Page 31 - Appreciative Leadership

4 Appreciative Leadership

Appreciative Leadership Is a Relational Capacity
All work, indeed all life, occurs in relationship. It is our experience
that while there are individuals called “leaders” and there are indi-
viduals that others perceive as leaders, nothing of worth happens
without the involvement of many people. Professor Kenneth Gergen

offers the most substantive understanding of relational capacities in
2
his book Relational Being. In it he describes the paradigm shift from
“individualistic” views of leadership to “relational” views, saying,
“None of the qualities attributed to good leaders stands alone. Alone,
one cannot be inspiring, visionary, humble, or fl exible. Th ese qualities
are the achievements of a coactive process in which others’ affi rmation
is essential. A charismatic leader is only charismatic by virtue of others
who treat him or her in this way; remove the glitter in their eyes and
the ‘charisma’ turns to dust. … Leadership resides in the confl uence.” 3
We have chosen, therefore, to write about leadership: the rela-
tional processes and practices through which people come together to
make things happen. Sometimes people come together as leaders and
followers. Sometimes they do this as equals, each bringing diff erent
strengths, resources, and capacities; other times they come together
as diverse stakeholders collaborating to cocreate (or coauthor) some-
thing like a better business model, a more environmentally friendly
product, or a more socially and economically feasible health care sys-
tem. No matter what the form, relationships are at the heart of leader-
ship and its capacity to make things happen. Imagine the confl uence
of relationships in this brief story:

Patricia Arenas, former director of Havana’s Human Change
Project, has traveled around the world to culturally diverse
countries, including Russia, Mexico, the United States, the
United Kingdom, and Denmark, to study and to share her
work. She has said, “It’s the same on the ground here in Cuba
as it is most places; it’s all about the people and relationships.”