In the Leadership Mode: Concepts, Practices, and Tools for a Different Leadership

by Don Dunoon, Iva Wilson (Contributor)

It's time for a distinctively different approach to leadership. In the Leadership Mode puts "on hold" conventional ideas about leaders, authority, and influence, and views leadership as centered in learning processes and as usefully distinguished from management. This framing of leadership emphasizes specific, in-the-moment interventions toward achieving change with contentious problems (those that can be viewed from multiple perspectives). The proposition is that this approach can enable more people to exercise leadership, release previously untapped intelligence for working through problems, and make possible a truer focus on leadership work as differentiated from management. In the Leadership Mode presents a framework for putting the concepts into action. ARIES - Attending, Reflecting, Inquiring, Expressing, and Synthesizing- is, at one level, a set of practices for enacting this different leadership form. At a second level, ARIES refers to a suite of tools that practitioners can apply to help in making sense of a contentious problem and in intervening productively. The book includes a Foreword by Iva Wilson, a retired President of Philips Display Components and who was First President of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL). In her Foreword, Dr. Wilson says, "Reading Don's book truly opened my eyes relative to my own leadership style, particularly with respect to the ways in which I went about my work as president of Philips Display Components . . . I am strongly recommending this book to all those who are serious about making positive and lasting changes in their way of leading."

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book is that instead of attacking individual problems, a leader must work with the underlying framework from which problems arise. Operating in this fashion is "The Leadership Mode," which is often compared to the "Management Mode."

Overall, I appreciated the relational orientation espoused in Dunoon's text. If you are involved in organizational change, this is a worthwhile book to read. If you have difficulty building consensus, this text will likely assist you.

[Erin Oeth]

I just attended a webinar from the author of this book, and his ideas about relating intentionally and authentically in the leadership mode are compelling. I want to learn more.