CHAPTER 1

Appreciative Leadership Now

The world has changed. Approaches to leadership that served well in the past donot address the challenges of the twenty-first century. Appreciative Leadershipdoes.

We have crossed a threshold to a new era: one that demands a radical shift inleadership strategies and practices. Few places on the planet are untouched bythe "progress of the industrial age" and the "dawning of the electronic age."Cities and local markets from New York to Chang Mai to Santiago to Lahore allfeature cars, computers, and cell phones. Our planet is wrapped in a web ofairplane routes, satellite orbits, and telecommunication signals.

New Approaches to Leadership for the New Global Society

This transformation from an industrial age to an electronic age brings us faceto face with the reality of our interdependence. As inhabitants of the earth, weare connected—from the air we breathe, to the water we drink, to theenergy that powers our lifestyles, to the pain, hunger, and sorrow in the eyesof children around the world. With the help of technology, we have discovered,as if for the first time, something that has always been and will always be:we are all related.

Acknowledgment of this interdependence leads us to profoundly shift what we wishfor and expect from leadership. Success in the future will go to those who helpus come into harmony, among ourselves and with the planet—to those whohelp us to thrive as one global community. President of the World BusinessAcademy Rinaldo Brutoco affirmed this when he stated, "Now more than ever, theworld business community must face the inescapable conclusion, at the core ofthe Academy's very existence: business must be willing to become responsible forthe whole of global society."

To meet this challenge, leadership now—in the twenty-firstcentury—must be aware of and respond to four trends currently defining thesocial milieu of organizations and communities:

1. New generations have come of age. Younger people expect differentthings from work, from community, and from leadership than the generations thatpreceded them. Today, people want to be engaged and heard. They want to beinvolved in the decisions that affect them and to be acknowledged for a job welldone.

2. Diversity is the norm. Organizations and communities are no longerhomogeneous. Whether local or global, small town or corporate, they are composedof people with a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, of differingages and preferences. Speaking many languages and sharing many differenthistories, people in today's organizations want leadership to be collaborativeand just.

3. Institutions are being reinvented. The context of leadership is nolonger stable or predictable. In all sectors of industry and society,institutions have failed and are being reimagined and redesigned. These newinstitutions are more fluid and more agile. In them, distributed leadership andpower emerges as people self-organize to meet the needs of the whole.

4. Holistic, sustainable approaches are essential. Today's decisionswill cast the die for generations to come. The most pressing social, economic,environmental, and political challenges of our time are global in nature. Theycannot be resolved by one person, one country, or one business. They requireunprecedented appreciation of differences and collaboration. In short, they callfor Appreciative Leadership.

What Is Appreciative Leadership?

Appreciative Leadership is a philosophy, a way of being and a set of strategiesthat give rise to practices applicable across industries, sectors, and arenas ofcollaborative action. The following definition of Appreciative Leadership isfull of potential. As you read it ask yourself, "What does this mean to me andfor the way I work?" We also suggest that you offer it up for discussion amongcolleagues and team members. Read it to them and discuss, "What does this meanfor us and for the way we work together?"

Appreciative Leadership is the relational capacity to mobilizecreative potential and turn it into positive power—to set in motionpositive ripples of confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and performance—tomake a positive difference in the world.

Embedded in this definition are four formative ideas about AppreciativeLeadership: (1) it is relational; (2) it is positive; (3) it is about turningpotential into positive power; and (4) it has rippling effects. You may alsorealize, as many others have, that each of these four ideas represents aparadigm shift : a clear movement away from the habitual, traditional, andindividualistic command and control practices of leadership toward "a newnormal": the positive, socially generative principles, strategies, and practicesof Appreciative Leadership.

Appreciative Leadership Is a Relational Capacity

All work, indeed all life, occurs in relationship. It is our experience thatwhile there are individuals called "leaders" and there are individuals thatothers perceive as leaders, nothing of worth happens without the involvement ofmany people. Professor Kenneth Gergen offers the most substantive understandingof relational capacities in his book Relational Being. In it hedescribes the paradigm shift from "individualistic" views of leadership to"relational" views, saying, "None of the qualities attributed to good leadersstands alone. Alone, one cannot be inspiring, visionary, humble, or flexible.These qualities are the achievements of a coactive process in which others'affirmation is essential. A charismatic leader is only charismatic by virtue ofothers who treat him or her in this way; remove the glitter in their eyes andthe 'charisma' turns to dust.... Leadership resides in the confluence."

We have chosen, therefore, to write about leadership: the relational processesand practices through which people come together to make things happen.Sometimes people come together as leaders and followers. Sometimes they do thisas equals, each bringing different strengths, resources, and capacities; othertimes they come together as diverse stakeholders collaborating to cocreate (orcoauthor)...