Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.
Appreciative Leadership is a highly participatory approach that involves asking strategically crafted questions about an organization’s collective strengths, achievements, success stories, positive traditions, and visions for the future. Appreciative Leadership is a communication style that works on the basis of valuing people’s contributions as well as using their ideas and insights in a collaborative approach. Whitney, Torsten-Bloom, and Rader define Appreciative Leadership as “the relational capacity to mobilize creative potential and turn it into positive power – to set in motion positive ripples of confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and performance – to make a positive difference in the world”.
According to this definition:
The foundation of Appreciative Leadership is in theory and approach to organizing known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI). Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy and a methodology for positive change. AI seeks to discover the unique, positive qualities and capabilities of an organization and use these as the foundation for future development or change. AI is based on the assumption that organizations will change in the direction of the questions asked. It is a process of organizational change that emphasizes positive questions and collaborative inquiry as a source for enhanced performance and creating a common purpose. The essence of Appreciative Inquiry is the study of what “gives life,” energy, and vitality to organizations, teams, and people when they are at their best.
AI is firmly grounded in social constructionist theory, ideas around the power of generative conversations, and the centrality of relationships and language in the functioning of organizations. The appreciative Inquiry process engages large numbers of people in discussions about their individual and collective strengths and their desires, opportunities, and plans for collaborative action.
In short, AI tries to address two questions as a starting point, What problems the organizations is currently having, and what seems to be working around here. Then the next step is to improve by focusing on and doing more of what is working well.
Ask the following questions to yourself to start the journey on the path to appreciative leadership:
1. What are my strengths as a leader when working with others?
2. How can I show that I appreciate and value others' contributions?
3. What can I do to engage people in finding solutions and work collaboratively?
4. How can I encourage creative thinking and innovation in people?
The model of leadership put forth by Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, and Rader is extremely well aligned and consistent in theory and practice with AI. The authors introduce the Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership on which the model of Appreciative Leadership is based; Inquiry, Illumination, Inclusion, Inspiration, and Integrity. Appreciate what is working, imagine what could be, design what should be, and create what will be!
According to Whitney and her colleagues, there are five core strategies to appreciative leadership:
1. Inquiry: asking positive powerful questions
Inquiry lets people know that you value them and their contributions. When you ask people to share their thoughts and feelings you show your appreciation for their inputs and experiences.
2. Illumination: bringing out the best in people and situations
Illumination helps people understand how they can best contribute. This is the process to help people learn about their strengths and the strengths of others.
3. Inclusion: engaging with people to co-create the future
Inclusion gives people a sense of belonging. This is the process of inclusiveness and collaboration and co-creation. This is about creating an environment in which people feel they are a part of something.
4. Inspiration: awakening the creative spirit in everyone
Inspiration provides people with a sense of direction. By forging a vision and path forward, you give people hope and unleash energy.
5. Integrity: making choices for the good of the whole
Integrity lets people know that they are expected to give their best for the greater good and that they can trust others to do the same.
Appreciative Leadership by Diana Whitney, et al (2010)
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry, 2nd Edition by Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom
Frederick Winslow Taylor started the “Scientific Management Movement”, and attempted to study the work process scientifically. Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. It is a system for increasing the efficiency of manpower to its maximum potential and streamlining production to improve efficiency. This article explores this theory in more detail.
Participative leadership is one of the most effective styles and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members, and increased group morale. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members. Learn more about this leadership style and situations when it is effective.
Narrative leadership is interpreted as the leader who aspires to construct leadership by telling stories. Leadership is a task of persuasion, of winning people’s minds and hearts. Storytelling is thus inherently suited for the task of leadership. Learn about the narrative leadership style and how to use this style to inspire and motivate followers or to manage change.
We define Lean as the systematic elimination of waste through a continual effort to decrease inefficiency; the lean leader strives to create a more efficient organization. Lean leadership is a philosophy. It is a consistent way of thinking and being in your role as a leader. The focus of this approach is on raising new leaders and help their team embrace a culture of continuous improvement. Learn what we mean by lean leadership style and its principles.
Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using. The 5 Types of Power in Leadership are Coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and reward power. Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from the organization and it allows the leader to use power.
Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in him. Narcissists are good for companies that need people with vision and the courage to take them in new directions. Such leaders sometime might be highly successful, but is it a style to be followed. Learn the various types of narcissistic leadership and the characteristics of such leaders.
Charles Darwin had once commented that “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Agility means the capability of rapidly and efficiently adapting to changes and recently, agility has been applied in the context of software development, agile enterprise, and agile leadership. Agile leaders play an important, even essential, role in scaling agility in an organization. Understand how being an agile leader helps in effectively catalyzing organizational change.
Adaptive leadership is a style of leadership that emphasizes the importance of each and every person and role within the company. Adaptive leadership views the organization as an ever-changing, living organization, where employees can learn, adapt, and grow. Adaptive leaders mobilize people towards a common goal and also have the courage to experiment with new ideas and approaches. Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing groups of people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. Learn how to adopt this style and how to become an adaptive leader!
Authoritarian Leadership Style
Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
© 2023 TechnoFunc, All Rights Reserved