Leadership

This page is about leadership, as it pertains to both the values and organizational structure of Why This Way. People can and do fullfill leadership roles in Why This Way; a key difference between leadership in Why This Way and organizations with a hierarchical power structure is that leaders in Why This Way can only lead with the full consent of the people they are leading.

The word "leadership" can describe many different things. Leadership roles may or may not correspond to the roles filled by people in formal positions of leadership, such as clergy or religious leaders, managers or executives in a business or corporation, directors of an organization, or elected or appointed officials in government.

People in any position can exhibit leadership qualities and fulfill leadership roles.

Types of leadership or roles for leaders

• Pushing people to get outside their comfort zone
• Inspiring or motivating people to get more involved
• Delegator - Delegating various tasks to other people
• Project manager - Checking in with people's progress on a project, coordinating what needs to get done in what time frames, who needs to get material or information to whom, making sure people stay on time with necessary tasks, and being the go-to person about the project
• Advisor - Being available to answer questions or give advice
• Evaluator - Evaluating and giving constructive feedback on a person's work
• Mentor - Helping to nurture or guide a person through growth and learning, such as by teaching a person new skills, or leading them in the direction of growth and development
• Thinking up things to do
• Visionary - Having a vision and being able to communicate that vision to others, inspiring them to see how smaller activities or actions fit into a broader context
• Decision maker -
• Pioneer - Being among the first people to do something, voicing an opinion or standing up for something when few or no other people are
• Role model - Setting a good example for others to follow, demonstrating behavior that is considered desirable in the context of an organization
• Being calm and reassuring - Staying calm in times of stress or crisis, and reassuring others when they are stressed, worried, or doubting their own abilities

Leadership and consent

In Why This Way, we emphasize the importance of consent in all aspects of life, including leadership. We do not want leaders in our group to be able to impose their will on people without their consent. Rather, in Why This Way, people in leadership roles lead with the consent of the people they are leading. Any person thus has the ability to say no to something they are asked or directed by a leader to do, as well as to question the designation of that person in a leadership role.