Capacious Model of Leadership Identities Construction: Applications for Women’s Peer Mentor Circles

• In Event: Women Weathering the Workplace: The Critical Roles of Mentors, Sponsors, and Coaches

Short Description

The Capacious Model of Leadership Identities Construction allows for fluidity of leadership identities through systems and influences that are particularly salient for women’s leadership development and effectiveness in the midst of today’s complex challenges. Theorists will discuss the model and its application in peer mentor and network circles.

Detailed Abstract

This presentation explains a more capacious theoretical model of leadership and its application for women’s peer mentor groups, which are particularly relevant given the pressures of leading in turbulent times. The Capacious Model of Leadership Identities Construction (Egan et al., 2017) centers leadership identities at the core of diverse leadership practices (Ely, 1995; Ely et al., 2011; Ibarra, 1999), whereas other models conceptualize leader identities as essentially a category or role (Ibarra, Wittman, Petriglieri, & Day, 2014). In contrast, the Capacious Model approaches leadership as a social and relational process in which the individual and context are interlinked through a dialectic exchange (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, 2014); the leader is not a static, lone actor, but a “relational reality” (Hosking, as cited in Uhl-Bien & Ospina, 2012, p. 465), inseparable from relationships with others and the leadership context (Fox-Kirk, Campbell, & Egan, 2017). The multi-national team of scholars that developed the Capacious Model views this innovative approach as particularly appropriate for leadership development and effective leadership in the midst of today’s complex challenges, given that it spans multiple contexts and mechanisms (Hernandez, Eberly, Avolio, & Johnson, 2011).

The Capacious Model accepts the challenge posed by Nannerl Keohane (2014), former president of Wellesley College and Duke University, to “build plans and expectations for the future on a more capacious conception of leadership” (pp. 52–53). Naming the model “Capacious” signifies the space and fluidity for individuals to explore and construct their leadership identities with movement, reflection, flexibility, and potential. The model is intentionally circular with permeable layers allowing the form of leadership identities to fluctuate and flow uniquely for each individual over time. This dynamism reflects the model’s Systems—distinct, yet related, contexts that intersect with the construction of individual leadership identities, and Influences—concepts of noted significance to leadership identities construction, especially for women (Egan et al., 2017). The Systems include Microsystem – the individual’s immediate environment and interactions; Mesosystem – the dynamic connections between systems such as family and work; Exosystem – the indirect effects on the individual (e.g., events at a significant other’s workplace); Macrosystem – cultural norms, social values, attitudes, ideologies, and expectations; and Chronosystem – passing time relative to history, experiences, cohort generation, and life span (Bronfenbrenner, 2009). Woven through the Systems are Influences shown to be especially poignant for women leaders: Purpose/Calling – an elevated sense of reason for leadership (Ely et al., 2011); Self-identity – an individual’s perception of who she is (Maddux & Gosselin, 2003); Social-identities – membership in emotionally significant social groups (Brewer, 1991; Tajfel, 1972); and Relationships –compelling personal and professional leadership connections (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995; Killeen, López-Zafra, & Eagly, 2006). The Capacious Model, to be visually displayed in the presentation, represents the construction of leadership identities as nesting System circles with interwoven Influences. In Jungian psychology, circles symbolize self, wholeness, endlessness, equality, and protection (Jung, 1978), apt descriptions for the identity work expressed in the Capacious Model and in women’s circles.

The potential applications of the Capacious Model will be demonstrated through a discussion of “women’s circles,” as one approach that values the benefits of both peer mentoring and networking. Women’s circles, whether formally or informally arranged, have been documented throughout history and across the globe as gathering spaces for women to nurture, safeguard, challenge, create, and share (Mijares, Rafea, & Angha, 2013). Contemporary women’s circles cross cultures and offer a wide range of support (e.g., for enhanced health, affiliation, spirituality, and career) with decentralized leadership, so that peers are equal and valued (Walker & Schubert, 1987). Peer mentor and network circles, for example, offer a safe space in which members may be encouraged and provoked to grow in morale, motivation, and confidence (MacDougall & Baldwin, 2009).

Inclusive peer circle leadership structures have been documented among cohorts of professional women in many nations, such as the United States (Bland, Taylor, Shollen, Weber-Main, & Mulcahy, 2012), New Zealand (Murray, Tremaine, & Fountaine, 2012), and Canada (Le Ber & Robinson, 2016). As one illustration, the Women’s Peer-to Peer Mentor and Network Circle (P2P) at Salisbury University (SU), Maryland, USA promotes capaciousness for women’s professional and personal development. The SU P2P group meets at a dedicated, sacred space to learn together and voice their thoughts and experiences. The circle hosts meetings one workday per month where women learn to apply mentoring and networking tools. In the spirit of feminist scholarly collaboration, these SU P2P participants read the scholarship of their sister circle members and apply the Capacious Model to their leadership identity growth. When women in circles articulate their intentions to others, they are more likely to be held accountable and achieve their objectives (Murray et al., 2012).

The Capacious Model is a valuable tool not only for the SU P2P group, but also for other circle members, to examine how leadership identities help or hinder their leadership development. Participants introspectively evaluate and collectively discuss the four Influences in the Capacious Model that are highly applicable to professional women: Purpose – What inspires me to be a leader?, Self-identity – Do I see myself as a leader?, Social-identity – Do others see me as a leader?, and Relationships – How do I lead, follow, and collaborate? (Egan et al., 2017). Within the Capacious Model, this leadership identity work occurs within multiple contexts represented by the Systems (micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono). The example SU P2P circle is spending nine-months of training in advanced circle mentorship through the Capacious Model to develop a group of vital women to create additional circles to bring the process to more women. Inspired by this initial success, the objectives of this ILA session are to: (1) inspire other women to participate in peer circles, (2) inform and guide other women regarding how to create such peer mentoring circles, (3) connect existing sister circles together to share best practices, and (4) offer the Capacious Model as a tool that can be useful for leadership development in the context of women's peer circles globally.

Participants

• Chrys Egan, Salisbury University

• S. Lynn Shollen, Christopher Newport University

• Constance Campbell, Georgia Southern University