Page 16 - Appreciative Leadership

Introduction

This book began over 50 years ago as we each stepped into leadership
in our families, our Girl Scout troops, our classes, and our extracur-
ricular activities at school. Early in our lives we were each called to
leadership and wondered, what is good leadership? How do I do it or,
better yet, be it?
Diana was asked to be the editor of her high school yearbook. She
had no thought at the time of ever writing books. Her teachers saw

her potential and offered her an opportunity to see it for herself. She is
now an author or editor of 20 books—including her high school and
college yearbooks and her Ph.D. dissertation! Along the same lines,
Amanda’s teachers and mentors invited her to speak publicly at school
and in church, as even then her clear and hopeful messages moved
people of all ages to action. Today she is an enthusiastic speaker and
consultant who is able to inspire large groups of people toward posi-
tive change. For Kae, an early job in the Indianapolis mayor’s offi ce
working with a team of talented and dedicated public service leaders
was seminal. She gained lasting insights as they mindfully and con-

sistently strove to make nonpartisan decisions for the benefit of the
whole community. Now, as a seasoned consultant helping others work
on behalf of their organizations, she still draws on those formative
lessons. While our journeys have been different, they have brought us

together, now, as colleagues and coauthors.
We are organization development consultants. We work with lead-
ership teams to design and facilitate large-scale processes that result in
whole-system positive change. We are accustomed to working with and
supporting the creative collaboration of very large groups of people. Two
hundred is a small group for us. Our clients include leadership teams
from Hunter Douglas; the University of Virginia Health System; Sisters

xv