Not Everything Needs to be Classified as Leadership, Consider Humanship.

Photo credit @claybanks via @unsplash

While I was in Ottawa in February 2019, I was having coffee with a friend who happens to be an amazing human being. He is someone who embodies empathy and integrity. He is an innovator and has an extraordinary analytical mind too. If you were to ask him, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t call himself a leader, although others definitely would. I believe this is not just because of the director-level position he held, but because of the values he lives and breathes on a daily basis. When I think of others in my life such as my mom, my kids, and my first manager, I see amazing humans just like my friend. And these people stand out regardless of their titles and all because of the values they embody too.

Leadership theory and the insurgence of leadership concepts, training and coaching has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. It has infiltrated my HR world in a good, yet sometimes confusing way. The more I work in the HR space, the more I question this need to put everything under the ‘leadership’ category. How the human race went from making fire to the top of the food chain to then naively categorizing most ‘ideal’ or ‘proper’ behaviours under the umbrella of ‘leadership’ is mind-boggling to me! This broad categorization is not only present in the work world, but has infiltrated thinking at both the high school and elementary school levels as well.

To be clear, the theories and concepts related to leadership are important and have their place. I just wonder if we need to focus on how to be decent human beings and speak the qualities and behaviours that embody this.

Back to Ottawa and my fabulous friend for just a minute. We started talking about all things leadership and I jokingly said, “Maybe we should just call it ‘humanship!’ If we’re talking about something that we’d like to see embodied in all of humanity and not just leaders and boardrooms, why not call it ‘humanship?!’”

Following this conversation, I did some digging and found a few different spots where the term humanship has actually been used. Interestingly enough, humanship is used with horses where it is defined as the following:

“Humanship is about the whole relationship between you and your horse; all the parts of each of our characters coming together to create the relationship as it is now.”

I also discovered The Neoma Business School who has trademarked ‘humanship’ and has incorporated it alongside their business management curriculum. Digging further, I also found "TIPS" Talks - Wisdom for Humanship. The TIP® program, developed by Dr. Philip Hong at the Loyola University, Chicago, is a transformative social change model. The program is a framework to elevate humans and create a meaningful positive impact on social systems. I must admit, it is reassuring to see others look at leadership in a different way. In my mind, humanship is more inclusive. It’s also more strategic in a sense because it looks at the ‘big picture’, Humanship is about all humans and how we want to be.

The last bit of research that I want to share comes from the urban dictionary which defines humanship as:

“The way two or more persons or groups regard and behave towards each other based on inner similarities as humans and not on outer differences such as title, identity, role, function, belief, ethnicity, nationality, kinship, social class or hierarchical power position.”

Humans relating in a way that recognizes and emphasizes inherent similarities rather than differences — what a powerful concept!

Should this concept be embodied in areas of ‘leadership?’ Of course! Regardless of the title you bear, the sector you work within or the number of people reporting to you, this concept of the whole relationship of you and your team is essential for the flourishing of your team. But let’s not limit this dynamic to executive suites and vision casting meetings. This concept of humanship is for stay-at-home moms, high school students, middle managers and non-profit staff too.

Let’s let leadership be what it is. Leaders, be people of influence. Move people and organizations from here to there. Commit yourself to high standards and embody integrity and empathy and innovation. But let’s not reserve those beautiful human qualities to the people on top. Humanship is for everyone and everyone wins when we practice it.