What is Appreciative Leadership? As I present in my two recent books: The Yin and Yang of Leadership: A Theoretical and Practical Guide to Democratic Leading (2018), and Leadership Is a Choice: Choosing the Two Transformational Attitudes of Leadership in Your Everyday Life (2024), appreciative leadership can first of all be described as the complementary leadership attitude to intentional leadership. One as the receptive yin, the other as the assertive yang. Both transformational attitudes have consistently been highlighted in management, psychology, philosophy and spirituality. My Ph.D. research on this subject using my leadership workshops with leaders from around the world led me to identify three subthemes for each of these leadership attitudes.
Three Dimensions to Appreciative Leadership
When I asked 300 hundred leaders from around the world which distinctive characteristic characterized their own personal best example of leadership, three appreciative subthemes emerged from the collected responses. And consistent with management, psychology and spirituality, these three appreciative subthemes could also be described as three progressive levels of attention, leading subsequently to intentional leading.
First Appreciative Subtheme: Open and Receptive Listening
The great paradox in leadership, is how humble open and receptive listening, characterizes good leadership; without judgment, reactivity, and self-importance, appreciation as open and receptive listening leads to awareness and connectedness.
Second Appreciative Subtheme: Valuing, Caring, and Empowering
The distinctive quality of appreciation, is how transformational valuing, caring and empowering can be. How good leaders enhance people and situations by how much they care, and see possibilities and potential where others do not. This heart-centered level of appreciation empowers, bonds, and generates positive emotional energy.
Third Appreciative Subtheme: Meaning-Making and Unifying
Humans are meaning-makers and they unify action forward around meaning. The Why? The What? The When? The How? that unifies and drives forward. Appreciation is a directional attitude; it gives meaning and direction; It highlights what you value and desire most, as an individual or a group.
Try this!
Experience the Transformational Effect of Appreciating
Take the time to answer each question and see what you come up with.
1. What have you appreciated the most of your day so far? (Eye of the body)
Take the time to fully review your entire day and identify the one thing you have appreciated the most. Enjoy the abundance of awareness.
2. What’s good about it? Why is it valuable to you? (Eye of the heart)
Appreciate the added value of what you have identified. Appreciate the goodness of it; and enjoy the abundance of positive energy that comes with it.
3. How does it inform you on what you want the most in your life? (Eye of the will)
How meaningful is what you identified in terms of what you want to the most to live in your life (your deepest intentions)? What does it say about what to do next? Enjoy the abundant significance of everyday events.