my department’s Secretary and three Deputy Secretaries. This was something neither my manager nor Director felt comfortable about. These were also relationships I had to manage with great care.
This makes situational leadership a challenging role to perform. If done well it can be transformative. If done poorly an ERG will languish in ineffectuality.
Conclusion
The opportunity to work with ERG leads obliged me to delve deeper into the theories of what an ERG is than I had done before – and I found that there weren’t any that were of much use. There were assumptions and habits lingering from a transitional phase that should have ended a few years back. Part of the problem has been that ERGs haven’t been studied. They are widely perceived to be ineffectual and hence not worth inquiring into. The other part of the problem is the lack of self-reflection by ERGs themselves. Organizations maintain them as a good idea – in a vague sentimental manner. Nobody has done a value for money assessment.
However, well-led companies do support effective ERGs, probably because there is a culture of accountability and a theory of what the ERGs are for. Public sector ERGs are a manifestation of intent to comply with legislation and policy, and that is often enough for an agency. This leaves many a public sector ERG with untapped potential that can be realised through effective leadership – from the organization as well as the ERG. A key task for such leadership is negotiating a theory of the function and benefits of an ERG within an agency/sector and securing the resources to deliver those benefits.
The attention given to leadership these days reflects a critical trend. It’s not that there is a greater demand for leadership per se, but for far better leadership. This is probably no better demonstrated in the works of two former navy seals – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Their book, The Dichotomy of Leadership has a 4.8 star rating on Amazon, with 87% of the 6.9k reviewers giving 5 stars. That’s extraordinary, and it reflects a desire for greater self-awareness and personal accountability among current leaders. It’s a great read.
The theme of leadership has attracted a huge level of serious research and scholarship for the past few decades. This reflects the growing recognition and importance of effective leaders in our non-hierarchical age. They can make or break organizations and teams. In the contemporary business environment that is a critical element in survival and success.
For ERGs, DENs or staff networks (call them what you will) leadership is under-estimated and under-valued. There’s a lot of work to be done if we want these groups to deliver on the unique potential they hold.
As usual, I want to promote the work of PurpleSpace. It is still the only organization I know that is dedicated to creating effective Disability ERGs.