Leadership is a living system: learning leaders and organizations

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Smith, August W.

Affiliations: Center for Interactive Management Leadership, Nonprofit Education and Research Organization, PO Box 26026, Austin, Texas 78755, USA. Tel.: +1 512 450 1854

Abstract: Leadership is a living system with many relationships and dynamic, changing elements. Leaders evolve, learn and develop new leadership practices and feedforward processes and performance and feedback processes in dynamic and reciprocal ways. The leadership system links resources, relationships and requirements to results, receivers and reviews to intervention, implementation, improvement, innovation and integration needs in an interactive overall leadership system. New “hybrid” learning leaders are needed to build and develop true learning organizations for the future.

Keywords: Leadership, learning organizations, systems, process reengineering, performance, change management, practices, feedback-feedforward, relationships, management skills styles, resources, requirements, results, reviews-evaluations, stakeholders, strategic planning, development, quality improvement

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-1997-16405

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 277-284, 1997