Leadership - What Really Matters: A Handbook on Systemic Leadership (Management for Professionals)

Chapter 4

More Than Just Talking or: The Instruments

of Systemic Leadership

We do not remain good if we do not always strive to become better.

Gottfried Keller

In the previous chapters, I have taken you on a journey through the lessons of
leadership. First, we explored what specific requirements apply to leadership to in
the twenty-first century (Chap. 1). Then we looked at the existing management
approaches and assessed the extent to which they can guide us in today’s day-to-day
work (Chap. 2). On this basis, I then illustrated how systemic leadership, an integ-
rative approach and as such my preferred one, works and how each leader can succeed
in creating a world that those they lead want to belong to (Chap. 3).
The following, final section will focus on pragmatically determining how the ideas
and approaches presented can be implemented in management practice. I would
like to present a modern leadership development model that especially addresses
the issue of relationships. I would also like to reassess a number of well-known and
lesser-known management tools in the light of this relationship-oriented approach
and show what really matters in the application of these “means to an end.” And
thirdly, I would like to consider the issue of how leadership can be quantified and
assessed – an aspect that is heatedly debated in light of the dawning recognition that
the quality of leadership is ultimately the key driver for a company’s success.

4.1 Can Relationships Be Learned? A New Approach

to Leadership Development

Successful managers are unique, distinctive personalities, and there is no simple
recipe for good leadership that could be taught in seminars or on the job. But ideally
leadership development can help leaders to find and optimize their own inimitable
style of leadership, to become aware of their own idiosyncrasies, weaknesses and
strengths – i.e., their life statements – and to develop a feeling for people, situations
and their attendant requirements.

D.F. Pinnow,Leadership - What Really Matters, Management for Professionals,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20247-6_4,#Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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