Understanding Systemic Leadership

This means that the organisation must have and implement a new kind of leadership strategy – one that is very different from conventional leadership development programmes that claim to improve leadership but barely do. In fact, unless the organisational context is itself worked on at the same time, money spent on training individuals is wasted. The context will let them down.

The leadership mindset needs to switch from the individual to the organisation as a system, and from management development interventions towards ones that develop the organisation. For many managers, this means mastering new subjects, with systems thinking and complexity theory being particularly significant.

It is important to gain an understanding of systemic leadership before reading about how to apply the approach. Once you have examined the underpinning logic in ‘Definitions, Principles and Theories’, look at items of interest listed below.

• • What the systemic leader knows and understands
  • Holding managers to account
  • The illusion of control
  • Can do. But want to do? Enabled to do?
  • Joined-up HR
  • What is good leadership development?
  • Giving and receiving leadership
  • Inter-group shadow behaviour
  • The business versus the organisation

You may then like to test whether you have what it takes to become a systemic leader.