“Leadership is the ability to lift and inspire.”
… Paul Dietzel (1924 – 2013) US football coach
We are meaning making beings constantly making sense of and create meaning in life. Meaning stems from what is important to us – the people, things and aspects of life we value. Over time, we have developed preferences, prejudices, standards and so on forming our existing beliefs, stories and feelings of how things are and how we would like them to be. This is the context or frame within which we observe and interpret ourselves and the world. Although each of us is a unique being meaning the context within which we make our interpretations is unique to each of us, we can work to create a sense of a shared context within a group. A community’s shared contextual frame can be defined as its culture.
A contextual frame holds a space of meaning from which emanates our engagement with the world. In a group setting, what each member perceives as the shared context defines what they think is required to fit in or be successful within the group. With this in mind, the shared context becomes central to the ultimate success of any group. It is important to appreciate a sense of a shared context will always be generated whenever people engage in social interaction whether it be two people, twenty or two thousand. Those with authority in a group are best placed to influence the shared context and any leader would be well served by working to establish a context likely to generate the space of meaning needed to create the social action for optimal results. So, the obvious question is how can this be done?
Although there are an infinite number of ways to think of a contextual frame, one useful way is to see it as four distinct yet mutually supporting domains – what we want to achieve; our self-story; our personal growth and development; and our relationships with others. By doing so, we create a greater possibility of balance in how we create meaning. It is not just about what we do, but the impact this has on our relationships and our well being.
In today’s workplace there is a strong primary focus on getting things done and every year it seems people are asked to do more. This approach lends itself to a ‘transactional leadership’ style where the focus is on what needs to done with little regard to impact on individuals and relationships. Indeed, I would say this is management not leadership as this approach lends itself to relationships built on the Control Paradigm rather than the Trust Paradigm. Transactional leadership might be effective in the short term, at least in terms of narrowly defined goals, however, over time, it is unsustainable as people begin to feel burnt out and unsupported and lose a common sense of meaning and purpose. The clues to a transactional leadership approach are easily seen in everyday conversations. Transactional leaders will constantly talk about what has to be done – how the key performance indicators are tracking for example. They will generally not ask people how they are going or who might be affected as a result of the workload they are imposing. On the other hand, spatial leadership is people and meaning focused. The idea is to create a contextual space within which people can move towards a common goal, feel good about themselves, optimise their potential and generate synergies and cooperation within the group.
Spatial leadership has a primary focus on conversations to directly build context and take the opportunity to put transactional activity into a broader context to create meaning. To practice this approach is to appreciate the ever evolving nature of the context within which people create meaning. For instance, we cannot simply spend a day coming up with some words we think of as our values. The words we may see as our values do mean something when we declare them but they come to life when we ask ongoing questions about those words in the context of everyday situations. When we speak with others about what integrity or trust means in a certain situation, we enrich the meaning of integrity or trust for those involved. So the answer to the question of being a spatial leader lies in the nature of the conversations needed to constantly enrich a shared space of meaning.
If you want to develop your own spatial leadership style then listen to your conversations and the extent to which you focus on people and outcomes. This will give you some wonderful feedback on where you are at in your leadership journey. Ultimately the key is to focus on the development of shared context and with it shared meaning and purpose.
Related Concepts
The Basis of Relationships
Collective and Personal Authority
The Paradigm of Control
The Paradigm of Trust
The Phenomenon of Listening
Effective Listening and Speaking