Restorative leadership

Restorative leadership embraces the interconnectedness of all life and acts for the highest benefit to all. Like in the Hippocratic oath, restorative leadership strives to do no harm and to heal the Earth, the communities and ourselves, moving toward a balanced expression of universal values and natural laws. Restorative leadership is visionary, resolved, and creative in generating yet unfulfilled possibilities.

Restorative Leadership is a framework for empowering leadership that elevates the quality of life on Earth. It goes beyond dominant leadership ethics of the 20th Century and emphasizes the value and efficacy of community-based networks, place-based knowledge, as well as systemic and co-creative problem-solving to establish the conditions for global sustainability and collective well-being.

History and Framework

• Although restorative leadership practices have been used widely for millennia, the term restorative leadership was coined and defined by Dr. Seana Steffen in 2009. The concept was popularized by the Restorative Leadership Institute, an organization founded by Steffen in 2011.
• Discerned from decades of fieldwork and a multi-year study of high impact leaders, the multidimensional and holistically integrated framework of restorative leadership includes the following distinctions:
  • A belief in the potential and power of community;
  • Participatory skills that empower self-organizing capacities and confidence while forwarding current priorities for collective well-being;
  • A substantive understanding of social-ecological interconnections that can be shared with and taught to others clearly and concisely;
  • An ability to engage individuals and communities in bridging that understanding of interconnection to a recognition of personal and collective rights and responsibilities in the web of relatedness.
• The following assumptions underlie the restorative leadership framework:
  • The state of our world is a reflection of the quality of our leadership.
  • The world is in a state of overshoot and collapse.
  • Empowered action starts wherever we are and with whatever is in front of us, whether in an African village or a presidential office, by embodying the best of what is possible for life on Earth as we co-create our world.
  • Humanity is basically good and there is infinite potential to fulfill.
• According to Steffen, the framework includes principles, practices and guiding questions.
• Restorative leadership cultivates resilience.

Principles and Practices

Valuing and empowering community – Restorative leadership utilizes a community-centered approach, engaging social networks to forward hopeful possibilities and leveraging communal assets to achieve goals. Traditional, indigenous and local knowledge is sought and valued.

Holism and making connections – Restorative leadership demonstrates an understanding of the interdependence and interconnectedness of life that can be articulated with great clarity, whether grounded in an intuitive sense or based in scientific knowledge. There is stewardship of personal, societal and global well-being.

Rights, responsibilities and practicing participatory engagement – Restorative leadership is distinct from command and control leadership by emphasizing mutuality and co-creation. It promotes self-organizing capacity, collective well-being, and resilience by facilitating, guiding and empowering.

Social capital through engaging networks - With restorative leadership, connecting relationally and seeing connections holistically builds trust and familiarity across social networks. Engaging vertical and horizontal networks lays a foundation of social capital that translates to adaptive capacity in times of disaster or stress.

Listening deeply and self-authorizing – Being and living into the work involves listening deeply to oneself and others for innate intelligence and collective wisdom. Restorative leadership authorizes one’s own and community leadership to fulfill new possibilities.

Holding the long view – The relationship between daily life experience and broader environmental and social concerns becomes evident through restorative leadership practices. Sustainability and future generations are taken into account.

Application and Lessons

The following are some examples of high-impact leaders who demonstrate the principles and practices of restorative leadership transforming 21st century issues:

1. Janine Benyus
2. Bob Berkebile
3. Gro Harlem Brundtland
4. Wangari Maathai
5. Molly Melching
6. Elinor Ostrom
7. Meg Wheatley

Other Restoratives

1. Restoration Ecology
2. Restorative Economy
3. Restorative Justice
4. Restorative Yoga
5. Restorative Practices
6. Restorative Justice

See also

• Servant Leadership
• Transformational leadership
• Janine Benyus
• Gro Harlem Brundtland
• Wangari Maathai
• Molly Melching
• Elinor Ostrom
• Peter Senge
• Meg Wheatley

References

• Steffen, Seana. 2012. “Beyond Environmental Leadership to Restorative Leadership: An Emerging Framework for Cultivating Resilient Communities in the 21st Century.” In D.R. Gallagher (Ed.) Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.)
• [1] Steffen, Seana. 2012. “Taking the Long View.” Population Press
• “Restorative Leadership: An Emerging Framework for Cultivating Resilient Communities.” American Sociological Association national conferences, Denver, CO. August, 2012
• “Sustainable Futures: Cultivating Resilience Through Restorative Leadership.” Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences national conference, Santa Clara, CA. June, 2012.
• “Restorative Leadership: The Calling and The Imperative of the 21st Century.” Association of Leadership Educators national conference, Denver, CO. July, 2011.

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