Because our lives are comprised of and lived in stories, leadership can be more effective when we take into account what those we lead are saying. This means a careful listening to history and determining the boundaries erected by a story. Narrative Leadership is the willingness to learn the storied history of people and their organization then deliberately and cooperatively using those stories to fashion a future.

Narrative leadership is a method and as such adaptable to all organizations. Generally, the term means two things. The first is to create or introduce change by relating the change initiative to stories. The second is to see that an organization has a story or stories that define it. In this use, before any change is initiated the leader will determine those stories and how they may impact what is proposed. Narrative leadership can be used in any organization. It is best used where change can take effect over time.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Leading and Leadership

I have been intrigued to discover what I call the difference between leading and leadership. In the first are the practices that build up a people and in the second the environment of mutual trust and respect that makes it possible. I point this out because I suspect that in human sociality the majority of people aren’t as interested in having a leader as in having leadership. Of course one cannot occur without the other but I think it serves to locate the primary task of leaders as “environmentalists” while reminding us that our role cannot be fulfilled in a vacuum: we need people. It’s oxymoronic yet so fitting in the grander scheme of life that what we need to accomplish our mission is also that which defeats it. Leaders and perhaps particularly narrative leaders then dance the perpetual steps of the unconvinced but always moving toward a destination, taking people with us.
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