Systems leadership is a leadership approach that focuses on collective work across organizational boundaries to address complex problems. It requires influencing others through relationships rather than formal authority. Key aspects of systems leadership include seeing issues from multiple perspectives, embracing uncertainty, and taking adaptive action through experimentation. Effective systems leadership relies on qualities like empathy, courage, and resilience rather than specific skills, with relationships and challenging norms being central to creating change.

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Developing Effective Management
Systems
Systems Leadership

2. Systems leadership concerns leadership that
extends beyond the confines of single agencies
or organisations, stretching the remit and skills
of leaders into places where their usual
authority, derived from organisational position,
may not be recognised.

3. Under pressure, simple systems become more complex
In a sense, because of the interconnectedness and interdependency
that are now the norm, the research suggests that every decision is
a systems decision in the modern context of public services. In the
opinion of many, systems thinking therefore underpins (or should
underpin) all leadership thinking.
Ghate, Lewis and Welbourn. (2013)

4. Definition of systems leadership
…….. a cross-systems response, which tries to harness the energy in
the turbulence, and galvanise collective responsibility for more
effective use of diminishing resources. Increasingly known as
systems leadership, it builds on ‘systems thinking’, but extends this
thinking into the practice of leadership.
Ghate, Lewis and Welbourn. (2013)

5. With systems leadership comes a renewed emphasis on the
ability of the leader to influence events by force of
personality. A distinction should be drawn between the old
fashioned notion of the domineering leader, whose power
comes from their willingness to coerce others, and the
requirement on a modern leader to be a member of a
team, making their presence felt by their ability to achieve
a collective sense of purpose.
Constructs such as: collaborative leadership, shared
leadership, place shaped leadership, adaptive leadership
and servant leadership are for us, subsets of systems
leadership.

6. Systems Leadership means:
Behaviours, values, attitudes, abilities, and skills that
further collective work and enable the conditions for a
preferred future.
A way of being and doing that applies at every level of
leadership individual, organisational, and societal.
ie. systems leadership isn’t a thingy - more a mindset

7. Figure 1
Public service context,
systems leadership and
systems leaders - an
integrated model
Increasing
demand
Decreasing
resources
Collective &
participatory
Shared
power
Relationship
based
Influencing
& nudging
Shared vision
& values
Focused on
product not
process
Conflicted &
contested
Disturbs
the system
Experimental
& innovative
Distributed
Ways of
feeling
personal
core values
Ways of
perceiving
seeing &
hearing
Ways of
thinking
cognition,
analysis
& synthesis
Ways of
relating
relationships &
participation
Ways of doing
enabling
behavious
& actions
Ways of
being
personal
qualities
Improving
Outcomes for
service users
Wicked
issues
Regulation
& inspection
Opportunity
Paradox
Interdependency &
interconnectedness
Risk
VUCA
Volatility,
Uncertainty,
Complexity &
Ambiguity

8. Whole Systems Leadership Approches
There are six core characteristics:
• Deep listening: Conversations have the power to transform our understanding and
generate innovative options for action. A key component of successful conversations
is deep listening, which means listening to learn and temporarily suspending
judgment.
• Awareness of systems: Whole Systems Leadership understands communities,
organisations, and groups as adaptive, changing systems. With an awareness of
systems, you get a fuller perspective of the situation, which expands and refines
your options for action.
• Awareness of self: Developing self-awareness is the necessary beginning to
developing skillful ways to respond to situations. If you are not aware of your
motivations, feelings, and beliefs, you cannot make effective decisions about how to
behave.

9. • Seeking diverse perspectives: A whole systems approach thrives on the
respectful inclusion of all voices. From this viewpoint, conflicting
opinions do not present a problem; rather, they present a potential
resource that can sharpen thinking and lead to innovative options for
action.
• Suspending certainty, embracing uncertainty: Suspending certainty
enables you to see beyond your habitual lenses to get a broader and
potentially more accurate view of what is going on. It also creates room
for diverse views so that new or different knowledge can come forth.
• Taking adaptive action: Adaptive action means learning from
everything you do. It means taking time to recognise patterns and
reflect on their meaning before jumping to a solution. It balances an
inclusive, deep listening approach with a bias towards action.
University of Minnesota and Life Science Foundation. (2010)

10. Systems leadership is described as:
• a necessary response to volatility, uncertainty, complexity and
ambiguity, and to resource pressures
• done within and across organisational and geopolitical
boundaries, beyond individual professional disciplines
• done within and across a range of organisational and
stakeholder cultures, often without direct managerial control
of resources
• a collective rather than individual endeavour
• distributed across many levels and roles
• having outcomes for service users at its heart

11. Systems leadership is achieved through:
• influence and ‘nudge’, not formal power
• alignment around common vision or purpose: improved
outcomes for service users
• a focus on the outcomes and results, not the process
• strong but robust and honest relationships
• a mind set, rather than specific actions and behaviours

12. Six dimensions of systems leadership:
how individual systems leaders practice
1. Ways of feeling (personal core values)
-values and commitment
2. Ways of perceiving (observations, and
hearing)
-observing ‘from the balcony’ as well as
‘from the dance floor’
-allowing for the unseen and unpredicted
-seeking and hearing diverse views
-sensitivity to other narratives
3. Ways of thinking (intellectual and
cognitive abilities)
-curiosity
-synthesising complexity
-sense-making
4. Ways of doing (enabling and
empowering)
-narrative and communication
-enabling and supporting others
-repurposing and reframing existing
structures and resources
5. Ways of relating (relationships and
participation)
-mutuality and empathy
-honesty and authenticity
-reflection, self-awareness and empathy
6. Ways of being (personal qualities)
-bravery and courage to take risks
-resilience and patience
-drive, energy and optimism
-humility and magnanimity

13. Systems leadership flourishes when…
• the authorising environment, whether organisational or
systemic, tolerates risk and accepts multiple pathways to
outcomes
• there is willingness to cede organisational goals for
collective ambition
• positional authority is not the only source of legitimacy
• it builds on local and place-based initiatives and networks

14. Summary
•Qualities, motivations and personal style are more important
than specific competencies and skills
•Relationships are central to leading through influence and
allowing challenge and difficult conversations
•Challenge, conflict and ‘disturbing the system’ are integral
Ghate, Lewis and Welbourn. (2013)

15. Questions
• Do you recognise these systems leadership
approaches? Have you seen systems leadership in
action? Can you describe an example of it?
• What might be the challenges that these
approaches would have for managers?
• How could managers be supported in using these
approaches?
• What kind of management systems should an
organisation develop to foster and encourage a
systems leadership approach?