History of Manifesto

This review gives a new vision, which overlaps the charismatic – transformational model (Bass, 1985, 1998). C-T model dominated last twenty years literature and organizational development practices.

The transformational model born in the 80’s in a moment of great global changing, in the way to activate organizational resources and facilitate change and innovation.

A new view of leadership grown up, which could help change at individual and organizational level.
Vision, inspiration, positive attitude, individual approach, learning
are its primary issues.
In this fascinating theory, leader’s symbolic function stay at the foreground.
Leader manage all the transformational processes doing the function of “changing representative”, being the guarantor or the sponsor. This is a positive aspect for collaborator which in changing phases need to defend themselves to depressive anxiety.

Literature raised many doubts on validity and transferability of
transformational/charismatic leadership. For example is interesting to observe that in the transformational model the focus is on multinationals top management values and features: Americans white men with high seniority.
Probably this respectable gentlemen carries out different values from others leaders who each of us met in his own life.
In the Web Era, a globalized and turbulent time, is clear that reality
isn’t squeezable in a inspired vision of only one man. Therefore charismatic ones suffer for the evil of the time: their time is less and their lifecycle is shorter. The organization charismatic leader, the lighthouse, the guide, doesn’t accept to not longer be the generator of organizational success, after a short season of power, get soon to experience the inability to put in order from the confusion, protecting collaborators from their survivor anxiety.
Maybe the right way could be questioning the idea of a leader “over” all others. Rather it should to choose leaders who stay alongside of people and are able to facilitate, give support, catalyzed resources and energy that are into the system.

New leaders, today, are needed. New women and men able to create new visions, in a open, sharing, facilitating and collaborative intelligence way, are needed.
Leaders at most operative level who coordinates collaborator’s job and facilitating emerging talent, giving daily sense making and works for people well-being, are needed.
It serves a widespread capacity to deal with conflict, negotiate, but at the same time learn from collaborators and teach to them.
It serves leaders who thinks to their organization as a social system,
where relationships are one capital rather than accumulate to reinvest, using trust and reputation.

It serves firms and leaders who knows how to give a limit. The new
leader knows how to give a limit to the narcissistic and omnipotent push to do more and more with the same resources, pushing to the max as in the tayloristic way.
Leaders who knows how understand collaborator’s desires and give them space of power of self determination and freedom.
A system is responsible if make fair the work-freedom exchange.
This leadership is explained into the Open Leadership Manifesto.
It’s a representation that incorporate many principles from the transformational leadership post season, and that is post-heroic leadership. The Authentic Leadership, the Engaging Leadership and the Distributed Leadership represent nowadays a consolidated perspectives that is shooting here into the Open Leadership Manifesto.

A point of reference are also the studies did since 2008 with Ariele’s
LeaderlessOrg project, and from Lean Thinking and Agile software development approaches. This are new perspectives that put followers at the center. Also call them “follower” is actually a non sense, because when we ask them to take new problem solving responsibilities, satisfy customers, invent new process or tools, we ask them to became leaders!
Finally this kind of leadership encourages individual’s authenticity during the responsibilities assumption.
The new leader will be Open: he will not be the first among all, but
alongside of anyone who want to excel.