As anyone working in the nonprofit space knows, the challenges facing our communities cannot be addressed by any one sector. Workforce development, houselessness, educational equity, public health — these are not nonprofit problems, or government problems, or private sector problems. They are shared problems and finding solutions demands a special kind of leadership.
I have spent considerable time thinking about what it means to lead in this moment. Not just to lead an organization well, but to lead in a way that creates real, lasting change in the broader ecosystem within which we all operate. After years of working across nonprofit, for-profit, and public sector contexts (and now leading a foundation that sits at some key points of intersection), I've come to believe that one of the most essential leadership skills of our time is one we rarely talk about directly: bridge-building.
Bridge-building leadership is a leadership style that has intentionally cultivated the capacity to connect across differences — of sector, perspective, ideology, and approach — in order to create solutions none of us could achieve alone. It is not about compromise for the sake of getting along, abandoning our mission, or softening our values. It is about being strategically curious enough to ask: Who else needs to be at the table? What other perspective might I need? How can we build a bridge toward a better future, and how can we cross it together?
What I find most valuable about this concept is that bridge-building is not an innate trait, but a learnable skill. It is a set of competencies that any leader can develop with intention and practice. Curiosity. Humility. The ability to translate across contexts. The courage to hold tension without forcing premature or lowest-common-denominator solutions. Bridge-building leadership is also not a destination, but a journey. The inherent nature of it means that it continues to develop over time.
Over the coming months, I'll be sharing a series of articles that present a framework for bridge-building leadership: what it is, why it matters, and how we develop and nurture it in ourselves and in our organizations. I see this as a conversation, not a monologue, so I hope you will engage with me along the way, sharing your own experiences, questions, and stories from the field. Most of all, I hope these ideas encourage us all to consider the growth that is possible within ourselves as leaders, for the sake of a more connected and flourishing region.
Romanita Hairston
Chief Executive Officer