In our Staff Days in 2016, we explored the question of what leadership means at Blue Dragon. There were two main concepts discussed: Servant Leadership and Collective Leadership.
Our discussions on Servant Leadership led to very clear ideas and an acceptance that this is the model of leading that we want to adopt as our own.
Collective Leadership was more difficult to define and apply, so we will take more tentative steps with trying it and seeing how it can work for us.
The statements below summarise Blue Dragon’s model of leadership.
Servant leadership
Blue Dragon is an organisation of servant leaders.
Leaders in Blue Dragon serve their teams and their colleagues. In practice, this means we lead by:
- Caring for those we work with: showing respect, dealing honestly, having concern for their well-being.
- Building relationships of trust with each other.
- Inspiring those around us to do their best, rather than trying to command or control them.
- Looking for the best in others, and building on each other’s strengths.
- Listening to each other, allowing people to express new ideas, and accepting mistakes as a part of learning.
- Supporting our teams to achieve, and taking responsibility when they do not.
- Mentoring and role modelling the attitudes and behaviours that we expect to see in others.
- Valuing the opinions and experience of others.
- Developing leadership in our teams: giving opportunities for growth and development whenever we can.
- Encouraging each other at all times; taking our colleagues by the hand and walking with them through difficult tasks and times.
- Sharing authority and decision making.
Our model of servant leadership guides the way we work with each other and with the children in our care.
Collective leadership
Blue Dragon aspires to be an organization of collective leadership, also known as shared or distributed leadership.
Collective leadership means that every person in the organization has a leadership role to play. These roles will change and flow over time, as they don’t depend on people’s titles or salaries; they depend on people’s skills, motivations and expertise. When leadership is shared, authority and responsibility is also shared. All people in the organization have both a right and a responsibility to raise their voice and take action; all staff are responsible for our success.
Collective leadership is not to be confused with a democratic equality in which there are no clear lines of responsibility. Rather, it means that, regardless of title, people across the
organization are encouraged to put their hand up to take on extra responsibility, try new roles, and participate in management decisions.
Collective leadership is also different to a consensus approach, which means we must all agree on every decision. When leadership roles are distributed rather than hierarchical, there will still be different views and ideas which need to be considered. We practice Collective Leadership by:
- Adopting the principle of Total Responsibility, in which none of us can say “That’s not my job” when faced with a challenge or a problem.
- Using the Advice Process as a decision making tool, thereby sharing the decision making responsibility across the organization.
- Inviting staff to collaborate in projects and activities that might not be their regular area of responsibility.
- Using our intranet to share ideas, articles, and information, rather than only sharing these with the people we believe should be involved.
- Offering leadership training and opportunities to all staff, regardless of their position and title.
- Our Servant Leaders explicitly empowering staff to make decisions and provide opportunities for them to develop in leadership.
- Supporting and mentoring each other by sharing our skills, knowledge and expertise openly.
Blue Dragon still has managers who have particular responsibilities assigned to them. Collective leadership means that responsibility and authority are also shared with people who are not managers, depending again on skills, knowledge, motivation and experience rather than on title.
