ABSTRACT

This chapter considers who systems leaders are, what exactly it is that systems leaders do and also identifies what an ‘authorising environment’ for systems leadership looks like. It describes the five ‘ways’ of systems leadership and locates the factors that serve to facilitate it. Achievement of shared values is seldom achieved in formal meetings or in formulaic ways. Systems leaders need to understand each other as people, where they come from and what they believe in. They need to be able to ‘step into each other’s shoes’ and to discuss in depth what exactly they are trying to achieve and why. Systems leadership is a means of connecting with others which is participatory, collective and based upon what can be achieved through strong and trustworthy relationships, rather than being based upon individual and component contributions. Systems leaders’ role-model is the values which they articulate in every conversation and in every encounter.