The Communitas Project

Communitas Philosophy 1

At Communitas, we do use and rely on the commonly established practices of leadership development, because they sort of work, well enough, after a fashion. In our opinion, they can be exponentially improved, through the study and application of everything we will outline in the other entries of this blog series on Communitas philosophy.

Below we have gathered for you a selection of typical approaches and theories, ranging from the banal to the exhortative to the more sophisticated.

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html

http://www.leadershipnow.com/index.html

Leadership - Character and Traits: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html

http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/seven-principles-of-leadership.asp

http://www.farsightleadership.com/leadership-programmes.php?s=1

Leadership: Theory and Practice (Paperback)

by Peter G. Northouse (Author)

Principle Centered Leadership (Paperback)

by Stephen R. Covey (Author)

Transformational Leadership (Paperback)

by Bernard M. Bass; Ronald E. Riggio (Author)

The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition (Paperback)

by James M. Kouzes (Author), Barry Z. Posner (Author)

• Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions
• Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
• Set the example.
• Keep everyone informed.
• Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates.
• Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished.
• Know your people, and look after their welfare.
• Set goals you can reach.
• Make sound and timely decisions.
• Know your job.
• Promote and use teamwork.
This is not a ‘bad’ set of principles, but how does anyone actually develop, apply or ‘live’ these ? And they assume that all that is needed is a clear and rational mind that can formulate the proper goals and make appropriate decisions. They are not based on ‘emotional intelligence’ or an understanding of the complexity of the human mind and relationships, nor do they take into account ingrained individual and social patterns.

Some of merits and limitations of these principles are discussed here (links to): A blunt assessment of current leadership development systems and practices; How the brain-bodymind revolution will affect your business; The psychological aspects of the typical coaching curriculum

We do include and draw from some of the more psychologically-informed approaches which have already been taken up in organisational and leadership development work and are fairly established, such as:

Gestalt in organisations

NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming)

Myers-Briggs Personality Types

Theories of Facilitation (e.g. John Heron’s: 6-category intervention & facilitator styles)

Theories on the ‘use of self’ by the leader

Posted by Michael Soth in
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