Page 141 - Appreciative Leadership

114 Appreciative Leadership

I needed to know at the time. I soon learned that I was not a
“newbie” in the department but a full member of Neil’s team.
I was included in all meetings where we sat in a circle and
took turns leading the meeting. Because of my past experi-
ences, it took me a couple of months to realize that we were a
team whose members supported each other in accomplishing

the overall work. That is how I learned the diff erence between
being on a team and feeling like we are a team.

Just as Neil included Robert as a full member of the team, appre-
ciative leadership expects and encourages individuals to support and
to contribute to the goals, plans, and intentions of the whole. Th ey cre-
ate situations and processes for people to support one another. Th ey
regularly bring the whole group together to deepen relatedness and
to discuss and determine how to achieve their shared goals. What-
ever the form of inclusion, when it is successful, people feel that they
belong, that they and their contributions are valued, and that there is
a sense of “we” working together for the good of the whole.

Accommodating Conversational Differences

To truly invite people to coauthor their future requires that you cre-
ate opportunities for people—all stakeholders—to talk and to be
heard. We have all been in situations in which a few people—the vocal

minority—dominate the conversation. They use more of their share
of talk time, and they are seemingly unaware of others’ need to speak.

Why does this happen? There are endless explanations; but we fi nd it
useful to understand three considerations that are frequently at play.

Extraversion and Introversion

A first factor at play in many conversations is the difference in the
conversational style between extraverts and introverts. Extraverts