Leadership Metaphor Explorer Facilitator's Guide. David Horth M.
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For M., the most important part of leadership is knowing oneself because only then can one lead others. M. also chose other cards to represent the various aspects of leadership that a monk exhibits. But at the heart of his understanding lay self-awareness.
Figure 2. A young monk in a monastery contemplates Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s metaphors and their relation to self-awareness.
Humans depend heavily on their sense of sight. Humans are also highly communicative. Sometimes, when faced with a challenge, people will try to talk themselves through it. Leadership Metaphor Explorer opens up a different channel, granting insight and information that flows through visual, emotional, physical, and nonverbal channels.
Metaphor—the act of comparing the qualities of two different things as if they were the same—is at the root of human cognition and self-identity (Mair, 1977; McAdams, 1997), and perhaps of consciousness itself (Dennett, 1991; Jaynes, 1976). We know that metaphors can be a powerful aid to thinking and communicating when used with intention and discipline (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003). When Leadership Metaphor Explorer injects metaphors into strategic conversations, new insights and ideas emerge.
Part of the problem in thinking about leadership is that the topic is full of clichés and platitudes. Ideas about leadership run in predictable ruts. We miss opportunities to practice leadership because we have trouble thinking about options and alternatives. For example, people will focus on “the leader as hero” and miss the options inherent in “the leader as servant” or “the leader as coach.” Leadership Metaphor Explorer offers people new metaphors that can direct them to new opportunities.
Do we want people to model themselves literally as Dependable Repairmen (to quote one card)? No. We want them to explore metaphorical connotations such as dependable, loyal, service oriented, and problem solving as potentially helpful for their own situations.
How Does Leadership Metaphor Explorer Address Leadership Types?
Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s design accommodates three distinct types of leadership metaphors. In the first type, leadership is associated with authority, power, dominance, and control. CCL calls this dependent leadership. Leadership based in influence, expertise, heroic effort, and individual ambition comes next. CCL refers to this as independent leadership. Finally, there is a type of leadership based in collaboration, diverse perspectives, shared learning, and intentional boundary spanning. This is interdependent leadership (Drath, Palus, & McGuire, 2010). Each of Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s cards is coded according to these three types, with red labels for dependent, green labels for independent, and blue labels for interdependent. Because Leadership Metaphor Explorer is based on metaphor, the coding is open to interpretation, and many of the metaphors may fit more than one type.
Figure 3. Characteristics of leadership types.
Dependent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that only people in positions of authority are responsible for leadership. This assumption may lead to organizations that emphasize top-down control and deference to authority. In general, dependent cultures can be thought of as conformer cultures.
Dependent leadership cultures and independent leadership cultures have limits to their capability to produce direction, alignment, and commitment. When the clients or customers demand fully integrated service across lines of business, the value of heroic, independent leadership can fall short of meeting that demand.
Independent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that leadership emerges from individuals based on their knowledge and expertise. This assumption may lead to decentralized decision making, high demand for individual responsibility, and competition among types of experts. In general, independent cultures can be thought of as achiever cultures.
Interdependent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that leadership is a collective activity that requires mutual inquiry and learning (McCauley et al., 2008). This assumption may lead to the widespread use of dialogue, collaboration, horizontal networks, the valuing of differences, and a focus on learning. In general, interdependent cultures can be thought of as collaborative cultures. As they develop from dependent to independent to interdependent, leadership cultures gain capacity to deal with complexity and ambiguity.
Interdependence isn’t an ideal. Only a small fraction of organizations meet the criteria of interdependence (Kegan, 1994; McCauley et al., 2008; Torbert, 2004). There are highly successful dependent and independent organizations in business, in communities, in governments, and in NGOs. Organizations may exhibit all three leadership types. For example, an organization that provides mental health services might exhibit a dependent culture in its support staff, an independent culture among its case workers, and an interdependent culture in its relations among these parts and with external stakeholders.
Levels of leadership. CCL defines leadership in terms of outcomes—direction, alignment, and commitment. Those outcomes can be observed at different levels of leadership action: society, organization, group, and individual.
The societal level includes relationships among organizations, across entire fields and industries, and among regional cultures (Ospina & Foldy, 2010; Quinn & Van Velsor, 2010). The organizational level includes multipart organizations and communities. The group level includes smaller organizational collectives such as divisions, functions, teams, work groups, and task forces. The individual level includes the qualities and subjective viewpoints of individual leaders, followers, and members.
Figure 4. Four levels of leadership.
Each leadership level provides leverage for development. All four levels can be identified as vital in any scenario in which direction, alignment, and commitment are produced. Our research and experience suggest that attention to processes and outcomes at all four levels are necessary for developing more collaborative, interdependent leadership.
When Should Leadership Metaphor Explorer Be Used?
Leadership Metaphor Explorer should be used with individuals or groups when they need fresh insight about their leadership and its development. Typically, that need arises in the face of complex challenges, or what Bob Johansen (2012) calls VUCA: conditions of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Those conditions pervade contemporary life. Leadership Metaphor Explorer offers a means to achieve direction, alignment, and commitment in response to the VUCA world, no matter where you are. You can use Leadership Metaphor Explorer on the bus, at the dinner table, in a class, or in a team meeting. It’s portable enough for impromptu meetings. It supports great conversations in a serious and formal atmosphere, and it supports great conversations when humor and levity are welcome.
Leadership Metaphor Explorer is a wonderful tool that lends itself to a wide range of leadership, cultural, and community-building explorations at an individual or group level, and those explorations are a valuable reflection and discussion tool for leadership coaches.
—Jim Myracle, cofounder and partner, TMT Associates, Inc.
Why Should Leadership Metaphor Explorer Be Used?
Leadership Metaphor Explorer helps you see your present leadership approach more clearly, and it helps you imagine the leadership approach needed in the future. Related benefits include the following:
• Creates shared understanding about the challenges at hand
• Creates fresh, memorable metaphors and stories about a complex challenge that engage people in finding solutions
• Builds safety for self-disclosure and vulnerability
• Improves interpersonal understanding and trust