Jody Wilson-Raybould is Canada’s former minister of justice and attorney-general, a member of We Wai Kai Nation, a lawyer and an author. Her latest book, co-written with Roshan Danesh, is The Inbetween Leader: Cultivating Courage and Unity in a Complex World, from which the following has been adapted.
Jody Wilson-Raybould: “When one is an in-betweener, one’s purpose is to build unity, cohesion and harmony between people.”DEAN KALYAN/Supplied
Leadership is both beyond time and in time. There are certain meanings of leadership and attributes of leaders that we recognize across the course of history and in many different cultures. If we were all to compile a list of outstanding recent historical leaders, I imagine a lot of us would have names in common – perhaps Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, or Mahatma Gandhi. If we went further and asked why those leaders made our lists, we would probably tick off many common themes: the abilities to inspire, to model the actions they encouraged others to take, to sacrifice for the well-being of others, to lift people up.
At the same time, though, leadership is always contextual – tied to cultures, places and time. The Kwakwaka’wakw, my people, have traditions of what it means to be a leader, just as yours do. In our plural societies, individuals carry with them the traditions that are tied to their communities and backgrounds. And these traditions are not static; they evolve and shift along with changing circumstances and realities.
I think this can be seen if one looks at Canada and the United States. Many things are shared between these countries, including our understandings and models of leadership. But there are differences that reflect our unique histories and cultures. Someone with the personality and character of Donald Trump has never been elected prime minister of Canada. Don’t get me wrong: We have had some lousy prime ministers, but they are bad in different ways than Donald Trump.
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In recent years, I’ve grappled with what my understanding of leadership means at this moment in time – because this moment is particular and specific. It has been building for decades, but now we are in the throes of it. And we will be in it for a while.
Simply stated, the defining characteristic of this moment in time is that it feels, at once, as if we are pulling together and pulling apart.
This paradox is all around us, and we sense it.
We live and work in spaces – physical and virtual – that are increasingly diverse and plural. Supported by technologies that not long ago we could barely imagine, we now can engage instantaneously with anyone, anywhere, at any time. We recognize that solutions to environmental, social, or economic challenges increasingly implicate all of us. While we may struggle to get to the solutions – hampered by the difficulty of working toward common goals across silos and boundaries that we may not even be able to see – we can’t deny the integrated and interconnected nature of so much of what humanity must grapple with. We know that to tackle the challenge of climate change or health care, everyone must play their part. We also feel how the economic well-being of peoples and communities is intertwined with global realities, forces, and outcomes, and we understand that what happens elsewhere can directly impact us here.
We are pulling together.
And yet, at the same time, we feel embedded in conditions of division and conflict. Long-standing and taken-for-granted beliefs about our relationships, history, public institutions and patterns of life are crumbling. The very technologies that pull us together also seem to further divide us and fuel our worst tendencies toward anger and vitriol. Our efforts to address conditions of injustice and build racial harmony and gender equity spur a backlash and the rise of a culture of grievance. The reality of deepening global challenges brings about new forms of isolationism and the impulse to exploit others for one’s own benefit.
We are pulling apart.
It is true, of course, that there have been dynamics of pulling together and pulling apart throughout human history. There have always been periods, for example, when war and violent conflict have been more widespread, and others when there is more stability. But this moment in time is different.
What does it mean to be a leader in this moment of pulling together and pulling apart? The fundamental trait of a leader in a time of pulling together and pulling apart is to be an in-betweener. In-betweener is a term my co-author Roshan Danesh and I first applied in the context of our work regarding reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada. (I begrudgingly admit that Roshan came up with it.) One of our learnings was about the depths of the silos, both visible and invisible, that Canada’s history of colonization has entrenched between peoples, and between governments and First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Indigenous and non-Indigenous people do not understand each other, our distinct ways of talking and viewing the world, nearly as much as we need to – nor as much as we think we do. We often operate and make decisions based on false assumptions. If we are going to live side-by-side together (and we must, as we are not going anywhere), then understanding different ways of being by breaking down these silos is essential.
In any society in the world, one can identify different communities, groups, and peoples with histories that have built up visible and invisible barriers between them. These silos may exist between cultural, ethnic and racial groups; across economic disparities; and between those of different ages. They may be long-standing, perhaps built up over many generations, or more recent, reflecting shifts in societal demographics.
In all those contexts, I believe we need in-betweeners – individuals and organizations that have done the work to walk between, translate between and break down those silos. When one is an in-betweener, one’s purpose is to build unity, cohesion and harmony between people. It means viewing ourselves as a bridge between peoples and communities, including those with histories of conflict and injustice.
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To be clear, being an in-betweener is not easy. It takes courage. It demands being uncomfortable. It often means breaking away from and out of expectations. In other words, it demands being a leader. But not just any kind of leader.
When individuals and groups feel caught between polarities, pulled in multiple directions at once, caught up in forces that are constructing silos, disoriented by not knowing where the calm landing spots may be, anxious from the uncertainty of whether the right choices are still the right choices … what should they do? The answer is that they must harness the power of integration, break through the silos and sense of division, and have the courage to demonstrate how achieving balance through connection is possible.
In an important way, being an in-between leader is not just about what we do and how we act. It is also a matter of how we think about and process what we see. To be an in-between leader, we have to think, see and act in certain ways.
Being an in-between leader demands an intense level of self-awareness, a particular capacity for reflecting on one’s own thoughts and perceptions. An in-between leader is comfortable being uncomfortable. An in-between leader must stand in the vortex between the forces of pulling together and pulling apart to help bridge divides, overcome barriers and build unity. This has to be done with courage, constancy and resilience. That is what it takes to lead from the in-between.