Community-based Leadership Practices

Very often, people dream of being part of a community or building a community to help each other and get help from each other. In my experience, great communities are built on these core principles. Most people join a community only expecting something from others not giving. Giving, being transparent and focusing on others interest is the beginning of a great community behavior. Below are five points I consider as important for a start 1. Setting Expectations: The Clarity Protocol Define, don't assume: Clearly articulate shared goals and boundaries upfront to eliminate the ambiguity where mistrust breeds. Transparency is safety: openly communicate limitations and roadmaps; members trust leaders who are honest about what they cannot do as much as what they can. 2. Giving and Taking: The Law of Reciprocity Contribute before consuming: Establish a culture where members offer value—knowledge, support, or resources—before asking for favors. Balance the ledger: specific, public appreciation for contributors creates a cycle of generosity that prevents the community from feeling transactional. 3. Commitments: The Reliability Standard Under-promise and over-deliver: Treat every casual agreement as a binding contract; consistency in small matters proves you can handle big crises. Own the failure: If a commitment is missed, immediate accountability rebuilds trust faster than a valid excuse ever could. 4. Community Over Self: The Stewardship Mindset Serve the mission, not the ego: Decisions must be visibly aligned with the collective good, even when it inconveniences individual leaders or influential members. Sacrifice signals sincerity: When leadership takes a hit to protect the group, it creates an unshakeable bond of loyalty among members. 5. Acting First: The Initiative Catalyst Model the behavior you seek: Do not wait for permission or consensus to do the right thing; be the first to be vulnerable, the first to help, and the first to listen. Courage is contagious: When you act without guaranteeing a return, you signal that the environment is safe, encouraging others to lower their defenses and participate.

What’s the secret to building a thriving community? I’m still figuring it out. But after 12 months of building the Lightbringer community, which has grown to 671 members across 16 countries, I’ve started to uncover what it truly takes to bring people together around a shared vision: getting paid to tell our stories, inspiring lives through our words, and creating impact on a global scale. It hasn’t been easy, but every challenge has been a stepping stone. Through it all, I’ve uncovered powerful truths about what makes a community thrive. Some lessons were anticipated, others caught me off guard but every single one has been transformational. Let me share a few that have made the biggest difference: 1️⃣ Empower Others to Lead A community is strongest when everyone feels ownership. When members step into leadership roles, their contributions ripple out and energize the entire group. 2️⃣ Foster Genuine Connections Thriving communities aren’t built on numbers, they’re built on relationships. The deeper the connections, the more resilient and impactful the group becomes. 3️⃣ Celebrate Every Contribution Even the smallest act of generosity adds value to the whole. Recognizing and celebrating these moments fosters a culture of gratitude and inspires others to give. 4️⃣ Create a Shared Vision A community without a shared purpose is just a crowd. When members rally behind a unifying goal, their efforts amplify each other, creating something far greater than the sum of its parts. 5️⃣ Adapt and Evolve Change is inevitable, but growth is a choice. Communities that listen, adapt, and evolve stay relevant, even as the world shifts around them. 6️⃣ Lead with Service True leadership in a community isn’t about control, it’s about care. When leaders serve their members, trust flourishes, and the community thrives. In a world that can often feel divided, our community has taught me this: Alone, we flicker; together, we shine. This is just the beginning. I know there’s so much more to learn about building communities that last. If you’re a community leader or part of a thriving group, I would love to hear from you. What’s one lesson you’ve learned about growing or leading a community? #StrongerTogether #BuildingCommunity

How often do we design with people, instead of for them? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that creativity is something only designers hold the key to. But when we pause and engage with communities, we realize something powerful: Creativity thrives within the community itself—it just needs the right conditions to flourish. Take, for example, the Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) by Frog. It’s not just a tool; it’s a framework that empowers communities to solve problems by tapping into their collective strength. Through a series of activities—like clarifying goals and imagining new ideas—small groups around the world have used this toolkit to not only share their thoughts but to take decisive action that addresses their concerns. The beauty of this approach is in its adaptability. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model. Each group can mould it to fit their unique needs, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard and valued. But collaboration, as we know, isn’t always easy. There’s often discomfort, sometimes even conflict, when differing ideas meet. Yet, as designers, navigating these challenges is where true progress happens. As Otto Scharmer and Peter Senge, leaders in organizational development, have shown, it's in this space of tension that new solutions are born. A recent contribution from @Design Impact offers a set of guiding principles for designers to keep in mind when working with communities. One of these, “Value me for who I am, not who I’m told to be,” resonates deeply. It’s a reminder that behind every design is a real person, with history, emotions, and passions. When we acknowledge that, we move beyond simply gathering feedback—we tap into real leadership within the community. At the end of the day, Social innovation isn’t just about creating a product or service. It’s about co-creating, about building alongside communities rather than handing down solutions. It’s about fostering a space where everyone’s creativity can shine, and where long-term, sustainable change is possible. Have you been part of a design process that values community leadership? What challenges—and opportunities—did you encounter along the way?

