During the summer, I developed and facilitated an online Horizontal Leadership workshop for graduates of the ETHSUN INSTITUTE, a young university in Côte d’Ivoire.

Around 30 participants joined — and stayed until the very end. That alone is no small thing.

They came looking for practical tools. Almost like a magic trick:

How do you lead when you don’t have authority?

Most of them are middle managers working in the public sector, where hierarchy is strong.

Their questions were very concrete:

How do I convince my team that my decision is the right one?
How do I deal with resistance from some of my most reliable collaborators?
How do I influence decisions when I don’t have the title or formal authority?

And I invited them to look at leadership a little differently.

Not only as a management tool, or something that depends on your position in an organization — but as a set of human qualities:

Listening. Curiosity. Patience. Empathy. Responsibility. Presence.

At IMO, we see an organization as a living, learning community that develops through the people who are part of it.

So we practiced listening — including to what is uncomfortable for us to hear — without judging, and without rushing to give advice. Apparently, that’s the hardest part… 

We learned how to ask better questions. Questions that can transform organizational problems into opportunities to learn something about ourselves.

Because all change begins in you.

We practiced not rushing immediately toward solutions, but becoming comfortable with uncertainty. Staying there for a little while. Listening to what might emerge.

Connecting with what the future might bring — and with the potential we don’t yet know.

And at the end, I gave them a simple challenge:

Think of a task you know very well — and give it to someone who has never done it before.

Be willing to be surprised.

Horizontal leadership is about creating the conditions for others to lead, contribute and grow. Leadership begins with our ability to truly meet the other — and to allow ourselves to change through that encounter.

Katja Ginda