Strengths-based leadership – a systems approach

In Leadership in strengths-based social care, SCIE identified systems leadership as an important facet of leadership and has argued that:

Leaders need to embrace a systems approach to leadership, which means fostering a culture of distributed leadership and influence at all levels of the organisation. This means sharing power with and devolving responsibilities to leaders at different levels of the organisation to drive change forward.

SCIE, 2019

SCIE goes on to argue that a systems approach is a helpful model of leadership if you are developing strengths-based practice, because it shares a commitment to power sharing, collaboration and co-production.

Strengths-based leaders should aim to adopt the following elements of systems leadership:

This involves:
  • engaging and involving people with lived experience, carers, frontline staff, and managers in early conversations about change and valuing their vision, ideas and opinions when developing any new model of care
  • investing time, both formally and informally, in building productive relationships with leaders across partner agencies and organisations, and developing joint priorities and plans
  • work with partners to map initiatives and programmes across the local area to minimise duplication and develop a joined-up approach to achieving better outcomes for communities
  • creating opportunities for co-production and collaboration by developing whole-systems solutions and interventions across a range of organisations, departments and professionals.

This involves:
  • developing leadership capabilities of citizens and encouraging them to become formal leaders and representatives for their communities
  • creating opportunities for meaningful involvement throughout the process of designing, commissioning, delivering and evaluating services, for example, co-designing practice frameworks, tools and monitoring and evaluation measures
  • developing platforms for regular engagement, for example by establishing co-production boards and citizen involvement panels.

This involves:
  • empowering staff to take ownership of the design and delivery of solutions and interventions, in partnership with people and based on their needs
  • providing staff with a broad framework and key principles, whilst trusting them to use their professional knowledge and practice to find creative solutions
  • giving staff control over resources to facilitate the provision of creative solutions without the need for management approval
  • devolving responsibility for decision-making with respect to processes, systems and ways of working to provide staff with the flexibility needed to foster innovation.

For more information:

Strengths-based leadership programme