the space between

Leadership Development
At the space between we contribute to many developments of thought and practice of leadership. these are the views that drive our work. No longer is it the case that leadership exists only at the top of an organisation, an emerging perspective of leadership is beginning to recognise that everyone has some form of leadership capacity in them - in the space between we call that being leaderful. That doesn't mean that everyone is good at leading organisations or large groups of people to achieve a result, there is a particular talent to that. What it does mean is that all managers are leaders and they carry a responsibility to draw out, perhaps one of the most important qualities of an organisation - the leaderful capacity that exists in every employee. This is achieved through connectedness, to the purpose and direction of the organisation.
	Leadership is not just about leading people to achieve a result, it is also about leading ideas, inspiring people to see their own strengths, influencing the moment, modeling leaderful behaviour, respect for others, sharing knowledge and experience, valuing the collective. Our traditionally narrow attitudes towards leadership have been deeply rooted in education and a mechanistic mindset. Sir Ken Robinson emphasised the consequences of that ....report.
Leaderful behaviour is diverse. What it does mean is that people are encouraged to be leaderful, not to be squashed into shape by over-control; to initiate and lead ideas however small they may seem; to bring passion for what they are good at into their work; are encouraged to speak out, invited to contribute, respected for what they notice. Shifting perspectives ... A colleague recently responded to an announcement I made that I thought it a good idea to develop a women’s leadership programme. He responded that as long as management and leadership is tied up with expectations to work long hours, then women will struggle to become leaders. From an old paradigm perspective of leadership that may be the case, but we are stepping into something new, the world has changed. Women are discovering that they are leaderful and that men and women around them are also leaderful. That leadership is not just a role, it is a way of living and influencing the world. It is perhaps this important recognition that will eventually shift our work patterns. Not to change the hours that people work, but to shift the way we think about our own human capacity. So leadership is a mindset, an attitude, a multi-faceted and multi-perspectived concept. It exists everywhere, as well as in formal roles. Organisations can capitalise on this, some do already, Google, Apple, Intel, have reaped the rewards of doing so. Talk to us