We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Kral a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Leah, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I love the concept of Ikigai (prounounced Ee-kee-guy). This is the Japanese concept of having direction or purpose in your life, a reason for being. When I think back over my career journey and how I found this for myself, a key moment was my two-year service in the U.S. Peace Corps in Jamaica. It was profound and life changing. While we do have poverty in the U.S., I had never seen extreme poverty like what I saw in Jamaica. There were families living in shacks with dirt floors and zinc roofs which they had built by hand. Many were considered illegal squatters and lived under risk of their home being bulldozed. Simply getting to work or to school could be extremely challenging and uncertain, given floods and public transportation that may or may not come. In one community I saw a neighborhood swept away by a hurricane. In another community I saw children scavenging in garbage heaps to collect soda cans, so their family could buy food. So many people were just struggling to survive.
In the midst of this poverty and need, I also saw heroes. Remember what Fred Rogers famously said after September 11? In times of crisis, look for the helpers. And I saw this everywhere. Even in crowded, noisy, open-air schools, I would see children and teachers who were so dedicated to learning, no matter what the obstacles. I saw Jamaican community leaders walking miles in the hot sun to get to the Habitat for Humanity volunteer meeting. this moved me, and I knew from that point forward that my career would involve supporting the great work of nonprofits, of lifting people up.
I began to find ways to combine my passion and experience from for-profit management systems with serving nonprofit leaders and teams. I found that when I came across a team that didn’t have a clear vision or strategy, where they weren’t rowing in the same direction, I could help them transform into an effective and innovative team. If in some small way, my help leads to the team firing on all cylinders, empowered and proud of their work, achieving better outcomes for their beneficiaries, I’m beyond happy. I have learned that this is what I do best, it’s what brings me the most fulfillment, and it brings about powerful results. This is my Ikigai. And I loved getting to write a book about this!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am an experienced facilitator and author who helps nonprofits doing the hard work of building civil society to innovate and be more effective. I write about this work in my new book, Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results (Wiley, 2022). I am delighted that the book is getting strong interest from busy nonprofit professionals, they tell me that they love the stories and the practical nature of practices they can try out at their own nonprofit.
I am the Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the home of heterodox thinkers and economists who work to discover what aspects of institutions and culture help societies prosper. This is fun, creative work, and it is my privilege to work alongside entrepreneurial teams focused on solving social problems and lifting people up.
I have a passion for helping organizations achieve their missions and am an active volunteer in my community. To learn more, visit LeahKral.com.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My Peace Corps assignment was to serve as a computer literacy instructor at a teachers college, which was in the middle of a dangerous neighborhood. I lived on campus in a walled compound. I heard gunfire every night. The college was founded by these wonderful, feisty nuns. They didn’t accept the status quo of poverty and poorly run schools. I tell a story in the book about a dangerous situation involving myself, an elderly nun, and an armed gang member, and how the nun got us through the situation.
Not only did this little band of nuns manage to help the college survive; they helped it thrive—in the midst of a dangerous, desperate, poverty-ridden community. They did not accept the status quo of poorly run educational institutions. They were restless, constantly innovating, always striving to make life better for their students. I will never forget them.
Three traits in particular stood out to me during my time with these remarkable women: they were curious, they were contrarian, and they were diplomatic. Being curious and contrarian is what motivated them to challenge the status quo and seek ways to make things better. But equally important, diplomacy ensured that they were listened to, respectfully, even by someone as unlikely as a gang member. Being curious or contrarian without the aid of diplomacy would surely be counterproductive. These skills helped them to be effective in incredibly difficult circumstances.
These aren’t traits we are born with, we can intentionally set out to get better at them. One of three sections in my book is called, “Bringing your innovation A game” and it is about developing those traits of leaders.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
I am a big believers in collaboration. But as we know, working with others can sometimes get uncomfortable – we’re not always going to agree, and that’s OK.
I’m sure your readers will be familiar with the wonderful books of Adam Grant. In his book, “Think Again,” Grant shares a colorful story about how the Wright Brothers collaborated with each other. Growing up, as young children, their dad encouraged his children to read widely, discuss their thoughts, and disagree. They had a family saying, that “arguing is the family business.” So then later in life, as the Wright brothers were designing the plans for the first airplane, they strongly disagreed with each other about the design and location of the propeller. For weeks, they argued so passionately and so loudly that their sister threatened to throw them both out of the house!
But they each were thinking about what each other had to say. They heard each other out, and eventually one day their sister noticed they were no longer loudly arguing, but back to quietly working – they found that they each were a little bit right and wrong, they had been arguing about the location of 1 propeller, and together they realized they needed 2 propellers, a breakthrough that led to the discovery of flight.
That’s an important insight into collaboration, how it is Ok to be uncomfortable, that constructive conflict is how some of the best breakthroughs happen. To bring a new idea forward requires courage and humility, because that idea could be helpful or it could be a flop, we have to find out. We might be wrong, and it can strengthen the idea to listen with a spirit of openness to critics and people who may disagree. Collaboration and uncomfortable conversations is how the magic of innovation happens.
Why should we care about this? So many people are counting on our work. Think about what it means at a nonprofit if we provide mediocre programming to an at risk young person. We need organizations that empower us to ask courageous questions, and innovate and experiment to discover what works best.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leahkral.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahkral/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeahKral
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtF7WPZZk00
- Other: https://substack.com/@leahkral
Image Credits
For the professional headshot, please credit Jan Graves All other photos do not require an image credit
