Connective Leadership

A New Era of Leadership

This connective era is governed by two contradictory forces: interdependence and diversity. These two forces demand conflicting behavioral responses and pull leaders in opposite directions. In this connective era, the tension between these two forces renders traditional leadership behaviors, such as authoritarianism, competitiveness, and rugged individualism, far less relevant. Because organizations, groups, and communities work and live interdependently, leadership decisions affect everything and everyone everywhere. At the same time, groups and individuals worldwide are affirming their distinctive identity and embracing diversity. To act effectively, leaders must be able to integrate these contradictory trends. The clash of these two forces creates unprecedented problems to which leaders who rely solely on traditional approaches are unable to respond effectively.

The connective era is further marked by constant shifts in the connections among people, organizations, and ideas, and, in this era, leaders must alter the way they have traditionally made decisions. Leaders whose skills are limited to the more traditional leadership approaches of dominating, competing, or collaborating will not be effective. The connective leadership model offers a more complex range of behavioral strategies by which leaders can integrate these oppositional forces.

Achieving Styles

As children, we develop a set of strategies for getting what we want—“personal technologies” for accomplishing our tasks and achieving our goals. The connective leadership model terms these personal technologies “achieving styles.” Through trial and error, success and defeat, we develop preferences for particular strategies and then tend to use them predominantly.

Eventually, we learn to call upon those achieving styles that have brought us the most success. Consequently, [Page 270]most individuals develop a relatively limited range of approaches for accomplishing tasks, consistently relying on only two or three strategies, rather than using the entire range of achieving styles. There are, however, nine achieving styles and many combinations of strategies upon which an individual can rely. “Connective leaders” use a broad spectrum of these behavioral strategies to accomplish their goals. They tend to read the situational cues and select the appropriate achieving styles for the task at hand.

The connective leadership model outlines three sets of behavior styles: direct, relational, and instrumental. People who prefer the direct set like to confront their own tasks individually and directly, emphasizing mastery, competition, and power. People who prefer to work on group tasks or help others attain their goals emphasize the relational set. Individuals who use themselves and others as instruments for accomplishing mutual goals prefer the instrumental set.

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