Continuing to search for critical practices of leader/ship and leader/ship development – in organisations and in my own practice.

My Phd explored a ‘practice puzzle’ (Herr and Anderson, 2005, p72) ‘how could we strengthen young women’s leadership in a global, intergenerational women’s organisation?’ (Lewis, 2017). The research was influenced by and framed within the ideas of feminist and participatory action research (Lykes and Coquillon, 2006, Maguire, 1987), and hopefully, some of the work within it will prove useful to the organisation and women the work was inspired by and intended to serve. However, there are questions still to answer. Some are methodological, some are theoretical, and many come back to practice both academic and activist. All of which I remain interested in finding good answers too.

In terms of methodology, I'm hopeful that Reedy and King (2017) will offer me new ways to approach some of the methodological challenges I faced, while keeping the best bits of feminist and participatory action research (Lykes and Coquillon, 2006, Maguire, 1987), which for me was the deep and respectful engagement with many fabulous women, and knowing that we were working on a shared problem, central to their work.

Theoretically, I am still looking for the models that might help the organisation develop and spread new practices of leader/ship and leader/ship development – by which I mean not just the development of individual leaders, but the collective understanding and approach to leader/ship within the organisation. Or perhaps the answer is that the practice might inspire models.

Further, just as this question of leader/ship practice and development is an organisational question, it is also a personal question. I am part of my research organisation, I also aim to practice critical leader/ship within any organisation and remain perplexed by the critical scholars I encounter who don’t seem to think that their theory should inform their actions. And the other places where I practice leader/ship and reflect on leader/ship also inform my organisational work and so this paper.

Surrounding the research itself, I will also offer reflections on the challenges of trying to build this work as a long-term engagement. Both in terms of the questions of entanglement, and not being sure where work ends and activism begins, or vice versa (Reedy and King, 2017) and as a question of wanting to see long-lasting change, because as other activist scholars have note sometimes even well-designed interventions don’t survive once the researchers have left the field (Coleman and Rippin, 2000).