Develop Your Theory of Leadership

Now that you have built a more complete understanding of your current system, you are ready to develop your Theory of Leadership.

The following protocols will support your team as you use the interactive Theory of Leadership tool to capture the details of your approach.

In this phase you will:

Step 1Capture a high-level summary of your approach to guide your Theory of Leadership development

Step 2Articulate the outcomes and impacts you are aiming to achieve

Step 3Populate the leadership actions you will take to motivate progress toward your outcome and impact goals

Step 4Identify the inputs you will need to successfully execute your approach

Step 5Review and refine your draft Theory

Throughout these steps, keep in mind that honestly reflecting on your own leadership practice, especially in collaboration with others, can be challenging. Though you may have experience working with your team of collaborators, this process will likely feel different, requiring a different level of vulnerability, humility, and transparency.

As you embark on your process, we recommend that you:

• Protect time for you work: Dividing up your work across a set period—for example, your organization’s annual retreat or summer reflection period—can help provide structure for your effort.
  
  
• Emphasize relationships: Reserve time to build and nurture your relationships with your collaborators, including by setting and continually returning to shared norms.
  
  
• Take your time: Reserve time to build and nurture your relationships with your collaborators, including by setting and continually returning to shared norms.
  
  
• Commit to maintaining forward progress: At the same time, remember the urgency of your work, and commit to pushing forward as a collective. You will inevitably encounter frustrating roadblocks and topics on which your perspective differs from your collaborators’. Find ways to come to provisional consensus, keeping in mind that you are developing a shared hypothesis that you will have the opportunity to test and refine over time.