SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

‘We need to deconstruct the mythology around leadership. There is so much in our culture and tradition that takes you down the path of seeing leadership as being something that’s innate to a special class of people. This is elitist and disempowering for the rest of us who have enormous potential to lead.’
— Doug Taylor, Uniting

Leaders must grapple with chaotic and often uncertain contexts. Paradoxically, it is in times such as these that we expect leadership to provide a clear vision and direction for the future. The ‘reality’ for leadership has changed, with leaders needing to navigate between earlier paradigms of stability and growth to those of change and complexity; from control, to empowerment; from competition, to collaboration; from uniformity to diversity; from self-centredness to higher purpose; and from heroism to humility.

For organisations to survive this era of increased uncertainty, ambiguity, disruption and change, they need to innovate, adapt and develop new capabilities. This requires rethinking our approach to leadership. Increasingly leadership is being thought of as a ‘shared social process’ that occurs throughout organisations. This represents a transformation in the way that many organisations approach leadership.

Applying a systems approach to leadership asks us to consider the interconnected and emergent nature of the leadership context. Leading the system starts by understanding its needs.

It is one thing to recognise and agree that complex systems are ever-changing, unpredictable and uncertain. It is another to actually change our behaviour in response to the system. As the system is dynamic, we must be dynamic. Our old ways of operating may not work anymore. We may need to draw on strengths that we have never used before, or that we have only used in other contexts. It is important for leaders to recognise that they do not stand outside the system, but are participants and are impacted by changes to it.

In systems leadership, leaders are seen as agents of change who are encouraged to collaborate in a process for collective benefit. The systems leader is a person who catalyses collective leadership. Leading the system (as well as the self and the organisation) has been referred to as a movement from an ‘ego-system’ of leadership (with a focus on one’s own well-being) to an ecosystem’ of leadership, where the focus is on ‘the well-being of all, including oneself.

Systems leadership is therefore a shared set of relationships and process that use cohesion, community and creativity to deliver shared outcomes that benefit everyone the system serves.