Search
Close this search box.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership & Consensus

Date

Aloha and thank you for continuing to visit this blawg, I hope your 2017 continues to be off to a great start.

If you are reading this post hoping it is a continuation from last week’s post on communication it is not directly related, but will still follow in the vein on the topic of communication.  Instead, this week, I would like to briefly turn your attention to one of America’s great leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. as we head into the long weekend celebrating his contributions to the Civil Rights movement.

The quote above is from Dr. King, as he was addressing the National Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace.  While, he touched upon some of his signature themes in this speech, such as racial inequality and peace, the context of this particular quote was referencing his stance against the Vietnam War and how some had felt that it undermined his goal of the Civil Rights movement, especially being at odds with the Johnson Administration.  He had been urged to do the politically expedient thing, which was to support the Vietnam War to regain the backing of the Administration to support the Civil Rights moment.

I think it is important for anyone leading an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit corporation, or even an association to consider the stakeholders and those that you would rely upon or work with to carry out the goals and objectives of the organization.  While, many times what seems like the easiest route, which is just getting everyone to agree and moving forward, the reality is we all know it is much messier.  Consider when people have opposing viewpoints, or their interests do not neatly fit well with others (whether in or out of the organization), what do you do then?  Even if you are the leader of your organization, often you know a majority of your stakeholders (such as your members, directors, employees, or subcontractors) will be resistant to change or not understanding of it.  Dr. King’s sentence immediately before the above quote was, “I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of my organization or by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion.”  In fact, his speech cited many historical leaders that did not start out with popular ideas but were dissenters that kept to their ideals.

From my experience and in my opinion, you will not always get straight to an agreement on your decisions. You have to work at it, possibly for a long time; you have to build consensus through communication. Your ideas are your own, to assume that your business partners, clients, customers, patients, suppliers, vendors, representatives, etc . . . will immediately accept them is not always going to happen.

For me, I recently finished my term as president of Hawaii’s State Bar Association’s (HSBA) Young Lawyer Division (YLD) (which Trejur now occupies for the 2017 term), and I received a lot of information on how the HSBA is operated because of the amount of meetings I attended and reports that I was given by virtue of being YLD President. However, my Board of Officers and Directors was not.  One of my lessons learned was I should not assume my Board knew the things that I did. It was contingent upon me to spend a lot of time communicating information, but additionally when there was still resistance in light of that sharing, finding and identifying areas that we would agree.

Also, there were times, I did not get what I wanted, but I was not necessarily going to change my position. The goal would be to get others to change theirs. Along those lines, one of my bigger projects during my time with the YLD was updating the YLD’s bylaws, which I spent many years before drafting them, and also working on building consensus about what those changes would entail.  I spent many late nights sending emails, and putting comments into my drafts, and talking to fellow officers and directors to finally see through the YLD Board adopting the changes. While I would like to say it was solely through my efforts, it is not at all the case, it was done by a lot of communicating, compromising, but, yes, as Dr. King points out being someone who molds consensus rather than just seeking it out.

Just remember, as you enjoy this three-day weekend celebrating diversity and remembering the achievements of Dr. King that getting to “yes” or “I agree” was not easy for him and will not necessarily be easy for you, but that effective communication is pivotal to building consensus. So spend time on planning what you will say or write next, as it could inspire others.

Mahalo!

RKH

Disclaimer

This website is owned and maintained by Hew & Bordenave, LLP (H&B), a law firm based in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. This DISCLAIMER page outlines the purpose of this website and makes specific disclaimers. Please read carefully.

This website is only for general information and marketing purposes of H&B and its services.

This website contains general information about H&B and is provided “as is” and without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Any information contained on this site is not intended to be legal advice, and it should not be considered as advice or relied upon as such. The content of this site should not be used as a substitute for the professional judgment of an attorney. Anyone needing legal advice should consider seeking out an attorney in their relevant jurisdiction. Any information presented on this website regarding prior results is not guarantee similar outcomes for anyone or other clients.

