Organizational Leadership Fields: Aiming for Impact at the Next Level (Spanish)

Abstract

Leadership means influencing highly complex, interactive, interdependent and often intangible processes where individuals and groups build social realities. Effective leadership thus requires a range of orientations and capacities which are not often found together, and which cannot easily be developed in parallel. Throughout history, the tension between individual, group or institution and ideas has been a source of conflict as well as progress. Philanthropists, entrepreneurs and social activists alike know well that change cannot be achieved without a powerful message or vision, delivered by individuals who exert a larger, disproportionate impact on some social context. This article asks how actors who aim for long-term, systemic impact should think about leadership regarding the philanthropic organizations they establish. Since there are so many actors and factors to be considered, thinking about the challenge at hand in terms of a "leadership field" turns out to be helpful. A leadership field is a specific space such as an organization, a country, or an industry that a leader wishes to influence. The key questions are then: what are the leadership field's main characteristics? Which kind of interventions can I use to influence it? Who else should I enlist in the effort to influence the leadership field? A lot has been thought and written about leadership, but to make sense of the field of forces in a leadership field and influence it, there are ultimately three types of strategies or leadership categories to consider: epic, engineering and enlightenment.

Note: Downloadable document is in Portuguese.

Keywords: L31

JEL Classification: Leadership, social change, civil society, business