Leading is tough, and collaborating can be tough as well, and combining the two can be a real mountain to climb.
In her book “The Art of Leading Collectively,” Petra Kuenkel offers what she calls a Collective Leadership Compass, which can be used to find out who we are, where we stand and how the journey came about, all on the way to better co-creation.
Kuenkel writes that the compass works best through a set of three steps, each of which has three actions. They are:
* Observing. Some people call this “diagnosing,” but Kuenkel dislikes the term because it implies being critical and judgmental, faultfinding.
- Appreciating. Appreciate the competencies available.
- Assessing. Assess an individual pattern of competencies.
- Evaluating. Make sense of information.
* Focusing. Evaluating forms the base, but focusing empowers action.
- Strengthening strengths. Make use of it/them.
- Nurturing development areas. Bring in what is missing, undervalued or simply not known.
- Choosing starting points. Then develop tangible next steps.
* Enacting. People are likely to implement well-developed plans with enthusiasm.
- Planning next steps. This means short term and long term.
- Testing reality. See if the envisioned impact has been realized.
- Watching the pattern. Reviewing progress can lead back to Observation.
