Systemic Approaches to Leadership: The Co-construction of Leadership Identities

The competencies, skills and techniques of leadership are frequently attributed to a specific individual; however leadership is essentially relational – without followers you cannot be a leader no matter how many skills and competencies you may have.  Whilst there may be a power imbalance in the relationship between leaders and followers the relationship is mutually co-constructive of both followship identity and leadership identity.

Through a combination of didactic input and experiential exercises in small groups this workshop will give you the opportunity to examine your own specific dilemmas, problems, conflicts and constraints that you experience in discharging your leadership role.

Subjects likely to be covered:

• Understanding your leadership style
• Managing contention and dissent
• Fostering collaboration and collaborative practice
• Developing trust in leader/follower relationships
• Your relationship with conflict – both spoken and unspoken
• Understanding problematic communication
• Relational risk-taking
• Developing active listening skills

The aim of this workshop is to help you reflect on your understanding of leadership and your leadership self in relation to your followers – what aspects of your leadership self constrains, and what aspects of your leadership self successfully engage a community to face up to complex collective problems.