Leadership Needs a Compass Amid Chaos
Over the past few weeks, Kenneth Munson, CEO of Community Care, Inc., and I exchanged a series of emails and phone calls about the guiding principles of his leadership style in his career of service to the community.
Like many of us, our conversation was abruptly redirected by the shocking video of the murder of George Floyd perpetrated by police officers in Minneapolis.
How could it not be?
I asked Munson to share his thoughts in this moment of terror, chaos and sadness. He did just that in this forthright response.
“The fact is, I’m despairing right now. My parents were born in rural Mississippi in the 1930s, and I was born in Milwaukee in 1962, and while things have undoubtedly improved over the decades, we should have hoped, expected and achieved so much more,” Munson said.
“The original sin of race and racism that was at the founding of the country continues today. Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised as we only have to look around the world to see that divisions and hatred around race, color, national origin, religion, gender and sexuality persist across the planet.
“But we have always proclaimed American exceptionalism and have continually fallen short of our ideals. I always refer back to my favorite Langston Hughes poem ‘Let America Be America Again.’
“So, I don’t have many good or hopeful things to say right now. I believe my generation has fallen so far short of where we hoped to be now. I do have some hope for the future in part because you have to hope, otherwise, you are paralyzed and also because I think the generations after mine show so much promise. They are as a whole more open to differences around race and are operating in a more multiracial environment.”
Munson’s perspectives are shaped by a career of service to others.
Community Care is a Brookfield-based health care organization serving 12,000 seniors and adults with disabilities across 15 Wisconsin counties.
He previously served as regional director of the Region V Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also twice served as deputy secretary at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and was president and CEO of Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin, the largest private, not-for-profit child welfare agency in Wisconsin.
Earlier in his career, Munson held several positions in the City of Milwaukee government, including deputy director of administration, executive director of the Fire and Police Commission, assistant city attorney and assistant district attorney.
With such a long resume of service, Munson has developed a five-point compass for effective leadership in times of chaos and change:
1) Authenticity – “Authenticity is often most important and most difficult to display. There is performance in all leadership and many people get caught up in displaying the person they think they should be rather than the person they are. I have always believed that an inauthentic mask can’t be maintained over time,” Munson said.
2) Equilibrium – “Conveying a sense of equilibrium is very important to leadership. Even the most frenetic ‘go-go’ operations need to feel that the leader knows how to keep the ship from tipping over and that some calmness can be found in the storm,” Munson said.
3) Knowledge gained through experience – “Knowledge is obviously key, but it must be connected to experience and good judgment. Book knowledge is great, but book knowledge (or internet knowledge) unmoored from experience and good judgment is simply a tool,” Munson said.
4) Empathy – “Empathy is key to any success in life. The ability to stand in someone else’s shoes and to understand another’s perspective is very important to developing and maintaining any relationship,” Munson said.
5) Flexibility – “The need for flexibility is self-evident, given the pace of change in our world, most notable in recent times as we adapt to COVID-19 concerns,” Munson said.
