that might be confusing or controversial for a non-American audience. (See What Do the Metaphors Mean? on pages 79–85 for a brief description of each metaphor.) Managers should encourage participants to locate the discussion of the cards and metaphors in their own cultures. Participants should feel free to apply their own interpretations to the cards or even to make up their own metaphors by writing or drawing on a separate piece of paper.
Designer’s Tip
Many of the cards have been deliberately created to have a negative connotation. In some environments or cultures, they might get in the way of a productive conversation. Even those not deliberately created this way may feel negative to you. Feel free to remove cards from the deck.
Because the cards are labeled in English, managers may find it more challenging to use Leadership Metaphor Explorer with non- or limited-English speakers. One solution is to ask those participants to ignore the labels and simply respond to the drawings.
How Does Leadership Metaphor Explorer Work?
Leadership Metaphor Explorer is beginner-friendly, and it’s usually not necessary to understand all of the theory and research behind it. In fact, the facilitator often needs to stay out of the way and let people engage with the tool and with each other. Leadership Metaphor Explorer works by putting something tangible—the cards—into the middle of what might otherwise be an abstract conversation (Palus & Drath, 2001). Simply asking people to talk using the cards as visual props helps the dynamics of the conversation. Using the cards reduces stress and increases engagement. The tone of these mediated conversations tends to be insightful and respectful rather than confrontational. Everyone gets to share his or her cards and comment on the other cards, leveling the power relations and relaxing the participants.
A CORE OF SELF-AWARENESS
Sarah Miller, a CCL colleague, used Leadership Metaphor Explorer in a conversation with Buddhist monks in Thailand.
The first time we talked, M. told us that monks are supposed to be leaders in the community and that he, particularly, was interested in social justice. During our second conversation, we brought out the Leadership Metaphor Explorer cards. M. chose two cards: one to answer the question of how a monk should be a leader in the community and one to answer the question of how he wished to be a leader. The two intersected at the theme of “know thyself.” For M., the most important part of leadership is knowing oneself because only then can one lead others. M. also chose other cards to represent the various aspects of leadership that a monk exhibits. But at the heart of his understanding lay self-awareness.
Figure 2. A young monk in a monastery contemplates Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s metaphors and their relation to self-awareness.
Humans depend heavily on their sense of sight. Humans are also highly communicative. Sometimes, when faced with a challenge, people will try to talk themselves through it. Leadership Metaphor Explorer opens up a different channel, granting insight and information that flows through visual, emotional, physical, and nonverbal channels.
Metaphor—the act of comparing the qualities of two different things as if they were the same—is at the root of human cognition and self-identity (Mair, 1977; McAdams, 1997), and perhaps of consciousness itself (Dennett, 1991; Jaynes, 1976). We know that metaphors can be a powerful aid to thinking and communicating when used with intention and discipline (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003). When Leadership Metaphor Explorer injects metaphors into strategic conversations, new insights and ideas emerge.
Part of the problem in thinking about leadership is that the topic is full of clichés and platitudes. Ideas about leadership run in predictable ruts. We miss opportunities to practice leadership because we have trouble thinking about options and alternatives. For example, people will focus on “the leader as hero” and miss the options inherent in “the leader as servant” or “the leader as coach.” Leadership Metaphor Explorer offers people new metaphors that can direct them to new opportunities.
Do we want people to model themselves literally as Dependable Repairmen (to quote one card)? No. We want them to explore metaphorical connotations such as dependable, loyal, service oriented, and problem solving as potentially helpful for their own situations.
How Does Leadership Metaphor Explorer Address Leadership Types?
Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s design accommodates three distinct types of leadership metaphors. In the first type, leadership is associated with authority, power, dominance, and control. CCL calls this dependent leadership. Leadership based in influence, expertise, heroic effort, and individual ambition comes next. CCL refers to this as independent leadership. Finally, there is a type of leadership based in collaboration, diverse perspectives, shared learning, and intentional boundary spanning. This is interdependent leadership (Drath, Palus, & McGuire, 2010). Each of Leadership Metaphor Explorer’s cards is coded according to these three types, with red labels for dependent, green labels for independent, and blue labels for interdependent. Because Leadership Metaphor Explorer is based on metaphor, the coding is open to interpretation, and many of the metaphors may fit more than one type.
Figure 3. Characteristics of leadership types.
Dependent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that only people in positions of authority are responsible for leadership. This assumption may lead to organizations that emphasize top-down control and deference to authority. In general, dependent cultures can be thought of as conformer cultures.
Dependent leadership cultures and independent leadership cultures have limits to their capability to produce direction, alignment, and commitment. When the clients or customers demand fully integrated service across lines of business, the value of heroic, independent leadership can fall short of meeting that demand.
Independent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that leadership emerges from individuals based on their knowledge and expertise. This assumption may lead to decentralized decision making, high demand for individual responsibility, and competition among types of experts. In general, independent cultures can be thought of as achiever cultures.
Interdependent leadership cultures are characterized by the belief that leadership is a collective activity that requires mutual inquiry and learning (McCauley et al., 2008). This assumption may lead to the widespread use of dialogue, collaboration, horizontal networks, the valuing of differences, and a focus on learning. In general, interdependent cultures can be thought of as collaborative cultures. As they develop from dependent to independent to interdependent, leadership cultures gain capacity to deal with complexity and ambiguity.
Interdependence isn’t an ideal. Only a small fraction of organizations meet the criteria of interdependence (Kegan, 1994; McCauley et al., 2008; Torbert, 2004). There are highly successful dependent and independent organizations in business, in communities, in governments, and in NGOs. Organizations may exhibit all three leadership types. For example, an organization that provides mental health services might exhibit a dependent culture in its support staff, an independent culture among its case workers, and an interdependent culture in its relations among these parts and with external stakeholders.
Levels of leadership. CCL defines leadership in terms of outcomes—direction, alignment, and commitment. Those outcomes can be observed at different levels
