Page 34 - Appreciative Leadership

Appreciative Leadership Now 7

person or group—and to work with them, is a starting point for all
positive change. It is especially relevant in organizations and com-

munities when the configuration of relationships need to change—
for example, when a new member joins a team, a department gets
a new head, two units or organizations merge, or when a new proj-
ect is launched. In all cases, Appreciative Leadership is implicitly and
explicitly relational, living and working with awareness of and care for
the group’s impact upon other people, all living beings, and the earth.

Appreciative Leadership Is a Positive Worldview

In the closing chapter of their book Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye
of the Beholder, consultants Marge Schiller, Bea Mah Holland, and
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Deanna Riley describe Appreciative Leadership as a “worldview.”
Indeed, it is a worldview—that is, it is a set of beliefs and a way of
seeing the world, people, and situations—that is uniquely and, by

choice, positive and life affirming. And as such, this positive world-
view informs all that is Appreciative Leadership: its identity, strate-
gies, practices, and results.
Appreciative leaders hold each and every person in positive

regard. They look through appreciative eyes to see the best of people.
They seek to treat all individuals positively, with respect and dignity,

no matter their age, gender, race, religion, or culture—even education
or experience. They believe that everyone has positive potential—a

positive core of strengths and a passionate calling to be fulfi lled—and
they seek to bring that forward and nurture it. Take Mary Beth’s story
as an example. Having contributed positively to her organization for
nearly 10 years as the manager of human resources, she approached
her boss asking to move into the operations side of the business.
Together, she and her boss negotiated a plan: she would attend a few
outside classes and workshops to obtain some crucial skills she was

missing, and the boss would find a new place for her in the organiza-
tion, where she could learn and grow with support. Within a year, the
transfer was achieved. Nearly a decade later, she serves as a senior
operations leader in one of the company’s largest and most profi table
business units. 6