Want Community? Don't Care About, Care For
Community is the reward of caring for one another.
In my last Listen to Lead episode with Nick Leavens (Black Heart 🖤) on ethical institution building, we talked about the “how” of community at work. (Listen here.)
In this regard, we have everything to learn from our direct care workers, who are historically and currently undervalued.
I’m lucky enough to serve as a substitute early childhood education teacher from time to time. My co-teacher is often someone I’ve never met before. If the teacher is loving and attentive to the children, we feel like close friends quickly. This happened yesterday with Stacey Sukoff at Collective Kind, an independent school in Brooklyn, doing beautiful work.
When we care together, we create communities that feel like home. There's a calm trust to it. And a gravity to it. I can't wait to come back.
We hear a lot about “caring about” people.
But how does one "care about"? What does this actually look like? Like that stilted video message. Or the free meditation app. It's an idea. The token we give when we aren't "caring for” one another.
What if we committed to “care for” one another?
Are you worried you’ll be depleted? How are you at being supported? Or that you’ll become complacent? How are you at acting towards positive change? Research by Adam Grant reveals that “givers" (verse "takers" or "matchers") make up both the bottom and top performers in organizations. The distinction? Those who don’t receive support burn out. Those who do, thrive.
Caring for one another doesn’t demand a massive budget. Often, it’s free. I have several coaching clients in university leadership through what's now been a two-year budget freeze. Across the board, what they are most proud of is the sense of community they feel now. Open conversations, scrappy celebrations, staff-led career development workshops—they've created cultures of giving from the heart in a time when there’s no money to throw around.
Caring for one another is an investment. It requires all of us. And, it resources all to thrive. What more worthy investment could we make?
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