Do you ever feel like you’re trying to lead differently in your NGO, but you’re doing it alone—like no one around you sees the vision you’re working so hard to create?

If you’ve been trying to empower your team, set healthier boundaries, or model a new kind of leadership but feel isolated or misunderstood, this episode will help you understand why leading change can feel lonely—and how the right community can completely transform your ability to stay courageous, committed, and consistent as a modern NGO leader.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to find support when the people closest to you don’t yet understand your leadership vision.
• Why the right community helps you stay motivated, courageous, and aligned when change gets uncomfortable.
• How to build or join a community that accelerates your growth and amplifies the change you want to create inside your organization.

Press play now to learn how surrounding yourself with the right community can be the key to sustaining your vision and creating meaningful change that lasts.

What Is Your Leadership Style?  Free Quiz:

Want to know how to lead better?  It starts by understanding your leadership style.  To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.  Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

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This podcast empowers international development and humanitarian NGO UN leaders to achieve high performance teams, fostering diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, overcoming burnout and overwhelm, while maximizing impact and productivity.

Have you ever felt that you're the only one in your organization

who sees what's possible, like you're living and working in the future while

everyone else is stuck in the past?

Learn how finding community will help you lead to this impact

you want in today's episode.

Welcome to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast.

The podcast helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a

greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively

and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress, burnout and overwhelm.

I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey Peace.

Are you ready?

Let's get started.

Hello, my aspiring modern NGO leader.

I hope you're having a wonderful week.

And whether it's trying to lead differently, empowering your team instead

of micromanaging, maybe prioritizing your wellbeing when others are still

glorifying or living in burnout, and even though you're trying to do these things

that you see is what the organization wants and the right way forward, it can

sometimes feel lonely when you think, or you feel as if you're the only one

trying to create this true change.

And if that sounds familiar, this episode is for you.

So last week we talked about the second of the Three Cs of a

Modern Leader, that is Commitment.

We learned how courage and commitment can take you very

far in creating change alone.

That's why we're talking today about the third C, which will really solidify

the ability to create your true change.

And that is Community.

Because having the right kind of community, people who see your vision or

even when others can't, can make all the difference in whether that change lasts.

So in this episode, you'll discover how to find the right kind of

support when those around you don't yet understand the vision.

Why a strong community accelerates change and keeps you courageous when it gets

hard, and how to build or join a community that fuels your leadership journey and

your organization's transformation.

So when I was leading my team in Timor Leste, I really wanted to

create something that would last.

Something beyond projects and reports.

I wanted to leave behind a legacy, and for me, that legacy was building

an organizational culture where people loved to come to work.

I wanted my team to feel proud, connected, and motivated.

Not just because of what we were doing in the community, but how we were

doing it, the way we worked together.

But in the beginning, my team didn't really understand my

vision or what I was trying to do.

Some thought I was wasting my time.

Others questioned why we were focusing on team values instead of targets.

I even heard a few whispers about being too idealistic,

and honestly it was difficult.

It was really hard.

That's when I realized something powerful.

When you're creating change, your support won't always come

from those closest to you.

And at that time, I was actually part of a global mastermind, a small

group of leaders who were all trying to create change in our own ways.

And even though we worked in different contexts and we had different visions

of what that change would be, we understood each other and we shared

the same desire to lead differently.

That community became my anchor.

It reminded me that I wasn't crazy, that what I was doing actually mattered.

Because when you're going first, it can feel crazy.

You can feel like you're doing something wrong, like you're the only one who's in

the front of the pack, and that can feel very vulnerable because it's different,

but you're doing what true leaders do.

You're going first, you're leading the future.

So here's the truth.

As humans, we are wired to belong.

We wanna fit in.

It's part of how we survived for thousands of years.

But change doesn't always happen by fitting in and by doing what

everyone else around us does.

Change happens by standing out.

By going first, even when no one else is ready.

And that's where community can become very important.

A supportive community can help you stay the course when things get hard.

It reminds you of courage.

It keeps you committed when you want to give up.

And in my courses, community is one of the most powerful parts of the experience.

Participants support each other, not just in learning new tools, but

in becoming new kinds of leaders.

They practice leading differently, even when others in their organizations

still are leading in a different way.

They share stories of what's worked and what hasn't.

They encourage each other through the discomfort of change, and that's where

transformation really happens together.

So I often remind my students from the Aga Khan Foundation about this.

I have been very fortunate to be chosen to roll out my course to much of the Aga Khan

Development Network, and it has been so exciting and so fun because I see that the

global HR wants to achieve this vision of a coaching culture, and their organization

has adapted my course to align their leadership values, including inclusivity

and adapt or accountability, integrity.

They want their staff to lead differently, but many of the participants, while

they're taking the course, they still say, what if my supervisor leads differently?

Or, what if my colleagues don't understand?

And so I remind them that they need to support each other.

They need to support each other through this journey.

That is your community.

That's where you're going to find the courage to keep

going, to make that change.

Because sometimes what we're really waiting for is permission.

Permission to lead differently.

Permission to create change, permission to do what no one else has done yet.

But here's the truth, that permission may never come.

It comes from my AKF students in the form of the organization, enrolling

them in my course, but it's not necessarily going to come from the

permission of those around them.

You have to give yourself permission.

And that's why the Three Cs matter so much.

Courage to go first.

Commitment to keep going no matter what, and Community to

remind you that you're not alone.

A truly supportive community helps you stay courageous, stay committed,

and keep believing in your vision even when the world hasn't caught up yet.

So I want to leave you with a question, Who's in your community of change?

Who helps you stay courageous and committed to the things that you really

wanna achieve beyond a job description, to create better wellbeing and a better

way of leading for your staff, even when things get hard, even when you

don't have the evidence for it yet?

If you don't have that kind of community yet, create one.

Find other leaders who are also willing to go first.

Or join ours because together we go farther, faster, and with

much more joy along the way.

And if this episode reminded you of someone who's trying to lead

change in their organization, please share it with 'em.

You might just be the reminder they need to keep going.

Alright, until next week, keep evolving.

Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do, or do you let

them figure it out for themselves?

Understanding your leadership style is a first step to deciding what's

working for you and what's not.

To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz, What is your leadership style?

You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting

your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz.

Fill out your quiz and click submit.

So what are you waiting for?

Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now.

Your team will thank you for it.