Get Involved: We Don’t Need Perfect People, We Need Present Ones

By Carel Nolte

We live in a time of commentary. Everyone has a (strong) view. Social media rewards the loudest voices and our community WhatsApp groups overflow with complaints about government, institutions, education – basically the state of everything! There’s no shortage of opinion. But here’s a question I keep asking myself: Where is the involvement?

It’s one thing to criticise; it’s another to contribute. And if we want a society that works – for more than just the privileged or the connected but for us all – we need to move from commentary to commitment.

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Stop Watching. Start Doing.

Being a bystander is easy. Getting involved is harder. It takes time, energy, patience and emotional investment. It opens you up to criticism – sometimes a lot of (social media) abuse. And it can be deeply inconvenient. But it’s also deeply necessary. And, I have found, in the long-run, it is deeply rewarding.

You don’t need to change the world in a single act. It starts smaller than that: by asking how you can serve, where you can support and who you can mentor.

Sometimes getting involved means giving a few hours to a cause. Sometimes it means saying yes to an unpaid board role. Sometimes it’s helping a friend prepare for an interview. Sometimes it’s just showing up – consistently. Again and again.

And if we don’t do this, if we stay silent, disengaged or indifferent, then, I think, we forfeit the right to demand better. As the saying goes: “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” So verwag meer van jouself.

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Leadership Begins with Presence

I count myself lucky to serve on boards like the Comrades Marathon Association or as a trustee for the St Stithians College Endowment Fund Trust. I do so not because I have all the answers, but because I believe in the institutions and their positive impact on my community and society as a whole. I care. And caring isn’t passive. It demands action.

Serving on a board doesn’t mean you run the organisation. That’s a common misconception. I often say – it means that you guide. That you challenge. That you support. That you ask the direct questions. You ensure ethical governance and long-term strategy. You bring perspective, experience – and heart. You hold the mirror up. But most of all, you trust the people on the ground to do their work – and you back them. These are not spaces for ego or self-promotion. They’re spaces for servant leadership.

(By the way, this is also how I manage teams also – I delegate (support, guide, challenge and influence and then support) not so that I can sit back and do nothing, but that I can focus on aspects where I can add value. I trust people to do THEIR job. As Kate Turkington shared long ago with me – Why keep a dog and bark yourself?)

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What is Servant Leadership?

The phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in a 1970 essay titled The Servant as Leader. He wrote:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.”

Servant leadership turns traditional power structures upside down. The leader isn’t at the top of a hierarchy shouting orders. They’re at the centre of a community, creating space for others to grow, to contribute, and to shine. It’s a model rooted in empathy, listening, stewardship and the long view.

The concept has deep historical and philosophical roots – from Jesus’ teachings to Gandhi’s humility, from African ubuntu to Nelson Mandela’s leadership style, which combined firmness with service, dignity with discipline.

In South Africa, servant leadership resonates profoundly. We are a nation built on collective effort, on ubuntu: I am because we are. Our progress will depend not on individual heroics, but on how we lead, together. Finding common cause. Not letting the voices that drive division to drown out our shared vision of a world where we can all, safely, achieve our goals.

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We Need to Change the Conversation

You don’t need to look for to notice how often we disparage public service. We moan about government inefficiency, but we don’t encourage our best and brightest to consider civil service as a noble and viable path. We celebrate entrepreneurship (as we should), but we rarely spotlight teachers, municipal leaders or administrators who quietly hold communities together. Yes, many were (are) corrupt and ineffective, but many work hard and try their best.

If we want change, we need to uplift those roles, not mock them. Not just criticise. We need to recognise public sector excellence when we see it and demand more of it – not from a place of superiority, but solidarity. That starts by getting involved, by encouraging those around us to do the same. And by looking in the mirror and demanding excellence from ourselves.

As Barack Obama (how I miss that man’s leadership role-modelling!) once said:

“The most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen.”

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Volunteering is Not About Being Right

When you step into leadership – especially in volunteer-led organisations – you will make mistakes. You will be misquoted, misunderstood, misjudged. You will clash with others. You will learn. That’s part of the work.

But if you come with the right intention, with bona fides or “good faith”, you will build trust over time.

We need to stop expecting perfection from volunteers. And we need to stop pretending that involvement means imposing your will. Especially in member-based organisations like the Comrades Marathon, where you must be willing to listen, learn and sometimes (often!) to compromise.

It’s not about your way. It’s about what’s right for the organisation. It’s about legacy and sustainability for long after we are dead, not ego and control.

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Volunteering, Mentoring, Giving

Volunteering is vital. But so is mentoring. So is giving. So is learning. We cannot build a healthy society on consumption alone. We must give of ourselves. That might mean time. That might mean financial support. It might mean emotional investment. But it means something!

And we must never underestimate the power of “encouragement”. Telling someone “I see potential in you,” or “You’d be great on that committee,” or “I’ll back you if you run for that position” may be the spark that changes a life and a system. Saying THANK YOU more often, I think, is also important.

I’ve personally been lifted, challenged and shaped by people who gave me a nudge (or a bloody good kick up the arse when I was full of sh*t and needed it. That’s the quiet, yet powerful, chain of influence that shapes our world, one interaction at a time.

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Keep Perspective. Keep Going.

There will be moments, especially in leadership, when things feel fraught and pretty k*k. Tense board meetings. Social media storms. Disagreements about priorities. Times when you ask: “Is this really worth it?” I felt like this recently myself.

Here’s my advice to myself and suggestions for you: Breathe. Keep perspective. This isn’t a matter of life and death. Even if it feels like it in the moment.

Leadership is not about always being right. It’s about being real. About showing up. About doing your best, owning your missteps and continuing to serve.

As Theodore Roosevelt famously put it:

“It is not the critic who counts … The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who errs, who comes short again and again … but who does actually strive to do the deeds.”

So get in the arena. Make a difference. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be present.

If you’ve made it this far, you probably care. So here’s my challenge to you:

• Find a cause or community that matters to you. Show up.
• Mentor someone who needs guidance. Ask them what they dream of. Help them map a path.
• Join a board, a committee, a local organisation. Offer your skills, your time and your perspective.
• Encourage someone brilliant to pursue a career in public service or education – even if the road looks hard.

And when you disagree with someone, because you will, do so with respect for yourself and them. Hold your view without demeaning theirs. Lead by example. I think I may have failed at this at times and am therefore working hard at not doing so again.

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The world doesn’t need perfect people. It need present ones. It needs people willing to try, to fail, to learn, to grow.

I think it needs you.

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