A study of the Yin and Yang model of leadership for individual and collective leadership development

Abstract

Using the Yin and Yang Model of Leadership, this research engaged in embedded action research by studying feedback from 2,277 leaders in Canada and France who experienced the Yin and Yang Model in the context of leadership programs between 2008 and 2015. Leadership theories have continued to abound since the early 20th century and leadership scholars have increasingly called for integrative strategies and multilevel models that can address leadership development from an individual level as well as from a relational level. Three complementary studies of 52 individual and collective leadership development interventions, using the multilevel Yin and Yang Model of Leadership, with appreciative (yin) and its intentional (yang) principles as the underlying framework, were conducted by the author. The results from all three studies strongly support: (a) the model’s multilevel accessibility for leadership development at the individual, dyad, group and organization levels; (b) the use of appreciation and intentionality as two complementary and integrative leadership factors; and (c) the easy application and re-application of the model by participants from all walks of life. These results call for more research on each of the two principles as generative leadership attitudes, their interrelated dynamic as a guiding model for self-mastery and self-leadership, the applications to groups and collective leadership development, and the model’s general accessibility.