The audience claps.
Does anyone have a question? The chair of the session asks. A silence falls over the audience. A few people glance around the room to see if anyone will raise their hand.
In that moment, I notice how we are all a part of the space and how, as an audience, we have an opportunity to direct the conversation's next step. I shift in my seat and think of possible questions for the presenter.
Over the past few days, I have been at a conference in Paphos, Cyprus, with academics and consultants from around the world who work with organisations. The focus has been on resilience and improvisation, how we respond to the inevitable challenges and fluctuations of working in groups and organising around shared goals and a sense of purpose.
During my time here, I've been noticing my relationship with space, not only in terms of the spaces I've been in, including the rooms and outdoor spaces, but also in how much space I allow myself to take up when I am in groups.
Often, I tend to hold back from speaking unless I am very clear on what I want to say or if I feel I have something to contribute to the presenter. Other people do not hesitate to speak up; they'll jump right in and share their thoughts even if they don't take the form of a question.
I sit back and wonder if the space has a way in which it would like to be engaged. How can I contribute to the space? I look around again. A sense of anticipation fills the room.
Over the past month I’ve been reading about aesthetics; the felt meaning that arises from sensory perceptions, and involves subjective knowledge rooted in feeling and emotion1. In the literature on leadership aesthetics extends beyonds notions of beauty, to encompass other forms of judgment according ‘to several aesthetic categories, including the aesthetically ugly, sublime, comic, or grotesque’ (p. 546) Each aesthetic influences our experience, inviting us to lean in, and be receptive, pull away, or experience a range of emotions.
According to Ropo and Salovaara leadership is also informed by aesthetics. They describe leadership as ‘something that emerges from interactions and that is constantly shaping and being shaped’ (p. 463)2. Mood, tone and the atmosphere of space each can inform how we engage with others and invite possibilities to shape collective experience. They describe how we are continually informed by sensory information and influenced by the qualities of the space around us, and go on to suggest that leadership arises in interaction. In other words leadership isn’t held by a person, but arises as they engage with others and the materiality of their environment.
From this perspective, the leader isn’t necessarily the one who speaks first, rather it could be the one who listens and responds in a way that contributes to the shared space.
I look around the room again, and appreciate the quiet. Seconds later a woman to the left of me raises her hand. She poses a question that invites reflection from the presenter. For that moment she is a leader.
What I’m Reading:
Aesthetic Leadership, by Hans Hansen, Arja Ropo, and Erika Sauer
For the past few years, I've been intrigued by the concept of aesthetics in leadership. While I could intuit what it might mean from colleagues' discussions, I was curious to learn what it meant. A few weeks ago, I read an article that illuminated the profound implications of aesthetics in leadership.
Hansen, Ropo and Sauer describe aesthetics as involving subjective, tacit knowledge rooted in feeling and emotion (p. 544). Aesthetics refers to the sensory knowledge that influences what we pay attention to and how we make decisions. They propose that aesthetic knowledge is equally as important as rational knowledge since it influences the way we feel about things and, in doing so, shapes our perceptions.
Spacing Leadership as an Embodied and Performative Process, by Arja Ropo and Perttu Salovaara
This article explores the role space and materials play in leadership. Instead of viewing space as a passive container, Ropo and Salovaara describe how we can shape space and how the rooms and environments we move through can influence our actions and leadership. They define leadership not as something a person holds but as something that arises in interaction with others and one's environment. They draw upon excerpts from songs and point to objects such as iPhones and water coolers to illustrate the way materials mediate our experience.
Works in the Centre
On July 12th, PDT / July 13th AEDT, I'll be hosting Works in the Centre, a two-hour session focused on practising a process-oriented approach to working with others. There will be inner work, time to connect in small groups, a demo of me working with someone in the centre, a discussion, and possibly time to engage in an awareness-based practice in small groups.
During the session, there will be opportunities for immersive and reflective learning. You may bring a question to the session, watch the work, and practice with this question in mind, or notice something that catches your attention within the session and explore the possibility that what you're observing has something to teach you as well. Learn more and register here.
As always feel free to be in touch. I love hearing from you!
Hansen, H., Ropo, A.and Sauer, E. (2007). Aesthetic Leadership. The Leadership Quarterly [online]. 18, pp. 544-560 [Accessed 08 June 2024].
Ropo, A. and Salovaara, P. (2018) Spacing Leadership as an Embodied and Performative Process. Leadership [online]. 15 (4), pp. 461–479. [Accessed 05 July 2023].