Imprint: Triarchy Press
Published: 2009

Paperback
List Price: £55.00
Format: Paperback
Extent: 152pp.
Size: A4
ISBN: 978-0-9562631-2-4 

e-Toolkit
(Read only)
List Price: £18.00

e-Toolkit
(Full download)
List Price: £95.00

Tags: Systems Thinking, Leadership, Systemic Leadership, Organisational Leadership

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Theoretical Background to:
Systemic Leadership Toolkit

Discourse about organisations is littered with leadership theories, models and paradigms that focus – not unreasonably you might think – on the qualities, traits, skills and habits exhibited by individual leaders. Even the frontrunners of leadership thinking – Bennis and Kotter in particular – still talk about leadership as if the organisation in which the leader operates were largely peripheral.

It's as if historians were still talking about the character of Robespierre and Danton and hadn't yet begun to notice the importance of hunger, rationalism, unemployment and housing in fomenting the French revolution.

Until now, only Peter Senge has really confronted the systemic aspects of leadership, and he has moved on into the Elysian Fields of Presencing and Theory U.

Finally, Bill Tate has written the defining book on organisational leadership. Called The Search for Leadership, it seeks to reintegrate the organisation into the debate, downplay the personality of the leader and reopen the discussion about what leadership actually means for any organisation in a networked economy.

Read an article on Systemic Leadership by Bill Tate
Read a sample chapter from The Search for Leadership
Order The Search for Leadership (hardback, paperback and e-book editions available).

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A Short History of Leadership Thinking

Modern theorising about leadership began with the Great Man theory and theories based on leadership traits. It was most notably developed by Kurt Lewin with his thinking on leadership styles (best discussed by John Miner in:

Miner, J: 'Organizational Behavior: Behavior 1: Essential Theories ofMotivation and Leadership)

Blanchard and Hersey's Situational Leadership model sounds as if it gives more value to context. In fact, it principally suggests that individual leaders should adopt different leadership styles depending on the context – a different idea altogether. Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory was developed from this model and also focuses on the skills of the individual leader. See:

Hersey, P and Blanchard, K: Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources (8th Edition)

Vroom, V and Jago, A: The new leadership: managing participation inorganizations

Richard Hackman and others have developed the theory of Functional Leadership, but this again focuses on the role of individual leaders and groups of leaders, although it stresses the different types of leadership behaviour that can emerge in different situations. It identifies the tools by which leaders can become more effective and extract improved performance from others.

Hackman's latest contribution is:
Wageman, R, Nunes, D, Burruss, J and Hackman, JR: Senior Leadership Teams: What it Takes to Make Them Great

Contingency Theory suggests, again, that the "Great Man's" capacity to lead is constrained by a range of factors, but these mainly include the leader's preferred style and the ability of followers.

John Kotter, one of the two modern gurus of leadership has long stressed the differences between managing and leadership. His underlying argument appears to be guided by awareness of the surrounding organisational system and he says that leaders need to live comfortably in a 'web of relationships'. But these relationships are used to formulate and communicate a vision to 'inspire and control'. Once again, the message is about individual leaders (albeit lots of them in any organisation) becoming more effective. Kotter's latest book has his name (and middle initial) in the title – a mark of his celebrity status:

Kotter, J: John P Kotter on What Leaders Really Do

Kotter's rival, Warren Bennis, known as the 'dean of leadership thinking' (which makes academics sound like gangsters), likewise teaches leaders how to maximize their virtues, correct their faults, face change successfully, and love their work. (Actually that sounds more like St Paul than a gangster.) Once more, this is a resolutely leader-focused version of leadership:

Bennis, W: Why Leaders Can't Lead

Around 2002, Peter Senge became the first organisational theorist to talk at length about 'systemic leadership, but, as his interest in Presencingand the Fifth Discipline thinking developed, he rather left this notion behind. Now Bill Tate has revived the discussion with a masterly book about the theory and practice of Systemic Leadership.

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The Search for Leadership is a comprehensive study of the way leadership operates in organisations. The book is split into two parts:

The Thinking Challenge offers the kind of detailed analysis of the problem that will be welcomed by researchers, lecturers and students in universities and business schools everywhere.

The more practical Intervention Challenge tackles each aspect of leadership on a theme-by-theme basis and is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to improve leadership in an organisation or studying the process by which leadership is engendered and disseminated without and across the organisation.

It provides an in-depth focus on current leadership issues, from discussing the purpose of leading versus managing, through learning the language of Systems Thinking and developing a leadership culture, to exploring a range of processes by which leadership can be held to account.

This eye-opening account of the leadership challenges organisations face will change forever the way you think about leadership and help improve the way any organisation is run.

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Related Titles:
The Search for Leadership 
The Decision Loom
Growing Wings on the Way

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