Becoming an Invitational Leader. William W Purkey
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Becoming an Invitational Leader
© 2003, 2013 Humanix Books
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, contact Humanix Books.
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West Palm Beach, FL 33416
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Printed in the United States of America and the United Kingdom
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-63006-011-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013945513
This book is dedicated with love to our spouses, Imogene and Joel, our children, our children’s children, and also to the extended family of the International Alliance for Invitational Education.
“Invest in good actions. Things can be taken away from us — not good deeds and acts of virtue.”
—Seneca
Contents
Introduction to Invitational Leadership
Chapter 1: Foundations of Invitational Leadership
Chapter 2: The Invitational Guidance System
Chapter 3: Levels of Functioning
Chapter 4: Inviting Ourselves Personally
Chapter 5: Inviting Others Personally
Chapter 6: Inviting Ourselves Professionally
Chapter 7: Inviting Others Professionally
Chapter 8: The Invitational Leader as Servant
This book is significantly different from many other books on leadership in that it offers a practical and innovative model anchored on a single theoretical framework. This model shifts from emphasizing control and dominance to one that focuses on connectedness, cooperation, and communication. Based on sound philosophical and psychological assumptions, this model has been tested and successfully applied by leaders in numerous fields, including administration, business, nursing, dentistry, counseling, and other helping professions. Indeed, this model is the basis for the International Alliance for Invitational Education, a network of over five hundred professionals from all fifty states as well as Great Britain, Canada, China, South Africa, Australia, Nepal, Thailand, and countries throughout Central and South America.
At its heart, Invitational Leadership is a theory of practice that addresses the total environment in which leaders function. As a theory put into practice, it is a powerful process of communicating caring and appropriate messages intended to summon forth the greatest human potential as well as for identifying and changing those forces that defeat and destroy potential.
Invitational Leadership cannot be understood if it is thought of as an isolated series of habits, behaviors, or skills. Rather, it is an internal holistic process founded on the four principles of respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. These guiding principles determine how we invite ourselves and others personally and professionally. What is essential in Invitational Leadership is not the skills we possess, the techniques we use, or the hours we spend working, but the way we balance and live our lives.
For this second edition, we have shortened the introductory chapter, added a chapter on the Invitational Guidance System, and made a variety of new references. But for these changes, the essence of our message continues to remain the same: leadership rooted in inclusion and inspired teamwork.
We continue to believe that there is an urgent, global need for the kind of leadership described in this book.
A favorite saying of ours is that if you see a turtle on a fencepost, you know it didn’t get there alone. This truth captures something of the spirit of Invitational Leadership, especially its emphasis on collaboration as the means to personal and professional fulfillment. Whoever helped that turtle to the top of the post — and don’t you wish you had been there to see who it was? — is no doubt the kind of person who would also turn to a friend or loved one to quote the words of Walt Whitman: “If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on my hip, and in due time you shall repay the same service to me.”
Many people have taken up our burdens over the years. We would like to offer special thanks to our dear colleagues in the International Alliance for Invitational Education — people like David Aspy, Sue Bowen, William Stafford, John Novak, Jack Schmidt, Charlotte Reed, Eddie Collins, Harvey Smith, Judy Lehr, and so many others who contributed to the theory and practice of Invitational Leadership. More immediately, we thank Patricia Rounds for facilitating in so many ways the writing of this book.
We would also like to signal our gratitude to those truly invitational leaders in all fields of endeavor who have been touchstones for us in thinking, living, leading, and writing. In particular, we salute those leaders in education who have been happy and lasting influences: Drs. Virgil Scott Ward, Herman Frick, Ernest Boyer, Art Combs, Parker Palmer, John N. Gardner, Howard Gardner, Sidney Jourard, and Hal G. Lewis. These and other amazing leaders — in education, business, public administration, government, military, not-for-profit work, human resources, counseling and related helping professions — are sustaining examples of what we can accomplish if we work, live, and perform at our best. Many of them are referenced in these pages. Some of them we have been blessed to call colleagues and friends. To all of them, we say thank you for issuing such inspired and inspiring invitations!
Finally, we must all learn to juggle the glass balls in our lives — family and friends — for they truly are our most precious possessions. We owe the greatest debt of gratitude and love to our own glass balls — our spouses, our children, and our grandchildren — to whom this book is dedicated.
Introduction to Invitational Leadership
“ Leaders articulate and define what has previously remained implicit or unsaid; then they invent images, metaphors, and models that provide a focus for new