Holistic and Strategic Leadership Development: The Impact of Self managed Learning

The challenges we face in our organisations and our societies cannot be effectively addressed without wise, hearted, courageous leadership; leadership that is not focussed on a thirst for your own power, control and success. Leadership that is instead dispersed, moving to the person or persons best able to assist others in taking appropriate decisions and action.

As a practical example of how to nurture these forms of leadership, this chapter outlines the Self Managed Learning (SML) framework and describes how programmes might typically run. It explains the process by which leaders truly take responsibility for their own learning and commit to others to support them in theirs, developing both the leadership capability and social capital of the organisation(s) involved.

This chapter also illustrates how SML enables leaders to support and challenge one another to deal more effectively with the complex, fast-moving maelstrom of real opportunities and challenges of they and their teams face. It highlights how the creation of psychological safety allows leaders to develop the personal courage to be open and, therefore, vulnerable to explore their assumptions and to accept others as they are.

Throughout this chapter the impact of SML, often transformational, is evidenced through the testimony of those who have experienced it.