Week 4: Leadership as process – conversations

Introduction

All leadership is created through process – through ‘doing’. It should be thought of like a verb, rather than a noun. An act, instead of a static ‘thing’ in the possession of any one person. Seen this way, all leadership is necessarily a process shared between more than one person. No individual person can practise leadership alone, because without other people involved, there would be nobody to follow, let alone to enrich the process.

Adopting a process view means examining and improving what people actually do together, rather than trying to make judgments about their personalities. From the perspective of racial equity and justice, a process view means focusing on how group practices can be improved to enhance the diversity and fairness of:

• who is able to participate
• who speaks and who is listened to
• what is spoken about and acted upon.

This week, you will be introduced to some influential theories of collective leadership, which will provide you with an orientation for making sense of leadership processes. You will then be introduced to two important processes that can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful leadership: good practice in holding conversations, and asking questions.

Figure 1 Leadership is more than a noun – it is a verb

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This is a photograph that shows people gathered around a desk covered in documents denoting a process (charts, trends, tables, etc.)

Figure 1 Leadership is more than a noun – it is a verb

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

• define leadership process as collective actions that generate new meaningful direction
• strengthen your leadership communication through effective conversations
• strengthen your leadership communication through asking effective questions.