Every organization needs leaders. But a leader needn't be someone endowed with formal authority, whether by virtue of position in the organization's hierarchy or extensive tenure with the organization. Fundamentally, a leader is anyone in a group, team, department, or enterprise who performs one or more critical leadership functions, such as:
- Establishing a compelling vision and strategic direction for the organization
- Clarifying the values and principles that guide the organization and inform its identity
- Reinforcing the connections that unite the organization's members
- Maintaining a sense of positive organizational momentum in the face of potential setbacks and critical decisions
- Mentoring or otherwise influencing the personal and professional development of everyone in the organization
Open organizations require open leaders and let the open organization principles guide their approach. Simply put, open leaders help build open organizations and establish conditions for others to thrive in those organizations. When they do this, they create organizations full of people who are more:
- Engaged, because they feel more invested in the organization's success
- Accountable, because responsibilities and consequences are undeniably clear
- Innovative, because members with diverse backgrounds, insights, and perspectives can apply their talents to a range of challenges and approach their work with genuine curiosity
- Reflective, because they readily share their perspectives on the context of their work and are attuned to their shortcomings and limitations
- Flexible and risk-tolerant, because they feel empowered and safe to change organizational systems and processes to solve problems the ways they feel are best
Open leadership is a mindset and set of behaviors that anyone can learn and practice. Open Leaders think and act in service to another person, group, team, or enterprise attempting to accomplish something together. They are people with character, who give agency to those around them. In this way, their role as leaders is not permanent or predestined; it is evolving and fluid given the task at hand. Open leaders are especially adept at building organizations that embody the character of an open organization—transparency, inclusivity, adaptability, collaboration, and community—and operate according to these characteristics. And because these principles are interconnected, open leaders espouse all of them.
Open leaders encourage clear, candid interactions among team members, between teams, and across their organizations. Like other leaders, they share the results of their work and the outcomes of their decisions. But open leaders often do more than this. They share the rationale for their work, their motivations for undertaking it, the purposes it serves, and the lines of power and authority that have influenced it. They indicate the parties involved in making a decision—and whenever possible, they invite others to join the decision-making processes (see also collaboration). They explain the criteria stakeholders used to guide a decision. They explain why certain options weren't chosen or adopted, why particular avenues weren't pursued. And when they communicate the results of their work or the outcomes of their decisions with others, they consider external parties, stakeholders, and communities' needs the same way they consider their teammates'. In short, they make all aspects of their work more transparent and accessible to others—even though this often means the work requires more time, involves more discussion among more people, and leads to more questions along the way.
- Everyone deserves clear, direct, and constructive feedback that's as unbiased as possible, and I should expect to receive it from others.
- Does everyone affected by or interested in this decision understand who made it and how we arrived at it?
- All members of the organization are potentially stakeholders in my work and partners in my decisions and should have access to materials about them if they want them.
- Vendors, partners, customers, communities, and other external stakeholders are also members of my open organization, and I need to be as transparent and share information and knowledge as much as possible by demonstrating the same consistency in behavior.
- Even though this situation doesn't allow me to be as transparent as others might expect, have I explained it as thoroughly as I can?
- People will trust and respect my leadership ability only if I'm honest with them and provide as much detail as possible.
