LEADERSHIP
COMMUNITIES:
DEVELOPING
LEADER-MANAGERS FOR THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
By:
Publication: Training and Development in
Imagine the concept of leadership
without ’leaders‘. It sounds strange, paradoxical. How can you have leadership
without leaders? Then think about an organisation in which leadership is a
property dispersed or distributed throughout the system, where everyone (or all
managers and executives at least) is expected to provide leadership in ways
appropriate to their role.
This idea of leadership
as a dispersed entity is a valuable starting point for developing leadership development
programs geared to meeting the complex environments organisations now face. A
contemporary perspective on leadership suggests people working together to
establish current realities, clarify preferred futures, and build energy and
momentum to make the vision a reality. From this standpoint, leadership
development becomes a challenge of developing communities of leadership
practitioners, recognising a need also to ensure that development efforts cater
to the needs of individuals.
A useful starting point
is the idea originally raised by Harvard professor John Kotter (1990) of
leadership as a mode of action, distinct from management.
Leadership
and management modes
The leadership mode builds capacity
for the future. It involves challenging underlying assumptions and creatively
working to build new ways of moving forward. The emphasis is on the subtle or
implicit side of the organisation (such as relationships, people’s aspirations
and fears, unsurfaced issues). Leadership
emphasises joint action – people thinking and acting together on issues beyond
day-to-day business.
In contrast, the management mode is operationally-focused
and emphasises meeting customer needs, managing resources, solving problems,
improving systems, planning and monitoring, and delivering outputs. The focus
is on tangible aspects such as structures, plans, systems and measures (Dunoon 2002).
The problem is that while managers need
to do both leadership and management-mode work, most organisations in my
experience implicitly over-emphasise the management mode.
Reasons for this imbalance are listed below:
q
Time pressures put a premium on achieving today’s results – a
management-mode function.
q
Accountability is more pressing with management-mode work. Leadership
is more nebulous, with results as ’projections’ cast in the future.
q
More positively, doing management-mode work can be affirming,
as one ticks off completed tasks.
q
Leadership involves challenging the status quo – not always
encouraged in management-mode dominated organisations.
The distinction between leadership and management modes is
not about some people being ‘leaders’ and others ‘managers’. Its purpose is to
enable people to make conscious choices about how much attention they give to
each mode. This is essential if imbalances towards the management mode are to
be countered.
But it is also important that we are able to fold the leadership
and management modes back together. There are shades of grey between
leadership and management work. Ideally, people develop the capacity to move intentionally
and fluidly between the leadership and management modes, depending on the
situation and their priorities.
Many organisations and leadership providers, however, cling to
a dated concept of leadership that centres on the individual ‘leader’. The
assumption is that leadership equates with position or formal authority, or the
potential to take on such roles (Heifetz, 1994). The logical follow-on is individually
focused, development centre-style approaches to leadership development.
From a contemporary standpoint we need to distinguish executive
development, which appropriately might be pitched at individual ‘high
potentials’ and include a strong leadership component, from the development of
leadership throughout the organisation.
We are in danger of twentieth-century thinking if we assume that
executive development and leadership development are one and the same.
The accent here, however, is not on undercutting the
importance of leadership at the top but on the need to build it up throughout
the organisation.
Developing leadership
communities
Leadership communities are groups of practitioners who
support and encourage one another to expand their individual and joint
leadership capacity.
The rationale is that:
q
Developing leadership throughout an organisation is about
fostering new ways of thinking, relating and acting in the context of focusing
on actual and emerging issues for the organisation;
q
Leadership is best developed by managers (and others) practising
it together, over an extended period, in a context in which they are supported
and encouraged to stretch themselves.
q
In any group of managers, there is likely to be a diversity
of experience, and perspectives, which if better tapped, can be a powerful
source of learning for individuals and the group (this is so even where top
management regard middle and front-line managers as largely homogenous groups,
perhaps too technically-focused); and
q
When managers, through their participation in the community,
undertake joint leadership-related work, they not only contribute to the
organisation but they discover new ways of working. The result is improved individual and
collective self-confidence in their leadership abilities – and more positive
perceptions among top executives.
