By Andrew Wu & Janine Veale – 01.03.16
In the world today effective leadership is increasingly being recognised as a process that is shared by people throughout an organisation, rather than a responsibility of just one person at the top. This shared process is called Interdependent leadership.
Traditional leadership has been that of a dependent and/or independent hierarchy, where people in authority are the decision makers and leadership is attributed to one individuals’ knowledge and expertise. Aspirall works with executives to break through this traditional way of thinking and behaving, to create a powerful shift in leadership and workplace culture. Managers are deeply supported in tools to ‘do’, ‘think’ and ‘be’ interdependent in their leadership capability. Interdependent leadership leads to managers and team members creating a path and vision together.
Most managers find it difficult to embrace this new way of leading because it can be frustrating, challenging and difficult. Interdependent leadership requires a major rethink, self-evaluation, and growth in awareness and commitment and most significantly it takes courage!
It challenges the dominant world view and long held personal beliefs and behaviours in how managers should behave, lead and run an organisation. It requires a manager to change the dialogue with individuals and their team, and how the team interacts with their manager.
Managers often understand and recognise the value of leading in a more collaborative way but struggle to make sustainable inroads, are unsure of where to start or on how to comprehend and deal with blockages and resistance when it occurs.
5 key ways we work with managers to create a shift towards Interdependent leadership are:
- Raising leadership consciousness around interdependent leadership
- To encourage dialogue and communication in creating wise and effective direction, alignment and commitment around the challenges that matter most
- Create a collective organisational vision/purpose that aligns and links with individual purpose
- Create ongoing space to challenge and lift the level of thinking around what is possible
- Align organisational strategy and culture with structures and practices that support interdependent thinking
Dependant and/or Independent leadership in the workplace is ineffective and restricts team performance. Leadership is and must be a collective effort. Powerful outcomes and an energised team environment can be achieved when the ‘Independent’ walls are broken down. A courageous step outside of the traditional box is needed, a transformation from the inside out, emerging into the world of collaborative Interdependent leadership.