If you decide to contact H&B through this website understand that shall not establish an attorney-client relationship. Any information or documents transmitted by you to H&B, without a signed engagement letter between you and H&B, shall not be treated as confidential, secret, or protected in any way. 

In accordance with the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct, this website may be considered attorney advertising. The materials contained on this website have been prepared by H&B for informational purposes only, may not reflect current legal developments and do not constitute legal advice.

While H&B makes reasonable efforts to keep the information on this website accurate and current, H&B makes no claims or guarantees of accuracy and is not be responsible for any damage or loss related to the inaccuracy, incompleteness or lack of timeliness of the information.

This website may link to other third-party sites beyond the control of H&B. H&B does not necessarily endorse or approve of the information, products or services contained on third-party linked sites, and your linking to a third-party site and use of any information, products or services on such sites, are solely at your own risk.

June 2021

Privacy Policy

This website is owned and maintained by Hew & Bordenave, LLP (H&B), a law firm based in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. This page outlines H&B’s PRIVACY POLICY with respect to your interaction with our website and how we handle your personal information if we receive it through your use of our website.

PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected online from users of this website. In this policy, you can learn what kind of information we collect, when and how we might use that information, how we protect the information, and the choices you have with respect to your personal information.

What personal information is collected through this website and how is it used?

We collect information about users from our web server logs and through cookies, where applicable. We do not share any of the information collected with others, unless we say so in this Privacy Policy, or when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. 

The information collected is anonymous and does not contain identifying information about the visitor, but may include information such as their city or region, how they arrived at our site – through direct search or a referral site, how much time they spent on a page, what pages they visited, etc.

Server Logs: When you visit our website, information about your visit may be stored in web server logs, which are records of the activities on our site. The servers automatically capture and save the information electronically, including analytics on visitors. The information collected in web server logs helps us administer the site, analyze its usage, protect the website and its content from inappropriate use and improve the user experience.

Cookies: Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to store and help track information about you. Cookies are simply small pieces of data that are sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We use cookies to help remind us who you are and to help you navigate our sites during your visits. The use of cookies is relatively standard. Most internet browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can use your browser to either notify you when you receive a cookie or to disable cookies.

By visiting this website, you consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Third-party services: We may use services hosted by third parties to assist in providing administering our website and to help us understand the use of our site by our visitors. These services may collect information sent by your browser as part of a web page request, including your IP address or cookies. If these third-party services collect information, they do so anonymously and in the aggregate to provide information helpful to us such as website trends, without identifying individual visitors.

California Do Not Track: Our web services do not alter, change, or respond upon receiving Do Not Track (DNT) requests or signals in browsers. As described in more detail above, we track user activity using web server logs, cookies and similar technologies. Information collected in web server logs helps us analyze website usage and improve the user’s experience.

How is personal information protected?

We take certain appropriate security measures to help protect data collected from our website from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will always be unable to defeat our security measures.

Who has access to the information?

We will not sell, rent, or lease any data collected from our website.

If you have any additional questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us via the information provided on this website. If our information practices change in a significant way, we will post the policy changes here.

What happens if I Contact You or Submit Information or Documentation through the Website?

We of course appreciate any interest in our firm and its services. However, if you decide to contact H&B through this website and submit any information, such as using our “Contact Us” form, then please understand that action in of itself shall not establish an attorney-client relationship. Any information or documents transmitted by you to H&B,  via the website, such as the “Contact Us” form and if you do not have a signed engagement letter between you and H&B, then that information or documentation shall not be treated as confidential, secret, or protected in any way with respect to the attorney-client relationship. Therefore, do not submit any information or documents in this way other than your contact information and a basic explanation as to why you are contacting H&B (e.g. setting up a no-cost initial consultation).

As to data, contact information, and processing your Contact Us submission we will handle that according to this PRIVACY POLICY. If your submission requires further follow-up, we will contact you based on the contact information you submitted, usually within 2-3 business days.

Effective June 2021