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Five Radical Principles On Becoming An Influencer

Radical Truth #5 – Becoming Radical In Your Support For One Another

One of the hallmarks of humanity is the individuals who have championed and spoken for those who unable. Throughout history every generation, every culture, people are admired for sacrificing what little they had for those that had none. They speak out against injustices and are a model of basic human decency.

They are a shining example of what it means to be fully human.

If pressed, each of us could create our own list of known and unknown heroes. Listing them all would virtually be impossible.

Who would be on your list? What is it about them that makes them stand out from all the rest? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are those traits they seem to have in common?

This is the fifth and final article on the five radical principles on becoming a game changer. So far we have looked at:

• Radical Principle #1 – Committing to being a game changer
• Radical Principle #2 – Becoming a truth teller
• Radical Principle #3 – Becoming the soul of an organization
• Radical Principle #4 – Becoming radical in your accountability

The fifth radical truth is becoming radical in your support for one another.

For many of us, this will be the toughest of assignments. It’s not an easy task. Many will misunderstand our intentions and being misunderstood is never pleasant.

But you know that there is a price to be paid for anything worth doing. Think of the sacrifices the people on your lists make/made to create a better world. Each of them, at some point in their lives, searched for meaning, individually and collectively. Nearly all of them wanted “to make a better world.”

Many of them paid the ultimate price with their lives for that purpose.

Just by example we know it’s a tough road. So, let me encourage you. Many of us will never have to make that ultimate sacrifice. Anything we achieve up to and including what they did …we can certainly do. We stand “on the shoulders of giants,” as Sir Isaac Newton wrote.

The times we are living in give us a tremendous opportunity. I don’t think we are living in more difficult times than earlier generations. It seems every generation believes their world is unprecedented. They think things are a lot tougher for them than prior generations.

This is simply not true.

Every generation faces unique complexities. But those challenges allow opportunities and each generation has had to make the adjustments necessary to survive. Some met those challenges better than others.

Ten years from now we may still be chugging along, business as usual, with not much change. Yet, it is equally true that we may look back with great satisfaction. We might look back in awe and see the difference in the progress we have made.

It is really up to each generation to decide why, what, and how much.

Our radical support for one another comes from our radical commitment to being truth tellers. First, with ourselves then towards others. We are committed to our own personal growth. We focus on our own purpose and meaning. We are dedicated to searching for it and finding it. We nurture it and strive to see it fulfilled.

Eventually we’ll be in a position to help and support others.

Don’t worry and be patient. This process doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a lifetime.

But we are committed to it nonetheless.

Also, we needn’t pressure ourselves into thinking the universe is playing a cruel joke, hiding any meaning from us. Any meaning comes to us at all times and in all forms.

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

Franz Kafka, The Zurich Aphorisms, In abstentia, 1931

Kafka’s quote is often used by Zen masters on the benefits of using meditation as a practice. It sublimely describes exactly the attitude one tries to settle on when practicing the art.

This commitment of helping others, the “inward and outward …are seen as part of the same fabric” as Greenleaf notes in Servant Leadership. The inward and outward movement is fluent. We move in and out of our inner lives to help others on their journeys. The ebb and flow of relationships means we will have a greater influence with some, not so much with others.

We are living in challenging times. The prospect of people coming together to work for a purpose and cause looks bleak. 

I’m not putting much hope in my generation, the baby boomers. We’ve done some wonderful things but dropped the ball on others. We’ve squandered a great deal of our trust and there aren’t too many reliable giant shoulders to stand on. We are also coming to the end of our span of influence. Headed towards retirement it is now time for the younger generations to fill the leadership gap.

It will have to be left to those generations coming into their own. It is with them where hope can be found.

In the meantime we still make a contribution. First, by graciously stepping aside and letting the younger generation take their turn at leading. We do a disservice to the younger generations when we hang onto our roles and wear out our welcome.

Second, to the younger generation. There are enough of us that have come before you that can still be beneficial. Don’t write us off wholesale just yet. Look for those not threatened by your youth and draw from them the knowledge you’ll need. There are enough of us without an ego that are willing to help.

It will be a bumpy transition but a transition nonetheless. The best way for change to happen is through our radical stance on our support for one another.

If you have stuck around for all five articles it easy to assume that you are interested in making a change in yourself and the people around you. Assess your qualities and shortcomings and be truthful.

Being a game changer includes helping others where you are at, starting with those closest to you and working your way out. This is not about telling people how to live their lives. It is about prodding them to make changes that gets them closer to being their ideal self. Since we spend almost a third of our lives working for an organization that naturally becomes someplace to start too.

All of this depends on being accountable to yourself in ways you may have not considered. Finally, as you learn to be a game changer commit to supporting others as they become game changers, too.