Relationships, Reinvention & Reciprocity: One Leaders' Principles For Success

Robert "Bob" Hoffman is my colleague, mentor, and partner consultant with Managance for 20 years. This month, in honor and celebration of his 80th birthday, we talked about his remarkable community and professional life, the impact he continues to make in the world, and the people and the lessons that continue to shape his drive and leadership.

The Beginning Built on Core Values

Bob was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the 1940s and 1950s. During this period, the public-school system steered Black people to work in manufacturing instead of going to college. His beloved older sister Shirley saw something different for Bob. She told him how important it was to build authentic relationships and friendships, and while he saw the value of this wisdom for her, he followed it for himself. Some of his friendships and relationships span 70 to 75 years.

Other Early Influences

Another early influence was Steve Sampson, the gentleman barber in Bob’s hometown. Bob spent a lot of time in Steve's barbershop shining shoes, beginning in 1952. This time  created a foundation for his education, as conversation focused on local politics, the state of Black America, and Black historical roots beyond and before slavery.

Bob's dad, Robert, Sr., saw something different for Bob too. He taught him that "you compromise your points in life but not your principles. If you compromise your principles, you have nothing to stand on." With this foundational principle, Bob's career spans five decades filled with vision, reinvention, and a commitment to always opening doors for others.

Foundation in Teaching

Bob started his career in education in 1962 as it was one of the few options for Black men and women. He graduated as certified to teach K-8 and wanted to teach second or third grade. At the time, the school system steered Black males to teach fifth and sixth grades instead of being role models for younger students. Before securing tenure, Bob left to explore other teaching opportunities, leading him to the Job Corps program run by the U.S. Office Economic Opportunity. In 1965 this program served 16 to 21-year-olds from rural and urban areas across the country who were not going to college. These young people were seen by society as dropouts because the traditional educational system was not meeting their needs. At Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, Bob taught young men that most other people had given up on, and who had given up on themselves. Bob wanted them to experience that everyone has a place, and the work starts with oneself.

Systems Thinking and Growing Activism

With his growing national experience, Bob tapped his capacity as a big systems thinker with an economic vision for the Black community. He explains that in the late 1960s, before integration, we need to remember that many Black communities were thriving with retail businesses, morticians, dentists, doctors, lenders, etc. His research showed that integration destroyed the self-sufficiency of Black communities built by segregation. Integration led Black people to believe they had access to White institutions when what they wanted was access to Black dollars without reciprocity. Coming out of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s, Bob saw that a significant avenue for Black men and women had to be economic, and it had to be what the Black community controls in terms of those economics.

By 1974, Bob saw himself as a "community activist" throughout the country. During this period, one of his mentors, and a childhood friend, who was the first black mayor in Plainfield, New Jersey, saw that Bob had the skills to be a City Councilor. Bob accepted the challenge. He filled an unexpired term and then was chosen by the people to serve in the post at the next election.

That experience propelled him in 1976 to be Co-Chair of Jimmy Carter's New Jersey campaign. When Carter became President, Bob went on to work in Washington at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he directed national training and development for cities and local nonprofit organizations.

Upon leaving HUD in 1983, Bob formed a consulting firm based on his experiences across various fields – specifically, institutional, and systemic racism. Once again, relationships, reinvention, and his principles played vital roles. By this time, Bob learned that he works best with freedom and autonomy. He developed a 10-page strategic plan and a list of people to contact. He made three calls, got three consulting opportunities, and never looked at the plan! One of the first calls was to a colleague named Madeline Petty, who headed the Department of Housing and Community Development in the District of Columbia. His work in organizational development and team building with her led to other contracts throughout the City.

An essential factor in his 37 years of consulting and coaching success is the community that surrounds him. Thinking back to his childhood, Bob explains, “there was no place where I could go, within Union County, New Jersey, where somebody did not know my sister, father, or mother, and who would not report back to them what I was doing.”

Success in Business

When it comes to succeeding in business, Bob says, "I've always had a community to support me, including a community that could help me think about my relationship with the White community.” He learned that he does not hate the White community, but he does not like how its institutions and racist behaviors continue to demean Black and Brown communities. With this perspective, he does not "feel animosity that keeps me from seeing opportunities that can expand the African-American base in this country and at the same time, operate to the self-interest of White people." Despite many experiences with racism, Bob never loses sight of who he is and what he wants to accomplish. He told me, “it all comes back to your community and the relationships you continue to build and establish.”

“What shames us, what we most fear to tell, does not set us apart from others: it binds us together if only we can take the risk to speak to it.”

– Starhawk, American Writer, Truth or Dare, 1990

In the early 1990s, Bob was consulting on leadership, diversity, and ethics work in the corporate sector. He used some of his resources to buy 35 acres in West Virginia so he could take urban youth away from the City. He had this opportunity to do this himself in his youth; his aim was to expose this next generation to leadership experiences and a different environment. Today the property includes 98 acres and nine buildings where all kinds of learning happen.

Empowering Others – The Vision for Now

Bob has regularly invested in empowering others. He was part-owner of an African clothing store in the 2000s in the District of Columbia's Adams Morgan neighborhood. When his business partner Muhammed Bawa returned home to Ghana, he helped Bob buy 86 acres of land there. Twelve acres run along a river where the soil is ripe for growing cocoa. Bob's goal is to organize the farmers into a cooperative to develop a chocolate factory. With the pandemic, 2020 has been the first year in fifteen that Bob has not traveled to Ghana to connect with the farm community he is now a part of.

His life and career journey continue to bless Bob to the present moment. And yet, I sense a deep sadness that there is still so much more work to do to eliminate the ongoing barriers of institutional racism. In his aspirations for 2021-2030, Bob draws on relationships and reinvention when he envisions inclusion, equity, and parity. His thoughts are as follows:

• If we are genuinely going to do diversity, inclusion, and equity work, organizations need to infuse it throughout their organizational cultures, behaviors, and policies.

• We would see more valuing instead of tolerating as influential companies and nonprofit organizations develop pipelines for young Black men and women to start in every position; the sky would be the limit. Proper mentoring and coaching would be the norm for Black/Brown people as it is for White people.

• We would see parity in a pipeline of Black talent in organizational development consulting and coaching. We would also see organizations proactively attracting and supporting Black and Brown men and women to serve on Boards of Directors and create authentic community engagement.

The parts of Bob's journey that we share here do not contain many of his heartaches, feelings, and disappointments of not having a day in his life when he can just be him without feeling the brutality and impact of White racist institutions and the associated behaviors. Bob is not a Black professional who made it and will leave the Black Lives Matter Movement behind. He will continue to do the work of his life with building relationships, reinventing himself, and reciprocity as his cornerstones.

Reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. We have practiced this principle through our many years of work together, sharing ideas, making introductions and referrals, growing trust, and actively looking for ways to work together. My wish for every nonprofit sector leader is to build a relationship with leaders like Bob.

I look forward to continuing this professional journey with Bob as a collaborator and mentor. Happy birthday dear friend. I wish you many happy returns and more opportunities to work together.    

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 Managance Coaching is on a mission to ignite joy and energize opportunities at work. Denice Hinden inspires leaders and teams to their next level, develops more trusting "we-centered" organizational cultures, and facilitates engaging strategic thinking.

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