We had the first call of the expedition for women philanthropists at the end of last week. We talked about how the expedition will go and started to discover each other as a group.
What did I discover on the call?
That as the person leading the expedition it will be tough keeping the group to exploring leadership and not letting the expedition slide towards exploring models of philanthropy. Of course there is an overlap but I will need to keep a sharp eye on it. Even as the Explorers talked about their own philanthropy, nuggets about their leadership came out:
- ‘I think it’s about opening doors’ ‘ making sure other voices reach the stage’
- ‘It is about being curious rather than certain’
- ‘You don’t need to be loud to be powerful’
- ‘Flexibility is not weakness, it’s strength’
- ‘It is about service not ego’
- ‘It is about standing alongside, not above’
- ‘It is difficult to judge when to drive and when to step back’
I was curious about Explorers’ answers to the question: What brought you to philanthropy?
What brought you to Philanthropy?
For most, there was a discomfort about using the very word, philanthropist to describe themselves. I think we all – including me – struggle to see ourselves as philanthropists, but for want of a better word we will live with it. So, we then looked at the question, and I think there were more or less three even groups
- Family, born to it, mother’s example and for many father’s example.
- A sense of injustice, sometimes anger at the world, sometimes sense of guilt around own priviledge.
- A feeling of giving meaning to life, of making the world slightly better.
Questions Explorers are Holding
- Practical ones: How to step back without disengaging?, How to be committed and not ‘loose yourself’? How to not just bring business methods to philanthropy?
- Crossroads ones: How can my role evolve? What is next for me at this moment of change? What is my way to lead? How to move from a corporate – often western -background to the world of philanthropy? ‘I have become more of a feminist and want to work with women’
- Inspiration ones: How do I hold on to possibility when the work feels heavy? ‘I feel tired and want some oomph’, ‘I want to feel some hope’, ‘ not just feel like a drop in the ocean’.
- Bubble ones: How do we build relationships so that we can all accelerate? How do other cultural and institutional contexts shape philanthropy? Can we develop a sense of sisterhood?
- Reality ones: Philanthropy can be quite a horrible, political even cruel world, which is hard to navigate let alone change
Explorers are exploring together over the next month. We have twinned them and they are discussing their first E: Essence.
About the Author
Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: “Leading beyond Authority” and “Cultural Intelligence”. She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading. In 2020, Julia launched Women Emerging and in 2022 she lead an expedition of 24 women to find ‘an approach to leading that resonates with women’. She now leads expeditions with women all over the world based on 4Es methodology, discovered in the first expedition.
Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.
Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now, which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan. Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.
