Skills for 21st Century Leaders

A process of change for people, their teams, their organizations, and their communities, from Leadership Evansville and the Indiana Leadership Initiative.

I. Essential Attitudes

Servant-Leadership is widely acknowledged as the appropriate leadership model for the 21st century. Sometimes misunderstood, servant-leadership is about identity and motive as well as about action. Servant-leaders care about the people they lead and the processes they use, as well as about getting the work done. They choose to lead collaboratively, which develops and increases the skills and capacities of their followers. This enables individuals to become "healthier, freer, wiser, more autonomous, more likely themselves to be servants." [Robert K. Greenleaf, founder of the modern Servant-leadership movement.] Servant-leaders model this attitude and teach others to become servant-leaders.

Community Trusteeship expands servant-leadership to an even broader collaborative approach—making a commitment to, and taking responsibility for organization-wide or community-wide improvement, without regard to “What’s in it for me?”

II. Essential Skills

Gifts and Talents focuses on the importance of discovering the unique skills and qualities each person brings to the group, building an inventory of assets so the individual, group, or organization can develop fully and/or benefit from the talents available. The use of learning partners in the discovery process introduces the concept of "co-learning," feedback, and coaching.

Learning Preferences (Styles) demonstrates that individuals learn in different ways and that their preferences affect group interaction. The group can benefit from recognizing the learning preferences of its members as gifts and use them to strengthen group work. Failure to recognize, accept, and effectively use the differences in learning styles can manifest as personality conflicts or lack of teamwork.

Cycle of Change teaches individuals and groups to view every experience, success, or failure as a vehicle for reflection, learning, and improvement. In effective groups, this learning is a collaborative process. This Cycle interacts with Learning Styles and results in better quality individual and group performance.
Stages of a Learning Community focuses on how groups learn to work together collaboratively—their relationships and behaviors as well as their tasks. Strategies are identified to help the group progress effectively through each stage as it strives to reach high performance, and avoid being stuck in less productive modes.

III. Essential Processes

Visioning a Preferred Future begins a person's, team's, or organization's journey of moving "from where we are to where we want to be." Participants develop and communicate a shared meaning of what the community or organization should be like or look like when it’s working well; they identify the goals they need to pursue and improvements they want to make, as they strive for their ideal.

Collaboration is the process by which organizations and communities will operate in the 21st century when they want and need mutual benefits that are not achievable or satisfactory through separate efforts. Successful collaborators begin by learning new ways of working together—new attitudes, agreements, and facilitation skills, including recognition of and input from all stakeholders.

Dialogue and Consensus Decision-making avoid destructive "solution wars" and create win-win situations. The goal is not to find the one so-called right decision, nor one “we can live with.” Rather, the goal is to gain unity and agreement in a decision that will work and will create a broad group commitment that makes implementation easier. There are various models for reaching consensus—all of them take time and practice!

IV. Supporting Attitudes/Skills/Components

New Leadership examines new understanding about the nature of leadership, why it is changing, and what it will need to be in the 21st century.

A Timeline is often the first step of a personal or institutional visioning process. It provides perspective on where we’ve been and where we want to go, and identifies values and behaviors that worked in the past and should be carried forward in a new climate. Likewise identified are values and behaviors that have had their day and need to be left behind. Through timelines, people share stories and develop common meaning.

Multiple Lenses (Understanding Differences) examines a situation from other perspectives that are important but may be missing from the table, or are present at table, but are not being heard. This process reveals overlooked information and leads to a more complete understanding of a vision, issue, or problem.

Active Listening is essential to dialogue, aids in discovering and understanding the real meaning of what is being communicated, and helps the listener respond appropriately and constructively to the speaker and the situation.

Communication and Conflict Resolution are key to persons understanding one another and working together successfully. These skills demand conscious awareness of our own behaviors and habits as well as the recognition of and appropriate response to the behaviors of others. We must communicate, and we can’t (and wouldn’t want to) eliminate conflicting ideas. Therefore, the best action is not reaction. The best action is the development and practice of interpersonal skills.

Problem/Solution Identification distinguishes problems according to their symptoms, then prescribes the effective, appropriate leadership response for each.

“Six Thinking Hats” for creativity and decision-making is Edward de Bono’s proven method to reach decisions using 6 types of thinking hats that thoroughly examine a problem or proposal, consider all the facts, feelings and angles, to arrive at a conclusion that makes sense. The Six Thinking Hats technique can be used to stimulate creativity in problem-solving and/or to lead a group to a consensus decision.

“Hard Talk” is a dialogue structure that provides a triple-whammy: group members build trust, and learn the communication and collaborative skills, that enable them to work together more effectively as they tackle "real work."

Facilitation Training equips a leader or group member to use the “Skills for 21st Century Leaders” to help a group or team move from where they are to where they want to be, whether facilitating from within or outside the group.

Open Space [adapted from Harrison Owen, pioneer in organizational consciousness] is a facilitation method that encourages the group to: take responsibility for setting the agenda; discover its own wisdom; do the necessary research and teaching; define and implement goals; evaluate results; and plan future actions.

Creating a Leader-full Community answers the questions "What is a leader-full community, why is it desirable, and how is one created?"