A Note On Leadership and Attunement
Russ Volckmann. PhD
Published in Coach 2 Coach Network Newsletter, March 8, 2002
Adapted from Integral Leadership Review, February 2002
Fundamental to the leadership role is the fit between the leaders' intentions, values, beliefs and assumptions and those of the organization of which they are a part. It relies on self-awareness and social awareness, key skills in emotional competency. However, the process of attunement is more difficult to develop because it includes what is in and what is out of awareness.
In earlier work I have called this process "alignment." Somehow, this word implies a level of agreement and linearity that I do not intend. Therefore I have changed to attunement because this is a continuous process of playing with what continuously is moving in and out of harmony. For me, that captures the spirit of the relationship between one's own values, assumptions and beliefs and those of one's cultural context.
Many factors come into play in keeping a piano in tune. How frequently the piano has been played, with what percussive style, changes in humidity and temperature. Likewise, numerous factors impact the process of attunement between an individual leader and the organization.
The leader brings a set of intentions, values, beliefs and assumptions to his role. Some are conscious, some not. And they bring these to an organizational culture that is the product of the intentions, values, beliefs and assumptions of the members of the organization. This is also known as organizational culture. The quality of awareness and the shift in focus, external social, economic and political events, changes in relationships, changes in markets, these are but a few of the factors that can impact both individual and organizational values, models, assumptions and the like.
The challenge of attunement is to bring about a supportive relationship between those intentions, values, beliefs and assumptions of the leader and those of the organization's culture. Thus, attunement is the process of relating between the individual and the organization in the arena of culture. The quality of this relationship profoundly impacts leadership effectiveness.