The best leadership school isn’t in a classroom. It’s in a village without running water. In a shelter where abandoned children still smile. In community kitchens where dignity is served before food. We’ve been looking for leadership development in all the wrong places. We send executives to fancy retreats with PowerPoint decks and role-playing exercises. We make them sit through lectures that promise transformation but deliver boredom. And then we wonder why 70% of employees feel disengaged. Here’s what we miss: leadership isn’t theoretical. It’s visceral. It’s not something you learn by listening. It’s something you become by experiencing. The data is staggering. We retain just 10% of what we read in leadership books. But when we learn through direct experience? That jumps to 75%. This isn’t just feel-good corporate speak. This is neuroscience. HSBC understood this with their Sustainability Leadership program. They don’t just talk about empathy—they send executives to rural villages for week-long immersions. No WiFi. No assistants. Just humans connecting with humans whose reality looks nothing like boardroom projections. The transformation isn’t gentle. It’s seismic. Suddenly, the executive who couldn’t relate to frontline workers understands struggle. The manager obsessed with efficiency discovers patience. The strategist addicted to control learns to navigate chaos. In one study, 75% of employees reported gains in empathy, creativity, and leadership skills—after volunteering. Not workshops. Not seminars. After serving. Because volunteering strips away title, status, identity. It forces you to lead without authority. Solve problems without resources. Connect without agenda. Pro bono work isn’t charity. It’s transformation disguised as service. Leadership boot camp wearing the clothes of compassion. When 73% of managers report tangible leadership growth in volunteering employees, we should pay attention. This isn’t coincidence. It’s causation. Systems thinking. Emotional intelligence. Adaptive problem-solving. Resilience. These aren’t taught—they’re forged in contexts that confront and stretch us. The irony is beautiful. In giving, we receive. In serving, we grow. In stepping away from ambition, we become more worthy of leadership. So maybe it’s time to rethink leadership development. To recognize that the most powerful classroom has no walls. That the best teachers are those we came to serve. That true growth happens not when we’re comfortable, but when we’re confronted with realities larger than our org charts. The next time you approve a leadership development budget, ask: Are we investing in lectures or experiences? In theory or transformation? Because the leaders we need tomorrow aren’t being formed in conference rooms. They’re being forged in the field. DM me if you’re rethinking how your company grows real leaders.

🌎Great mayors make the world go round. That thought stayed with me as I had the chance to meet and greet so many mayors from across the nation doing the real work of leadership. Not the headline work. The everyday work. The work that shows up in zoning meetings, school partnerships, infrastructure decisions, public safety conversations, and economic development plans that rarely make the news but shape how communities actually live. When we talk about customers in the public sector, this is what we mean. Customers are not abstract personas. They are elected leaders balancing budgets, trust, urgency, and accountability, often at the same time. Spending time with mayors is a reminder that strong customer engagement starts with respect for the complexity of their role and the courage of their decisions. Here are three lessons every leader can apply, whether you work in government, education, or business. ✨Listen locally before you scale globally. The most effective solutions start with local context. Research consistently shows that place based decision making leads to better outcomes because it reflects the lived realities of the people being served. Strategy should travel, but it should never ignore local nuance. Source: Brookings Institution research on place based economic development ✨Trust is built through presence, not presentations. Trust grows when leaders show up consistently and stay engaged beyond the pitch. Studies on public trust show that credibility increases when institutions maintain visible, ongoing relationships rather than transactional touchpoints. Source: Edelman Trust Barometer ✨Long term impact beats short term wins. Mayors think in years, not quarters. Sustainable growth comes from aligning solutions to long term community outcomes rather than chasing fast results that do not last. Organizations that prioritize long term value outperform those focused only on immediate returns. Source: McKinsey research on long term value creation If this resonates and you want to keep learning how customer centered leadership, education, and innovation intersect, you can find more at https://www.thedrking.com 🎙️Views shared are my own.

Since 2017, I have been part of different communities and also managing my own. In Lebanon, I co-led a community of developers and tech professionals that started as a Meta-affiliated group, grew to more than 7000 members, and later continued under the name TechCircle. Across this journey, we organized more than 56 activities — from the first Facebook Tech Week in Lebanon to TechCrunch MENA, international hackathons, masterclasses, panels, and tech talks. I am often approached by people who want to start their own communities, seeking advice from almost a decade of experience in the space. Here are my two cents: 🔹 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆. Communities thrive when there are no hidden agendas. If you genuinely care, the process becomes rewarding in itself and members feel that authenticity. 🔹𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽. I co-led this community with Salah Awad, my husband, and we treated it as an equal partnership. We split responsibilities based on our strengths and complemented one another’s skills, which allowed us to sustain the effort over years. Beyond the practical side, it also helped challenge stereotypes around women in tech. Having a visible woman leader, supported by her partner, created space for more women to join. By 2019, 37% of our members were women. 🔹𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁. Leaders need credibility to set rules, foster respectful communication, and build meaningful partnerships. Members should see you as mentors, at least in some areas, to trust the direction you set. 🔹𝗕𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲. For a community to stay alive, every member should feel valued and part of the journey. This went beyond participation — we aimed for inclusivity when shaping the roadmap of activities themselves. By listening to different needs and making sure the activities reflected the diversity of the community, members could engage in ways that mattered to them and feel that their contribution truly counted. 🔹𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴. Some of the most powerful outcomes came from simple networking. Many members found opportunities, collaborations, and lasting connections by meeting peers who shared their interests. Community leadership is demanding, but when guided by care, inclusiveness, and credibility, it becomes one of the most rewarding ways to create real impact. #community #impact #tech #technology

