Leadership Terms and Philosophies

(Click on letters in bold to go directly on the terms that start with that letters.)

E

Ecosystems - Organizational perspective borrowed from the scientific understanding of biological systems. Within the organization, an ecosystem is a group of interdependent, interrelated and interacting elements or subsystems that together form the complete whole. As an example, the marketing department is a subsystem that interacts and is interrelated to other subsystems such as the accounting department. The ecosystems approach recognizes that events or activities that affect one part of the system may affect other systems within the ecosystem. See systems thinking, and complex systems.

Enlightened Leadership - A concept promoted by Ed Oakley and Doug Krug to create effective organizational change. They define Enlightened Leadership as “the willingness and ability to draw the vision from their people and inspire and empower those people to do what it takes to bring the vision into reality. Indeed, Enlightened Leaders nurture and encourage their people to be open, creative, and innovative and find what it takes to achieve their shared objectives.” This type of leadership gets the “members of the organization to accept ownership for that vision as their own, thus developing the commitment to carry it through to completion.”Quotations taken from Enlightened Leadership, by Ed Oakley and Doug Krug(1994). Simon & Schuster Inc.

Ethics - The study of standards of conduct and morality. Descriptive of the conduct one may expect to be practiced with an organization or group.

Exit Strategy - A pre-planned strategy of extricating or exiting oneself from a situation at a given time.