COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP VALUES
Leading Together
Collective Leadership Values
In literal terms a value describes relative worth, usefulness or importance of a person (or artefact). When considered as a collective term, it relates to the principles or moral standards held by a person or social group; the generally accepted or personally held judgment of what is valuable and important in life. In this sense, the definition of ‘values’ moves from an individual/subjective meaning to one that is collective/objective.
Shared values
It has been argued that never before have the values of leadership been under so much scrutiny. This applies globally as in the case of Enron and the banking crisis that led us all on the road to economic austerity measures. What values were driving these senior leaders? Was it to do with bottom line profit for the sake of shareholders rather than the greatest good for the greatest number in terms of social responsibility?
The Founding Fathers of the USA is a good example. It has been argued that they acted as a team and, at different times, when individual skills, knowledge and expertise were required, those with the appropriate qualities stepped forward. They then stepped back again when a different set of qualities were required. In an interesting review of the leadership principles employed by the Founding Fathers, it was said that their story is one of “unselfish, genuine leadership” and that this was their legacy (Phillips, 1997: 13).
To what extent do values drive leadership?
The answer to this question very much depends on how both personal and collective values influence the behaviour of of both individuals and the (collective) behavour of the organisation respectively.
The research that underpinned the 'Selfless Leader' illustrates that there is a close relationship between seven collective leadership values (that represent the contexts for collective leadership), the dynamic interaction between them (the mechanisms) and the behaviours that underpin the values (the outcomes). These seven values and the underpinning behaviours are illustrated below.
You will get the opportunity to explore the behaviours that underpin the seven collective leadership values. Use the menu links to the left which provide a brief summary of each of the seven values and a further link that will take you to a discussion in relation to the underpinning behaviours. You can also access the Collective Leadership Inventory (CLI) if you are registered for a leadership development programme or by contacting us. This enables you to undertake a reflection of your organisation or network - or your chosen case study - of your own perception of the strength and areas of development for collective leadership. The CLI can also be used as a full assessment of a networks' collective leadership. First, it is helpful to align this collective leadership model (CLM) with the collective leadership framework (CLF - described in another section).
Understanding the Language and Reality of Leadership?
This somewhat cryptic question was posed but, in answering this, there is a need to consider the difference between a framework and a model.
The framework (influenced by New Public Leadership) is explored in a different section. However, it is helpful to briefly summarise the differences between a framework and a model based on the research principles of realist evaluation†:
A framework is a way of representing the empirical relations between every aspect of inquiry when considering a scientific theory or research. It describes the general direction and the constraints of the theory or research and provides an explicit explanation why the research problem exists by highlighting how the variables relate to each other.
The collective leadership framework paints a rich picture of the contextual conditions for collective leadership and focuses on interconnectedness, dependency and the systems and structures of leadership. It provides an overview of the leadership concepts and the practice of leadership. In support of this, the concept of synergetics serves this purpose well.
A model is something used to represent or explain the operation and mechanism of something else. A conceptual model exists in one’s mind and can often consist of symbolic representations through symbols or diagrams. A model is useful because it relies less on words and language (which can be either ambiguous or socially constructed) and less reflective of the reality, and more on mechanisms and images. It assists in interpreting the phenomenon within its contextual setting (i.e. the framework) and can be more universally applied within different organisational and cultural settings.
Contexts are difficult to influence, whereas mechanisms can have a direct influence on the prevailing contexts. Whereas the framework described above is explicit, the operational model exists in the mind’s eye and the Collective Leadership Inventory (which has developed from this model) is its visible manifestation and provides the opportunity to assess the outcomes of collective leadership, something that has hitherto been elusive.