- Make notes, records, and procedural documents accessible to others "by default"
- Take time to make materials accessible to others at the outset of a project or decision-making process
- Continually converse with organizational stakeholders about the progress of their projects and important decisions that might affect them
- Often without prompting, share the context for their teams' work, explain their understanding of its purpose and importance, and remove barriers to any information and resources their teams might require for doing their best work
- Create spaces where people feel comfortable voicing concerns and speaking candidly about perceived shortcomings or limitations of ongoing work,and share their own concerns to the degree they are comfortable
- Encourage others to share stories about both their successes and their failures without fear of repercussion, and share their own when possible
Open leaders build organizations that are inclusive of contributors with varying backgrounds, life experiences, social positions, affinities, and talents. They understand that building teams composed of participants with these diverse backgrounds and skills requires intentional effort. Moreover, they work to ensure their organizations' processes and procedures are obvious. They build structures according to common standards, so rules and norms are clear, all can participate in the organization's operations, and newcomers to the organization can easily get involved. At the same time, they promote the idea that the organizational structures are accessible and malleable, capable of modification in light of members' preferences and needs (see also adaptability). They remain amenable and responsive to feedback from an organization's members, maintaining multiple channels to accommodate teammates with different preferences for engagement. Open leaders also understand that their authority to lead isn't derived purely from hierarchy or tenure; it's predicated on the trust and affirmation of those they lead. Rather than situating themselves at the center of processes or decisions, open leaders work to decenter themselves, delegating agency, distributing responsibility, and sharing resources with others in the organization whenever possible. They work to empower others to act with genuine influence—even if this means they become obsolete in the process.
- My own experiences limit my perspective, and I need to find others who can help me broaden that perspective.
- Whose voices aren't currently represented in the present conversation, and how can I invite them to join it?
- How can I equip and empower others to participate in this process or project?
- I need to work with the community to establish the conditions, activities or processes to help my colleagues feel psychologically safe enough to ask questions, contribute their own ideas, admit mistakes, and challenge authority and the status quo.
- Do others rely on me in ways that constrain their ability to work most effectively?
- Remain conscious of voices not present in dialog and actively seek to include or incorporate them when making decisions and building teams
- Ensure team processes, procedures, and norms are documented, shared, and easily accessible
- Regularly assess and respond to feedback they receive, and cultivate a culture that encourages frequent dialog regarding this feedback
- Recognize their biases and shortcomings, and empower others to help them overcome their limitations
Flexible and resilient organizations need flexible and resilient leaders—people able (and willing) to modify their behaviors and processes when situations demand it. Open leaders are constantly reviewing and reflecting; when context changes, so do they. Open leaders recognize that innovation is an iterative and incremental process. So they ask stakeholders and teammates to review and assess their projects even before they consider those projects finished (see also transparency). They also build trustful environments in which people view missteps as opportunities to learn how they must adjust to novel circumstances—places where people feel safe abandoning hypotheses in light of new data (see also inclusivity). Open leaders' authenticity allows innovative ideas to emerge by ensuring that people feel safe to try—and potentially fail. They see failures as opportunities to learn how the project or team needs to adapt. Open leaders are especially attuned to the feedback both they and their teams receive, adjusting projects and priorities to better balance the needs of all involved stakeholders (whether those stakeholders are board members or community contributors). Most of all, open leaders listen closely to what others in their communities are thinking and talking about, actively seeking feedback so they are better able to observe the reality of any situation, and altering their own behaviors in light of what they learn. They do this to ensure their organizations are producing projects, products, or services that truly serve the needs of their communities, audiences, and peers—even if those outcomes ultimately differ from their initial visions.
- Our work—and the ways we work—can always improve and evolve because conditions are always changing.
- How can I make sure our work still fits the needs of the people we claim to serve?
- Because it's not common for leaders to ask for feedback, I can't expect that people around me will offer it if I don't request it.
- The processes and strategies that have helped us succeed in the past might not be the same ones that lead to success in the future.
- What can I do to help people on my team trust the idea that they can make mistakes?
