ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a model for leading in shared-power contexts based upon the constitutional balance wheel. It addresses the challenges to leadership, the inadequacy of conventional leadership theories, and how the requirements of constitutional governance affect and inform leadership. The chapter provides a legacy model of leadership and illustrate its operation in practice. In a world characterized by diffusion of power in both policy making and delivery of public services, administrative leaders play critical roles in accomplishing the work of democratic governance. There are some less obvious though important ways in which the American constitutional system poses leadership challenges for public servants. First, at a basic cultural level, Americans are at once committed to individualism and deeply suspicious of those charged with public leadership. Second, the commitment to individualism has spawned a multiplicity of interests that make it difficult for leaders to create agreement among competing groups.
