The Art of Collaborative Leadership: Practices and Disciplines – Term Paper

The need for collaborative leadership has been one of the most discussed things in most modern leadership forums. The five exemplary leadership practices of Kouzes & Posner (2007) and the five disciplines of Senge (2006) are some of the best known discussions on collaborative leadership. Each of these works presents differences and similarities on the five practices and/or disciplines.

In the area of values/actions congruence, Kouzes and Posner (2007) points out that the leaders values and actions are what become the organizational culture. Senge’s (2006) point of view is however slightly different as he points out that the vision that the leader has is determined by the existing reality. On shared vision, Kouzes and Posner (2007) point out that even though all the leaders have dreams of how the future ought to be, such visions remain only as dreams until they are shared. While Kouzes and Posner talk of the importance of having the leader share out his vision, Senge (2006) points out that the employees can excel without being told what to do as long as they are committed to the organizational goals.

Kouzes and Posner (2007) points out that the leader should be willing to challenge the status quo while Senge (2006) indicates that the leaders should be open to scrutiny as well as be ready to take part in learning conversations. Learning together through collaboration is an issue that is agreed on by the different parties as they indicate that this is the only way through which the organization is able to progress ahead. In the area of integrating of the whole/systems thinking, the two works indicate that the whole is important than the sum of the parts. The discussion by Kouzes and Posner (2007) and Senge (2006) fits the views of many authors in this discipline.

References
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Josey Bass.
Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday.