Accepting what is: Leading in this moment

Snu set clouds

You’ve had a few days to sit with the outcome of the election. You’re trying to make sense of it personally, but also attempting to find a way to lead your organization through this. Although you already went through this once before, in 2016, this still feels very different. Maybe you did scenario planning this time around, but it now seems inadequate. You sent an email to staff, you held an all-hands call, you called your friends and gathered with your community. 

But, obviously, now comes the hard part. Now you’ve got to navigate forward, somehow.

It would seem that you, and every other leader of a mission-driven organization, has two challenges now. The first is finding a way to make room for your own emotions and that of each of your staff knowing each individual is and will react differently. And the second is figuring out how to best move your organization forward.

The first area is going to be the hardest, and the place where some leaders may flounder. They will try to move too fast, and try to prescribe how they and everyone else should feel and react. They will head right into work strategy, creating new checklists and metrics and a 7-point action plan. 

Let me backup and ground everyone in a few tenets: in moments like this, all humans struggle with the conflict between our expectations (how things should be, how people should act, how things should have gone) and what is actually happening around us. Leaders feel this conflict heavily, and it prompts them to want to fix things, to course correct, to align. This moment calls for something different.

You and every person on your team is going to have different perspectives on this moment, and the work that each will need to do to get themselves grounded will be different. A Latina is going to have a different journey ahead of them than the white man or the transgender person. A conservative leaning staff person is having a different response to your liberal leaning staff.  Your international staff are experiencing things very differently right now, depending on where in the world they live. The best thing you can do right now is to be compassionate and empathetic while also giving your staff space to sit with their emotions and figure out how to move forward.

The best leaders I’ve seen in these times are those who shun toxic positivity, doom and blame narratives. They are open about the difficulty they’re facing themselves. They will lead AND they will also share the difficulty they face in understanding what everyone needs. They’ll admit up front that not everything they do or say in these times will help everyone. They will listen and take feedback with an open, curious and compassionate mind.

Acceptance of the election results isn’t really the hard part. We know what happened, just as we would if a tornado hit our building. What’s going to be difficult is getting grounded in this reality, getting our feet under us, and figuring out how to move forward.

As for the next steps for your organization, that’s a planning exercise that’s going to start with some basic questions. What does this mean for your mission and strategy? What if anything has changed in the space where we work?

There are going to be some mission-driven organizations for whom this election will change nothing. For others, it will turn everything upside down. Your challenge as a leader is to be brave enough to accept what is true in this moment. 

That said, the biggest challenge most leaders will face right now won’t be strategic, it will be making sure that their core values remain the foundation upon which all their actions begin. If you are certain in these values, and make sure your actions align with them, it’s much harder to veer off course.

No doubt, this is a tough time for those of us in the progressive space. Let me offer some perspective and some encouragement. First perspective, this is not the first difficult moment we have faced and it will not be the last.  As a people, we have survived moments way worse than the present one. It may not feel like it right now, but we are a resilient species. The actions we take from this moment forward will prove we can do it again–and I’m confident we will.  

Here is some encouragement.  First, remind yourself you are only human and as good as your own intentions may be, we are all perfectly imperfect.  Give yourself the space to make mistakes, feel and sit in the unknowing. Second, you are surrounded by people who have probably sacrificed financial gain and privilege to do their part in making the world a better place for everyone.  Third, there is a lot of ugliness in the world AND there is a lot of beauty.  Seek to center yourself in the beauty, be grateful for it and don’t let your own light go out. 

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Brigid McCormack

Brigid McCormack is an evangelist for exceptional leadership. Brigid believes leadership is a skill that can be developed, cultivated, and honed over time. Brigid founded SpinDrift Advisors in 2022 to support and develop leaders seeking to transform their leadership, their careers and their lives. For the prior 24 years, Brigid worked inside mission driven organizations. As an executive and leader, her passion has been to identify and develop strong leaders, create inclusive cultures and enable employees to not just have meaningful careers but also to flourish.

Her journey began with a love of the natural world. At a young age, her father took her birding in California’s Sierra mountains, and Brigid quickly learned the names and sounds of all her favorites: the pileated woodpecker, the cedar waxwing, and the red-winged blackbird. Serving in the Peace Corps, she confronted the polluted legacy of a century of an extractive economy in Ukraine.

After eight years as a major gifts fundraiser—first at the Wharton School at the University of California and then at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business—her passion for protecting nature drew her to senior leadership roles at ClimateWorks and Audubon California. Then spent five years advising high net-worth clients entering the climate philanthropy space.

The drive for coaching

Herself the beneficiary of terrific mentors and executive coaches over the course of her career, Brigid always placed a premium on building the leadership skills of the team around her—from the early career managers to seasoned directors to C-suite. Among her proudest accomplishments is empowering some of California’s rising conservation leaders, working with leaders in the climate, conversation, philanthropic, tech, healthcare and many other fields.

Qualified and inspired

In addition to her own executive experience, Brigid is Hudson Institute trained executive coach, a Dare to Lead trained facilitator, and a Tara Mohr Playing Big Facilitator.  She is certified IEQ9 Enneagram Accredited Practitioner (level 1) and as an Advanced Enneagram and Team Dynamics Practitioner (level 2).  She hodls her ACC from the Internal Coaching Federation. She has a BA in History and BS in Biology from Santa Clara University and a MS in Environmental Management from University of San Francisco.

Brigid still takes time to get outside and listen to the birds of Northern California, while hiking, running, or backpacking with her family. The peaceful moments are important, fuel for her work with the people and organizations working hard to stop the climate crisis and conserve natural places.