Whereas most of the leadership literature has focused on direct, interpersonal leadership, few researchers have examined indirect leadership or the leadership OF organizations. While direct, personal leadership plays an important role at all levels of the organization, we focus here on how leaders use strategy, structures, and systems to create the conditions that stimulate others to meaningfully contribute to the overarching goals of the organization. This means that we explore especially the strategic leaders role as architect. In this role as architect we explore how strategic leaders create organizations where leaders develop, knowledge gets created and disseminated, meaning shaped and shared, discretionary power gets (mis)managed, vision gets cascaded and that throughout it all the organization remains adaptive to the complex environments in which they operate. The six major sections in this book coincide with these aspects of the leaders architectural focus. The first chapter in each of the first five sections presents a theoretical frame for the given topic. Two application chapters then follow the theory chapter to give practical, real-life examples. The sixth section explores the relationship between complexity theory and strategic leadership. It is our hope that this book broadens the thinking of academics and practitioners alike. We hope it broadens your thinking of strategic leadership to include both direct and indirect leadership, and leadership OF and IN organizations. We also hope that the juxtaposition of theoretical thinking with practical application offer rich insights in the practical and theoretical benefits that can be had in this field. *Examines indirect leadership - the leadership OF organizations *Explores how leaders exercise leadership indirectly through structures, processes and systems that stimulate others to contribute to organizational goals *Contains six major sections: leadership development, knowledge management, influencing and shaping meaning, leader discretion, vision cascading, and complexity theory and the networked organization
