Leadership Responsibilities of Professionals.

This chapter introduces a leadership development model that raises the question: Leadership for what? Leadership is about going somewhere—personally and in concert with others in an organization1. Although leadership is often discussed in terms of leader qualities and skills, especially position leadership, the matter of leadership as a responsibility of each professional receives little attention. Organizations and programs do not flourish with one leader in a group. Thus, more attention has to be paid to the definition of leader as anyone willing to help (Wheatley, 2005). Leadership is not about position only, but about taking responsibility as a member of a group (whether 2-person or 60-person) to share leadership for the organization’s well-being. Despite the investments in time, money, and energy, leadership development programs in many organizations are often piecemeal, focused on aspects in isolation (Ready, 2004). They may offer the latest competency program, an up-to-date performance management system, a sophisticated assessment instrument, the latest electronic learning package, and/or a program built around available speakers and facilitators known to the leadership development committee. In these approaches, there is also a danger in focusing on local issues to the exclusion of broad, sweeping issues of importance to the national or international perspective for the organization. Then, too, we live in a world that is different and changing so fast that former approaches just don’t serve the current and future needs of organizations. Each organization needs to learn how to grow its own leaders, but it needs a theoretical framework to accomplish this worthy objective. The South American poet Machados declared, “The road is your footsteps, nothing else ” (Wheatley, 2005, p. 43). The leadership development model described in this chapter is intended to guide your footsteps in a direction that clarifies your personal and professional journey and shares responsibility among colleagues for the well-being of your organization. The following sections will discuss the basic components of a leadership development model, a leadership theory, issue framing, and a concluding section that ties everything together as a comprehensive approach to leadership development.