The concept of the leadership
community is not presented as a particular methodology or magic bullet for
leadership development. Rather it is a
way of thinking about development that is in keeping with the idea of the
leadership mode. The leadership community concept is akin to the idea of
communities of practice, which many organisations use to foster knowledge
sharing and capability growth (Wenger and McDermott, 2002).
Leadership communities can involve elements commonly found
in leadership programs such as skill development (for example, in visioning,
dealing with contention, coaching), action learning processes, 360-degree feedback,
the use of instruments to build self-awareness, forums, and executive
mentoring.
What makes the notion of a community
different from simply putting a group of managers through a course is that
participants are encouraged to see themselves as an association (in the less
formal sense) having shared interests in exploring their understanding of
leadership and what it means in their roles, in gaining new skills and
experience, and in taking responsibility over time for their own development
and their leadership contribution to the organisation. Such a mindset cannot be ‘installed’; it must
be grown with time.
The potential payoffs of a community-based approach are
huge, including:
q
Greater utilisation of talent and development of potential;
q
Increased individual and organisational capacity to deal
with difficult and emerging issues;
q
Ripple effects, with leadership-mode behaviour fostered
beyond the community;
q
Innovative work and new solutions for the organisation as a
result of community projects; and
q
Improvement in the organisation’s ability to ‘live’ the
values it espouses (since leadership includes focusing on the emotional
realities of the organisation).
Organisations can foster a
leadership community approach by:
q
Offering at least introductory training about contemporary concepts
of leadership and communities of practice;
q
Encouraging managers to think about the meaning of community
for them;
q
Assisting them to contribute on higher-level organisational issues;
q
Encouraging community self-organisation, for example, by the
group nominating a convenor; and
q
Making available resources (time, funding, expertise) to
support community initiated projects and activities, within agreed parameters.
The community concept needs to be carefully developed. Many issues will need to be dealt with – for
example, ensuring active senior management support, that community activities
don’t turn into whinge sessions, and that others outside the community
understand its purpose and rationale.
Leadership communities need not result in a same-for-all or
lowest common denominator approach to leadership development. Rather, the community acts as an umbrella
within which individual needs may be clarified and met – including by people
undertaking development activities outside the community and bringing their
learning back in.
Individual leadership still has a place but the emphasis is
on working collegially to draw out the contributions of others, surface and
explore underlying issues and assumptions (including one’s own), creatively redefine
problems, build directions people can genuinely commit to, and foster action to
achieve desired results.
Thinking of leadership as a shared enterprise and mode of
action distinct from management creates new and powerful possibilities for leadership
development. Tapping this potential requires that L&D professionals and
senior executives critically reappraise their theories of leadership and its
development. Those who choose to take this path are not assured of easy
solutions or quick wins. But they can take satisfaction in knowing that they
are working towards tapping more of the organisation’s and people’s potential,
strengthening the organisation’s capability to achieve its goals, and helping
to create more positive workplace environments.
References
Dunoon, D. 2002, ‘Rethinking
Leadership for the Public Sector’, Australian
Journal of Public Administration, 61(3):3-18, September.
Heifetz, R. 1994, Leadership Without Easy Answers, The
Belknap Press of
Kotter, J.P. 1990, ‘What Leaders
Really Do’, Harvard Business Review,
68(3):103-111.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and
Snyder, W.M. 2002, Cultivating
Communities of Practice, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, M.A.
About the
author
Don’s work in public sector, corporate
and educational environments seeks to balance sound theory and practical
application in helping organisations strengthen their capacity for change and
improvement through shared leadership.
Don can be contacted at ddunoon@newfutures.com.au or +61 2
9568 6145. www.newfutures.com.au