Leading Across Systems

“There is no cavalry coming to save the day in our communities and around the issues we care about,” says Shawn Dove. “We are the iconic leaders that we have been waiting for. We are the curators of the change we’re seeking to see.” 

Shawn Dove, who serves as Managing Partner at New Profit, has built coalitions that range from community organizations to the Oval Office. For more than a decade, he led the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, an initiative he helped launch at the Open Society Foundations that has become the largest national movement to improve the life outcomes of Black men and boys. Shawn also served as a key advisor and organizer for the launch of President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative and created the nation’s first Black Male Achievement fellowship for social entrepreneurs in collaboration with Echoing Green. In his current role, he provides strategic advising to New Profit’s portfolio organizations and leads our signature gathering, The Well.

Shawn recently spoke with Yolanda Coentro, President and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, about his own leadership journey and the lessons he’s learned about collaboration, longevity, and what it means to work together for real change. Here are four insights we took away from the conversation:

Takeaway 1: We’re in a moment of real challenge – but there’s opportunity in friction.

“New Profit put out a piece entitled ‘The Only Constant Is Change.’ In these moments of uncertainty, what are your organizational values, what are your individual values, and [how can you] return and be anchored in those principles?”

“At New Profit, we talk about the 3 Cs: community, capacity, and capital. Community is about being able to be in spaces, whether it’s virtual, ideally in person, to share stories. Sometimes we think that we are the only ones who are going through things.”

“I often say, without friction, there is no traction. In ecosystem building, movement building, or organizational change, there will be friction in order for traction.”

Takeaway 2: Those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.

“At New Profit, we believe in investing in proximate leaders, centering those that are at the heart of the problems that we are trying to solve, the systems that we are trying to change.

“I firmly believe that the solution to the world’s most intractable problems resides in the hands, the heads, and the hearts of those that are closest to the problems. Sometimes in philanthropy, we have the savior perspective, paratrooping into communities with prescriptions for change, and we just need to know that our role is to find the folks that have the solutions, provide them ideally with unrestricted general operating capital, and get out of the way and be a partner in that work.”

Takeaway 3: Invest in your own healing to show up as a leader.

“Quite often in philanthropy, and as movement leaders, we’re really intent on looking out the window, having a vision: this is where we are going.”

“I think we’ve got to spend equal time looking in the mirror, doing the work on ourselves as leaders and how we’re showing up.”

“Part of my leadership journey is my 37 years of recovery and sobriety. I would never have had an opportunity to sit across from President Barack Obama with other leaders to help ignite the launch of My Brother’s Keeper initiative if I did not ignite healing and recovery in myself.”

Takeaway 4: You have to trust in yourself in order to trust in others.

“A late mentor of mine, Reverend Nelson Johnson, who was the co-founder of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, would always say that we have to learn to walk towards each other. How do we take the risk of walking across divides, whether it’s racial, political, even geographical divides? That invitation requires courage. It’s really important to be able to do that with trust building, and I think – how do you begin first to trust yourself?”

“One of the things that will happen in collaboration when we show up in our full humanness? We will make mistakes. We will fail. We will step on toes. We will fall short.”

“Give yourself grace on this journey. Trust building and building trust in yourself is acknowledging that you are human. One of my mantras is, I have nothing to prove, only gifts to share. “

“For me, [a huge part of] my growth and development as a movement builder and as a leader, was learning humility. In my younger days, it was look at me, look at me. [Humility has helped me] get into a place where I don’t want the credit as much as I want the change.”

Want to learn more? Shawn’s conversation was a part of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice’s Leadership Learning Series. Free and open to the public, LLS features workshops and webinars designed to inspire, support, and connect practitioners as they navigate the complexities of advancing social impact. You can register for upcoming sessions led by national thought leaders, and access recordings and resources from previous sessions in the meantime.