Appreciative Leadership
Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.
What is Appreciative Leadership?
Appreciative Leadership is a highly participatory approach that involves asking strategically crafted questions about an organization’s collective strengths, achievements, success stories, positive traditions, and visions for the future. Appreciative Leadership is a communication style that works on the basis of valuing people’s contributions as well as using their ideas and insights in a collaborative approach. Whitney, Torsten-Bloom, and Rader define Appreciative Leadership as “the relational capacity to mobilize creative potential and turn it into positive power – to set in motion positive ripples of confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and performance – to make a positive difference in the world”.
According to this definition:
- Participative Leadership involves relational processes and practices through which people come together to work inclusively and collaboratively.
- It is a positive worldview, based on the belief that every person, team, and organization has a positive potential.
- It recognizes potential and seeks to turn it into positive power.
- It creates waves of positive change rippling outward.
What is Appreciative Inquiry?
The foundation of Appreciative Leadership is in theory and approach to organizing known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI). Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy and a methodology for positive change. AI seeks to discover the unique, positive qualities and capabilities of an organization and use these as the foundation for future development or change. AI is based on the assumption that organizations will change in the direction of the questions asked. It is a process of organizational change that emphasizes positive questions and collaborative inquiry as a source for enhanced performance and creating a common purpose. The essence of Appreciative Inquiry is the study of what “gives life,” energy, and vitality to organizations, teams, and people when they are at their best.
AI is firmly grounded in social constructionist theory, ideas around the power of generative conversations, and the centrality of relationships and language in the functioning of organizations. The appreciative Inquiry process engages large numbers of people in discussions about their individual and collective strengths and their desires, opportunities, and plans for collaborative action.
In short, AI tries to address two questions as a starting point, What problems the organizations is currently having, and what seems to be working around here. Then the next step is to improve by focusing on and doing more of what is working well.
Ask the following questions to yourself to start the journey on the path to appreciative leadership:
1. What are my strengths as a leader when working with others?
2. How can I show that I appreciate and value others' contributions?
3. What can I do to engage people in finding solutions and work collaboratively?
4. How can I encourage creative thinking and innovation in people?
Model of Appreciative Leadership:
The model of leadership put forth by Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, and Rader is extremely well aligned and consistent in theory and practice with AI. The authors introduce the Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership on which the model of Appreciative Leadership is based; Inquiry, Illumination, Inclusion, Inspiration, and Integrity. Appreciate what is working, imagine what could be, design what should be, and create what will be!
According to Whitney and her colleagues, there are five core strategies to appreciative leadership:
1. Inquiry: asking positive powerful questions
Inquiry lets people know that you value them and their contributions. When you ask people to share their thoughts and feelings you show your appreciation for their inputs and experiences.
2. Illumination: bringing out the best in people and situations
Illumination helps people understand how they can best contribute. This is the process to help people learn about their strengths and the strengths of others.
3. Inclusion: engaging with people to co-create the future
Inclusion gives people a sense of belonging. This is the process of inclusiveness and collaboration and co-creation. This is about creating an environment in which people feel they are a part of something.
4. Inspiration: awakening the creative spirit in everyone
Inspiration provides people with a sense of direction. By forging a vision and path forward, you give people hope and unleash energy.
5. Integrity: making choices for the good of the whole
Integrity lets people know that they are expected to give their best for the greater good and that they can trust others to do the same.
Books to Read:
Appreciative Leadership by Diana Whitney, et al (2010)
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry, 2nd Edition by Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.
-
Collaborative leadership is all about collaborative problem-solving and decision-making or can also be defined as the leadership of a collaborative effort. . The term started to appear in the mid-1990s in response to the formation of long term public-private partnerships to rebuild public infrastructure. Learn how you can use principles of collaborative leadership to enhance your leadership skills for being an effective leader.
-
Bureaucratic leadership relies on a clear chain of command and strict regulations. Bureaucratic leadership style is a very decent style for work involving serious safety risks, such as handling toxic substances, moving large objects. The focus is on compliance with rules and laid down procedures to make sure that the group is doing their job correctly and safely. Learn some advantages and disadvantages of this style and situations in which this style could prove to be effective.
-
This style is characterized by leaders making decisions for others and expecting followers to follow instructions. The directive leader is adept at giving instructions, setting expectations, and establishing timelines and performance standards. However, it is possible for the same leaders to display both directive and supportive behavior as per the demands of the situation.
-
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
-
Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using. The 5 Types of Power in Leadership are Coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and reward power. Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from the organization and it allows the leader to use power.
-
Narrative leadership is interpreted as the leader who aspires to construct leadership by telling stories. Leadership is a task of persuasion, of winning people’s minds and hearts. Storytelling is thus inherently suited for the task of leadership. Learn about the narrative leadership style and how to use this style to inspire and motivate followers or to manage change.
-
Frederick Winslow Taylor started the “Scientific Management Movement”, and attempted to study the work process scientifically. Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. It is a system for increasing the efficiency of manpower to its maximum potential and streamlining production to improve efficiency. This article explores this theory in more detail.
-
Understanding of how individuals of different cultures interact with each other is very important. Not all individuals can adapt to the leadership styles expected in a different culture whether that culture is organizational or national. In a fast-paced business environment, developing a richer understanding and sensitivity to other cultures is a skill that leaders must possess. Learn to be effective in a cross-cultural setting.
-
We define Lean as the systematic elimination of waste through a continual effort to decrease inefficiency; the lean leader strives to create a more efficient organization. Lean leadership is a philosophy. It is a consistent way of thinking and being in your role as a leader. The focus of this approach is on raising new leaders and help their team embrace a culture of continuous improvement. Learn what we mean by lean leadership style and its principles.