- Intentionally and proactively request feedback on their projects and their work
- Create systems and processes that are not only predictable and clear but also flexible enough to allow for revision in light of changing circumstances
- Request review of work from their stakeholders before the work is finished, and encourage their teams to do the same
- Initiate conversations about team failures or setbacks with a spirit of empathy and curiosity
- Implement various channels and mechanisms to facilitate and collect feedback, and prompt others to use them
- Mark team and project milestones with opportunities for collective reflection, discussion, and adjustment
Open leaders are experts at facilitating projects and initiatives that involve people working together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. But they do more than simply coordinate work in pursuit of outcomes they believe are best. They encourage collaboration on proposed outcomes and goals as much as on solutions (simply put, they collaborate to establish the purpose and conditions of the group's collaboration). Open leaders encourage people to initiate work together rather than separately, collectively rather than individually. To this end, open leaders consistently forge connections between parties that might enhance each other's work, and those connections often cut across formal organizational boundaries (see also inclusivity). They establish clear norms and protocols for collaborative participation so they can welcome feedback even from people they may not have specifically asked to join in an effort (see also adaptability). They maintain a spirit of collaboration that involves negotiation and compromise—even when it might create temporary friction on the road to better results.
- Collaboration means more than "working together"; it involves complex negotiation at any point in a project, from problem identification, brainstorming, solution building, and evaluation.
- I need to involve the people affected by this decision throughout the process of making the decision.
- No one is exempt from collaborative processes, and my job is to facilitate them wherever and whenever possible.
- How can I ensure that others can build on my team's work when we release it?
- Are the team's norms and expectations for joint work as clear to everyone as they could be?
- Encourage people to initiate and continue projects together, not individually
- Celebrate team milestones in ways that create social spaces, increasing team cohesiveness and trust between individuals
- Empower groups to arrive at timely and effective conclusions while accommodating members with different preferences or constraints
- Coach others through conflict that arises from collaborative negotiation by keeping the group focused on its shared challenges, and goals or outcomes
Open leaders understand that organizations become open when they become communities. But open leaders also understand that communities don't just form through mandate or decree; they also emerge informally, when a group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, interests, and passions develop a community mindset based on shared values and beliefs in pursuit of a common goal. They understand that people join communities because they want to, and that anyone in a community can be a leader—not just members with formal decision-making power. So open leaders' role is often more like that of a moderator, coach, or facilitator. They help to foster connections on their teams, in departments, and across their enterprises because they understand that shared principles can establish priorities, guide work, and help people be accountable. Open leaders also support a community that is diverse and inclusive, so that members have access to the skills and talents to achieve their goals (see also inclusivity). They empower members to co-create according to communal norms and values, relying on the community's own rules of engagement and flows of activity to unites and define them. They make shared values and principles explicit whenever possible, and challenge or contest these values as a community evolves, and help community members discuss and debate them productively (see also adaptability). When making decisions, constructing policy, and guiding initiatives, they ensure balance between a group's collectively held values and individual members' needs. Open leaders help communities perpetuate their values across time by modeling the behaviors they feel best reflect and embody these values. Rather than dictate actions, they lead by exemplifying and personifying the community's spirit—even when it means advocating for that collective spirit more strongly than their own agendas.
- How can I best serve the group?
- Power belongs to anyone in the group who enacts communal values, and can be transferred, circulated, and shared by anyone at any time.
- Have we documented our group's conventions and made expectations for collective work clear to everyone?
- Our team's shared values, principles, and goals should guide our decisions, inform our feedback, and serve as the metric by which we judge our successes and failures.
- Have I helped the community identify and assemble the collective skills and values it needs to be successful in achieving our purpose?
- Demonstrate the group's norms through explicit behaviors that reinforce the group's shared expectations for community members.
- Support the community’s culture by helping new members understand the processes, values, and community engagement guidelines, including the guidelines for dissent and conflict, which allows community members to disagree or bring innovative ideas to the group.
- Act as facilitators, moderators, or coaches for others in the community, being neither too authoritarian and dictatorial nor indifferent and disengaged.
- Ensure that conversations and decisions balance individual needs with collective desires and expectations (including their own).
This document builds on several openly licensed resources, including the Red Hat Multiplier and the Open Leadership Framework from Mozilla. We are indebted to these projects.
Version 1.0
Updated August 2021
The Open Organization Ambassadors
Suggest a revision