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
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.
Have you ever resonated that there seem to be as many different ways to lead people as there have been great leaders? When we recall the success of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Bonaparte to Steve Jobs and Jack Welch, we also notice that they all used different approaches that were suitable to their specific situations and circumstances. Over the last century, researchers and psychologists have developed simple ways to describe the “Styles of leadership” and in this section, we will explore these commonly known leadership styles.
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Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command and strict regulations. Bureaucratic leadership style is a very decent style for work involving serious safety risks, such as handling toxic substances, moving large objects. The focus is on compliance with rules and laid down procedures to make sure that the group is doing their job correctly and safely. Learn some advantages and disadvantages of this style and situations in which this style could prove to be effective.
Collaborative leadership is all about collaborative problem-solving and decision-making or can also be defined as the leadership of a collaborative effort. . The term started to appear in the mid-1990s in response to the formation of long term public-private partnerships to rebuild public infrastructure. Learn how you can use principles of collaborative leadership to enhance your leadership skills for being an effective leader.
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.
There are four characteristics of leadership that help us to understand the character of leadership as a concept. 1. Leadership is a process, 2. Leadership involves influence, 3. Leadership always occurs in a group context and 4. Leadership involves goal attainment. These are the four components that make up the character of the 'leadership' term and help us to define the leadership concept. All of these components of leadership have common characteristics.
Leadership has been defined in different ways by different sets of scholars. In very simple terms leadership can be defined as the skill of a person to influence an individual or a group for achievement of a goal in a given situation. One can use different dimensions and perspectives to define leadership. Through the evolution of leadership thought, leadership has been defined in various ways discussed here.
There are four major factors in leadership called Leader, Follower, Communication, and Situation. The success of the leader is dependent on how the leader is effectively able to communicate and motivate followers to perform desired tasks using the appropriate leadership style best suited for the given situation. Interdependencies and dynamics of these four factors of leadership must be considered by a leader to be effective.
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.
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