At HRC, we hold a kind of power that most people never have to think about: we get to decide who has access to the resources that keep people alive. That is not a comfortable thing to sit with, but it is true, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
We call the way we try to carry that power gentle leadership. It does not mean soft. It means staying aware of the power we hold and building guardrails around it so it never gets used carelessly, on either end.
That looks like a both/and, held out loud, all the time. We have to hold people accountable when their actions make our space unsafe, because we serve the widest possible range of people in our community, and that only works if everyone in the space can trust it. And at the very same time, redemption and re-entry into our community always have to stay on the table.
Those two things are not in tension. They are the same commitment.
Martin Luther King Jr. put it better than we can: “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” Gentle leadership is the practice of holding both at once, and knowing when to set the power down and pick empathy and justice back up.
That is exactly why we are so glad to be partnering with Building Peace. Next week, we are sitting down at a table with their mediators, a guest of HRC who lost access after repeated theft from other guests and from HRC itself, and that guest’s case manager from a local partner organization. Together, we are going to try to build a real pathway back into community.
This is how we are trying to practice leadership at HRC. Where do you see this kind of leadership, holding accountability and grace at the same time, show up in your own workplace? Where could we be doing better? We’d love to hear from you at info@hrclawrence.org.
Thank you for following along as we keep casting a wide net to serve everyone in our community who needs us.