On cool kids, organizers, and leaders...
Good leaders can play a critically important role in shaping a strategic and outwardly oriented culture within highly cohesive groups. One way that good leaders do this is by themselves modeling an orientation toward the periphery, rather than toward the center of the group.
Whether they acknowledge it or not, leaders—both formal and informal leaders—tend to enjoy a relatively high level of status within groups. Good leaders can take responsibility for this by “flipping the script” of orientation within the group.
It is tempting for those who are in the center of a group to orient their attention only towards others who they see as being in the center; i.e., other people they perceive to be especially important (or “cool”).
This sets a negative pattern for the whole group, where members orient themselves to elbow their way into the center of the group, and everyone ignores the group’s periphery.
(The structure of LT encourages and incentivizes this status-seeking orientation.)
This “in-crowd” dynamic shuts out wisdom that resides at the periphery. It turns off new people and potential recruits, and tends to encourage imitative rather than innovative behavior.
Instead, good leaders need to make the time and effort to talk with new people, shy people, people who hold less status in the group, and, especially, people who are not even “in the room”; for example, people who are part of the group’s intended social base of support.
This kind of exemplary outward-facing leadership establishes a positive pattern for the whole group and sets a higher bar for what it means to be a good leader.
Group members can see a positive path to contributing to the group and to winning the esteem of others—not by pushing ahead of others, or trashing outsiders, or parroting the cool kids, but by attending to others and making everyone feel valued.
This helps to keep the group’s attention oriented toward the periphery instead of the center; toward the tasks of welcoming newcomers, plugging people in, and turning potential allies into active allies.
-excerpt from @hegemonyhowto hegemonyhowto.org
