Will Parks is the author of the new book Graceful Leadership: Inspiring Hope, Creativity, and Resilience in Times of Peace and Crisis. He is the UNICEF representative in Cambodia.
Q: What inspired you to write Graceful Leadership, and how would you define that concept?
A: Our world is now confronted by unprecedented disruption and uncertainty. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, poverty, inequality, pandemics, increasing rates of mental ill health, food and fuel price spikes, global supply chain interruptions, financial downturns, inflation, increasing xenophobia, decreasing international cooperation and multiple wars… these are just some our collective challenges.
But although certain disasters cannot be prevented, I believe we can increase the resilience of our families, communities, systems, organizations, businesses, institutions, and society to better respond to shocks and manage them. Additionally, we can anticipate and avert many adversities more accurately and become more adept at reducing the effects of interconnections between crises. And yes, all this without abrasive nationalism.
Last but not least, humanity has demonstrated that it is possible to bravely establish times of peace without using force. Why? How? I think graceful leadership – leading through compassion and coaching – is one of the reasons. Through writing this book, I felt it was critical to contribute to a growing global call for this style of leadership.
A second inspiration was that a major focus of what leadership writers and academics have shared is from the “for-profit” world – stories and analyses on businesses of all sizes. Less has been published about leadership in “non-profit” domains, despite the fact that there are some good studies and commentary, especially in the fields of healthcare and education.
As far as I’m aware, this is one of only a few books that particularly addresses the topic of leading with grace in the context of humanitarian and international development. I hope it inspires additional research and writing about leadership in this important area of humane endeavor.
Lastly, I thought it was time to try to distill my life experiences and the thriving literature that has been created thus far into a set of proven, useful practices for graceful leadership. Writing this book was enlightening and yet humbling because it contains advice that I wish I’d sought 30 years ago when my humanitarian career began.
Q: The author Deborah Crowe said of the book, “This book encourages us to lead not through authority but through humanity.” What do you think of that description?
A: I think Deborah’s description is very apt. Being a leader is a tremendous responsibility and a humble call to duty. Over the years, during peace and crisis, I’ve sadly observed that if humanity requires leadership at all then let it be graceful.
You see, most of us have grown up witnessing the command-and-control approach to leadership. Some authors even note that we are just emerging from a long period known as the “management century” (1911–2011) throughout most of which authoritarian, top-down leadership was the “favoured” model.
Should we ourselves be blessed enough to be granted leadership positions whether in families, communities, organisations, companies or even countries, if not extremely mindful we may misguidedly assume that this autocratic leadership style is the way to lead.
But evidence from numerous studies shows that leadership which combines compassion with coaching – graceful leadership – is not only better for people’s wellbeing, sense of empowerment and work performance (including for leaders themselves) but also delivers better topline results in both profit and non-profit spheres.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I began planning this book nine years ago when I was sending out short monthly emails to a small collection of UNICEF staff on various aspects of leadership (equivalent I guess to “blogs”). As the months went by, the number of staff who asked to be included in my monthly messages increased dramatically. So, I sensed there was perhaps scope for a book.
I distilled my focus into two questions. First, what is graceful leadership and why does it matter so much? And second, how can we embody graceful leadership each day?
Over the years, I’d accumulated (and continue to gather) many observations of graceful leadership through my encounters with individuals who led and lead with grace and from different types of organisations, profit to non-profit, government to non-government.
I designed and tested a framework of 15 mutually reinforcing practices that are proven to unleash talent, create joy and transform performance – practices that can help you to become and remain a graceful leader regardless of your position in life or your job title.
As I continued writing, I included short stories drawn from my own leadership journey towards grace (I’m still travelling) to illustrate key points. And I shared the thoughts and experiences of a small sample of leaders I’d worked with or met and later interviewed for the book: Dr Mohamed Ag Ayoya, Ugochi Daniels, Peter Hawkins, Hamida Lasseko, and Gillian Mellsop. And I mention several other exceptional individuals.
I also researched the work of many scholars, leaders, and coaches. As I went about reviewing the literature, I guess what surprised me, in fact, delighted me was that the number of studies and books on these kinder, more nurturing dimensions of leadership are accumulating, I sense, at an exponential rate.
Leading with grace – leading through compassion and coaching – is thus part of a leadership movement that’s not only coming of age but is also very much needed for this age and, I suspect, ages yet to come.
Q: Given the current political landscape, what do you see as the possibilities for graceful leadership moving forward?
A: There will likely be more years of disruption and uncertainty ahead. Is World War III on the cards? All the while, most of us are seeking leaders in our communities, organisations, and societies who can help us navigate through and overcome these challenges – leaders who truly care about us and our planet, not themselves.
A bedrock of graceful leaders serving as role models of compassion and coaching can ennoble, engage, and empower employees and community members; attract, boost, and retain top talent; bring tremendous benefits, including wellbeing and joy, to individuals, families, teams, communities, organisations, and even societies; and optimise individual and team cohesion, collaboration, and thus performance, accelerating an organisation’s results, all the while generating and sustaining psychological safety and resilience.
Keep in mind: leading with compassion and coaching is contagious – graceful leadership can trigger a chain reaction of kindness and goodness. The more grace you embody, the more graceful your colleagues will be. Through neurochemistry, pretty much all the practices described in this book are contagious.
If leaders at all levels can embrace and embody these practices, contagion will likely do the rest. That is why I am convinced that it is possible to move from more graceful individuals to more graceful teams to more graceful organisations to more graceful communities, ultimately serving and advancing humanity with grace.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I continue to offer coaching to colleagues and to facilitate discussions on what leadership is, can be, indeed, should be. I am also converting the 15 practices of graceful leadership described in the book into a leadership training series with various learning resources.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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