The ‘post-heroic’ model of leadership
Involves multiple actors who take up leadership roles both formally and informally and importantly share leadership by working collaboratively. This takes place across organisational or professional boundaries. Thus shared and collaborative leadership is more than numerically having ‘more leaders’. Leadership can be distributed away from the top of an organisation to many levels. But this distribution takes the form of new practices and innovations not just people at lower levels taking initiative as leaders – again more than simply ‘leaders at many levels’.
As a result, leadership needs to be understood in terms of leadership practices and organisational interventions, rather than just personal behavioural style or competences. The focus is on organisational relations, connectedness, interventions into the organisation system, changing organisation practices and processes.
(Turnbull James 2011)
If you want to know a little more about the ‘post-heroic’ model of leadership I’d recommend Jeremy Cross’ TEDx Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmL9nOi-DMQ
This got me thinking that Leadership is a process that can be taught, not an attribute to imitate. Leadership is not about being tall, having blue eyes, or brown hair, these are things you are born with. Leadership is a process that is about vision, communication, and direction, being a teacher, leading by example, and improving the system.
This says it all in one picture.
http://dougdockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Leadersheep.png
What was impressed upon me is that Leadership is systemic. We are all products of the system: of our parents; of our education; of the law; social acceptance; of the rules and processes and culturally of the “way we do things around here”
I am a huge fan of the Cultural Web for thinking about this.
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_90.htm
John Seddon in his book “The Whitehall Effect”, which I have now referenced in at least half a dozen blogs, advocates Systems Thinking. John prefers to call it the Vanguard Method to protect his philosophies from everyone that calls themselves a systems thinker. In talking with John I have come to appreciate that success is not from silo changes in process (often using LEAN-management) but from a broader consideration of service flow, with the emphasis on delivering value “exactly what they need” to the customer.
Applied to leadership this suggests shifting the focus from individual excellence (in a silo) towards a system that makes success inevitable outcome. The role of Leadership must therefore be to design the environment and the systems that shape the culture and make success inevitable.
I’m not 100% sure how to do this. If I were I’d be rich! But I suspect a good place to start would be to look at the environment and the systems and consider what must change.
I am a huge fan of the 7S model, for its simplicity.
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_91.htm
Of course having the tools and the knowledge of how to use them doesn’t guarantee success. You need to get the people to do something. Knowledge isn’t power if it simply stays in a book, or lies dormant in your head. Power comes from action, from momentum, from drive.
For this Kotter’s 8steps is perhaps the most favoured model for effecting change
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm
Although not my favourite, it is a compelling argument. I baulk at the 8 Steps because it is a little too simplistic: some of the steps are much easier said than done. But who said Leadership was easy? I think a more useful model for corporate engagement is to be found in Morten Hansen’s book Collaboration.
In Collaboration, Hansen takes aim at what many leaders inherently know: in today's competitive environment, companywide collaboration is an imperative for successful strategy execution, yet the sought-after synergies are rarely, if ever, realized. In fact, most cross-unit collaborative efforts end up wasting time, money, and resources. How can managers avoid the costly traps of collaboration and instead start getting the results they need?
http://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-Leaders-Common-Ground-Results/dp/1422115151
An excellent example of collaboration is to be found in the military approach to Mission Command. I am grateful for Harry Fullerton’s recent presentations on this. Harry makes the point that its isn’t all about the guy at the top, who might get shot! Mission Command is based on people (troops) having a common language, common values, common knowledge, training and shared experience. Based on this the leader can say “achieve xxxxx, to be able to yyyyyy, using zzzz resources.
What is really important is being clear on what is the “Specified Main Effort”, which is a theme covered by Will Carnegie in ciChange’s first ever breakfast briefing which included a discussion of whether your organisation could maintain progress in the absence of a leader, on the basis that the ends and means are all commonly understood.
CONCLUSION
Ironically good leadership isn’t about individuals, it is about process. Success will be down to the collaboration of people to design, build and deliver the architectural framework that takes the best bits all the models above to deliver value “exactly what they need” to the customer.
USEFUK LINKS
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/leadership
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/review-leadership-nhs
THE AUTHOR
Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the Incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.
Tim HJ Rogers
Web timhjrogers.com > Projects | Programmes | Change
PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner
Curator TEDxStHelier.com Founder ciChange.org
Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051
ABOUT CICHANGE
ciChange is a not-for-profit forum for ideas and discussion, about all aspects of Change Management, including people, processes, teams and leadership. It is a place to share and exchange models, papers, ideas and information about change. We’ve run a number of FREE, well attended Breakfast Briefings.
ciChange is sponsored by Total Solutions Group http://www.tsgi.co/
Tim HJ Rogers
Mob 07797762051
Skype timhjrogers
Web: http://www.cichange.org/
Linked-In http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CI-Change-4301853
Twitter: www.twitter.com/cichange @cichange
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