How finding our interconnectedness creates healthy leadership for all

Where were you when the eclipse took place last week? Were you prepared?

Missing our eclipse glasses ☹

Last Monday, I was with my family driving towards the San Jose del Cabo airport in Baja California, Mexico, returning from nine days away.

A few days earlier, as eclipse excitement surged, we realized that we would be at the airport at the highlight of the eclipse, which was about 95% at the peak.

We were prepared for a vacation to Mexico, but we were not prepared with eclipse glasses!

When we got to the airport, there was a lot of excitement. People were standing in front of the airport wearing eclipse glasses. I could hear some “oohs” and “aahs.”

I was excited and I also felt left out and regretful.

I asked myself why I had not prepared better for this rare event. I wondered whether we had some eclipse glasses somewhere in our home.

Just then, someone walked up to us and said, “The pilots over there are giving out eclipse glasses.”

Really?!

We walked over to the pilots (from Delta airlines, thank you!). They explained that they thought they would be midflight at peak of the eclipse, so they had purchased eclipse glasses for all the passengers on their plane.

As it turned out, their plane came in earlier than expected, so they were on the ground standing in front of the airport, and sharing their box of eclipse glasses with anyone who needed a pair.

We did! We gratefully accepted a few pairs of eclipse glasses, put them on, and saw a wonderful image of a moon-shaped image of light.

I felt a sense of awe at this celestial phenomenon.

And I felt appreciation that the pilots had thought beyond themselves.

Thinking beyond ourselves

As I write the next post of the series, on communal leadership, it must start with thinking beyond ourselves and our organizations.

This series has explored components of individual leadership – including taking rest, setting boundaries, finding mentors, and building community.

We have talked about principles for organizational leadership, such as setting goals from values and embracing transparency.

Those levels of leadership are important and needed.

AND there must be another level – of community leaders working collaboratively towards the goal of all people in the community thriving.

Often, we see organizations build healthy internal cultures – yet leaders may feel discouraged because the external challenges are increasing, despite their important work.

For example, recent client Bike East Bay centers mobility justice in their work, “a vision that centers our right to exist and move freely, safely and joyfully throughout our communities.” This value informs their strategies of movement building.

And the reality is that one of the biggest challenges that Bike East Bay faces is a greater number of large cars on the road, which create more dangerous conditions for cyclists and walkers.

In other words, leadership includes looking inward – and it must involve looking outward as well.

There are many current examples of this – such as the mutual aid movement – which focused on taking care of community members, or the Collective Impact movement, which focused on collaborations across organizations for the benefit of the many community members.

Yet it is hard to think and work this way. We are each working towards our relatively small (and important!) goals.

The simple gesture by the pilots sharing their glasses allowed my family and I to participate in and enjoy an incredible, some might argue life-changing, infrequent event. By thinking outside of themselves, they shared this experience with many people instead of just a handful. The implications are far-reaching as well because who knows how that selfless act inspires people.

Yet as we prepare our organizations, we need to think about the effect of our actions. In that spirit, what changes do we need to make to see our interconnectedness more – and think bigger?