Memo to an Agent of Change

This chapter will be quite different from those preceding it. So far, I have been in diagnostic mode. I have presented you with questions, concepts, models and research insights that each illuminates different aspects of public leadership: The distinctive challenges (‘work’) it entails, and the tools leaders have at their disposal to perform that work (Chapter 2).The nature and variability of the ‘licence to operate’ that leaders receive from followers and constituents (Chapter 3).The often overlooked reality that the work of public leadership in a particular setting is seldom performed exclusively by a single person (‘the’ leader) but generally by different authority figures or otherwise influential actors aligning their actions with those of their respective constituents (Chapter 4).The importance of context — ideational, situational, historical, temporal, and the ways in which leaders discern and relate to contexts — to understand leadership processes and outcomes (Chapter 5).The distinctive challenges and opportunities which ‘crises’ — in particular threatening, emotive and often urgent developments that prompt public calls for non-routine, often drastic forms of intervention — present for public leaders, agencies, and their critics and opponents (Chapter 6).The vexed issue of how one can evaluate the quality of public leaders and/or leadership (Chapter 7).