Episode 08: Bridging Factions While Leading without Authority

A conversation with Julia Fabris McBride

On this episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael is joined by Julia Fabris McBride today to discuss the eighth chapter of Ron Heifetz’s book, Leadership Without Easy Answers.  Today the pair reckon with the idea of leadership as it functions without authority.  McBride is an actor, author, and President and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC). In her work with KLC, McBride strives daily to foster civic leadership and create stronger and healthier Kansan communities.  In doing so, she must engage with different factions, their values, and opinions.  It can be hard fulfilling an authority role, especially when those you lead have differing versions of success.  

But as McBride says, progress happens when we embrace diverse opinions, understand one another, and come to decisions for the common good.  It’s also challenging when holding an authority role that confines you to an organization’s code of conduct and job description.  Many people, though, go beyond those informal expectations and duties and do what they aren’t authorized to do.  Take some of history’s greatest changemakers for example:  Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King acted without authority, asking the provocative questions, and influencing society to think differently.  They did, but only because these trail blazers had the courage to make waves in domains where they weren’t always welcome. Thanks to their ability to practice leadership without authority, we all benefit greatly from the  progress they inspired.