I’ve spent the past few months working with the UK Arts Marketing Association as part of their Show Up programme, which encourages CEOs in the arts and cultural space to dig deep into how they might shift their biases, limitations and expectations to meet their responsibilities in a more inclusive way. This blog captures my reflections after working as a mentor on the programme.

It takes a lot to lead well: as well as the operational load of enabling people and processes, there’s the need to inspire and encourage employees to step up when they might not feel ready.

It becomes an even weightier task in the face of uncontrollable extraneous circumstances – say, in the face of a global health pandemic that has thrown everything into seeming disarray, adding the management of radical change and anxiety to the leadership mix.

As a leader, how do you deal with it? How do you empower and motivate your team to do what needs to be done when you feel the latent hum of overwhelm? How do you stay energised to do what you yourself need to do, in an uncertain climate?

If you’re not sure, be brave enough to ask

The challenge of balancing these interconnected needs and responsibilities – of self, other and the collective – has been the common denominator in conversations I’ve had with people who have spent a good chunk of their personal and professional lives doing work that they love in the arts sector.

Suddenly, they find themselves questioning everything. They’re inspired and excited by the prospect of improving how they work and expanding their reach to include more people across a wider demographic. But they’re sometimes unsure whether they’re doing the right thing, a sense of doubt creeping into their armour of confidence, confronted by external and internal querying.

They might be contending with staff challenges, whether that’s the fluctuating recruitment market as impacted by the pandemic, or a need to change the attitudes of “the old guard”, who can’t quite let go of the status quo.

The one thing that has proven to work is pausing to ask – for help, for support, for insight, for clarity, for commitment, for whatever necessary to keep going.

There is no need – and no benefit – in any of us suffering in silence, in assuming or naively hoping we have all the answers when in truth, we know we don’t. The people I’ve had the pleasure to work with have actively reached out, stretched beyond their comfort zones and pushed themselves and their teams to take action.

They’ve connected with new stakeholders from the audiences they wish to engage more with, struck up conversations and collaborations, and gently encouraged hesitant colleagues to inquire into their own discomforts and find ways of overcoming them.

They’ve paused to consider where and how they need to resource themselves, to fill their own cups so to speak, by creating stronger boundaries and recognising their limitations, so that they can maintain rather than diminish that sense of spirited enthusiasm that inspired them to do what they do in the first place, and contribute from a place of abundance rather than scarcity.

Acting with wise hope

It’s not always been easy and therein have laid the most fruits – by admitting they need help, they’ve each been rewarded with fresh inspiration and what the Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist and civil rights activist, Joan Halifax calls “wise hope” – facing the reality and complexity of life at its hardest, and acting on the fact that we have the capacity, agency and in the case of leaders, the responsibility, to do something about it.

Because in order to create and facilitate change, we have to be resourced enough, be confident, willing, connected and knowledgeable enough, to unpack whatever holds us back. The alternative is hopeless in every sense – a risk of leaking our doubt, negativity, frustration and despair into the very environment we wish to change for the better.

As Joan Halifax says, we have to “show up”, knowing “that indifference kills. In service to peace, in service to non-violence, in service to life, we live in the embrace of wise hope.”

I’ve been gladdened and uplifted to work with people who are wholeheartedly committed to radical social and cultural change. People who are doing that from a place of care, curiosity and mutual understanding that is rooted in becoming aware of the vital need to care to nurture their own growth. And from this place, they’re creating a stable and enriched ground that has the potential to nurture the positive growth of all – by leading from the inside out.