Sharpen Your Saw - Too often, non-Indigenous leaders approach First Nations engagement with the tools they already know - negotiation, contracts, timelines, deliverables. But successful, mutually beneficial relationships require something deeper. To lead effectively in this space, non-Indigenous leaders need to grow a different set of muscles: - Cultural Awareness & Humility – Listening deeply, respecting local governance and protocols, and approaching as learners rather than experts. - Relationship-Building Skills – Investing time and trust before the “work” begins. Leadership here is relational, not just transactional. - Governance & Political Acumen – Understanding the distinctions between hereditary and elected leadership, policy frameworks, and consensus decision-making. - Communication Competence – Using plain language, adapting to different dialogue styles, and navigating conflict with respect. - Historical & Contemporary Context – Knowing the truth of residential schools, land rights, and ongoing impacts. Practicing two-eyed seeing: valuing both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. - Personal Development – Building self-awareness, patience, and emotional intelligence. Relationships move at the speed of trust, not at the speed of corporate timelines. Bottom line: Effective leadership in this context is not about imposing your way. It is about walking together, respecting different worldviews, and creating the conditions for shared success. I believe when non-Indigenous leaders commit to these skills, they don’t just become better partners with First Nations, they become better leaders everywhere. #SharpenYourSaw #FourDirectionsManagement

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦? In my #executivecoaching profession, I have made interesting observations: Take two coaching contexts for example with the same goal: To develop a struggling #leader. Coach A (outside Africa): "Let's start with your goals. What do you want to achieve in the next 90 days?" Coach B (in Africa): "Tell me about your family. Who raised you? What do they expect of you?" Same professionals. Completely different entry points. Here's the key observation: In most African coaching contexts, you cannot coach with someone you haven't connected with first at a personal level. This tends to be seen in the workplace context. Think of how you start any meeting. You will inquire about a colleague's well-being or family life or their weekend hobby before you begin. The same way you'll start a conversation when you visit your grandmother in the village this Christmas. We do this not because it's "nice to thing to do." But because relational #trust is the gateway to transformation in our cultures. This may not be the same outside Africa. In the same breath, most #leadershipprograms in Africa are still copied and pasted 100% from Western leadership models which are often: • Individualistic • Goal-obsessed • Transactional • Built for leaders who see themselves as separate from their communities. And they work brilliantly... in Boston, but fail quietly in Nairobi, Lagos, Kampala. Because they ignore the BIG question: "How do I lead in ways that 'honor my people' AND build institutions that last?" Leadership frameworks that don't account for relational cultures, Ubuntu philosophies, and communal accountability will always feel foreign, no matter how polished they look in a PowerPoint. Your grandmother's village has its own leadership logic. Your boardroom should too. I explore this in #TheHumanizedLeader. The Leadership Group Limited (K)

Expertise won’t save your organization, what will? Community-building pioneer Peter Block reframed leadership in a conversation with me recently. He said, "We have this silly idea that bosses are supposed to motivate people. That puts the boss at the center of the universe." Block famously believes that a leader’s primary role is to convene. This sparked my latest Forbes piece on why we need to unschool leadership. Leaders aren’t forged through frameworks and models, especially in complex and uncertain times. Leaders manifest in moments where there is no predetermined answer. His provocation got me thinking more broadly: if we stop trying to “teach” leadership, what are the essential functions leaders serve? Four stand out to me: 🤝 Convene: Host the space for collective intelligence, don't direct it. 🧨 Stimulate: Provoke new thinking and generate energy. ⚓ Ground: Be the tether when everything else feels chaotic. 🪧 Model: Embody judgment in real time, especially without a script. Without attention to these four functions as leaders rise, they often retreat into their domain expertise and familiar habits when things get tough. As organizational psychologist Gianpiero Petriglieri’s research shows, organizations respond in these moments with destructive social defenses, like denial, avoidance, and rigid bureaucracy. Professor Amy Edmondson's psychological safety research goes farther into those consequences: learning slows and innovation stops. Expertise won’t save your organization. Convening, stimulating, grounding, and modeling will. That’s unschooling leadership—not a curriculum, but a practice. The question is, what will it take to stop teaching and start leading? https://lnkd.in/epeYS9TV