Leadership Development Working Group/LDP/section 1

Leadership Development Plan

The Wikimedia movement comprises many individuals, projects, and groups, all of which are influenced by leadership in one way or another. As a result, awareness of the roles of leaders and the necessary skills for effective leadership is important. This section aims to answer the following questions:

  • What is effective leadership in the Wikimedia movement?
  • What leadership roles exist?
  • What are the skills needed to lead effectively?

In this section, we provide a framework for understanding different types of leadership roles and skills. We then share a guide for assessing one’s own leadership skills.

Defining Leadership in Wikimedia

The Leadership Development Working Group defines leadership in the Wikimedia movement as a collective effort. Through the lens of collective leadership, leaders are not only people and positions but also groups. Effective leadership is “the ability to guide, inspire, build autonomy, encourage and motivate a group of people towards a shared goal or common vision.”

It involves demonstrating leadership qualities and actions such as empathy, trust-building, and abilities to create supportive environments for others to thrive. These leadership skills and qualities are attainable and available to everyone, no matter one’s position or experience level, and they are necessary for all leaders across the movement – whether you are in an affiliate, governance position, admin function, or organizing role.

Leadership Skills

 
Leadership Skills Diagram.

Leadership skills are a set of soft skills that allow one to encourage, motivate, and develop others. In contrast to hard skills, which are technical, administrative, task-specific or role-specific skills[1], soft skills are personal attributes and social skills such as empathy, integrity, trust-building, and decision-making. Leadership skills are also distinct from management skills, which focus on overseeing the work of a team or organization. While effective managers need to be leaders, leaders do not need to be managers. In this resource, we argue that there exist core leadership (soft) skills that apply to all Wikimedia leaders, regardless of roles or responsibilities. For example, for an affiliate leader or an organizer to support their communities and initiatives well, they need to display empathy and be accountable to their commitments. What may differ between the roles is their hard skills. A leader of an established affiliate may need to know how to plan and manage multi-year strategies and budgets for their organization, for example, while organizers may need to know how to manage event logistics.

Based on the leadership definition, leadership skills in the Wikimedia movement include internal qualities such as courage, resilience, focus, and accountability[2]; and outward actions such as trust-building, setting shared vision, and guiding collaborative decision making.

To help you visualize this concept, we created a Leadership Skills Diagram (see image) depicting the internal qualities and outward actions. We acknowledge that this is not a comprehensive list of leadership skills. It’s also worth noting that the ability to act with both soft and hard skills is necessary for effective leadership. There are overlaps and different interpretations of hard and soft skills. Our intention in this definition is to establish a common understanding of leadership skills and narrow the focus of this resource to leadership (soft) skills, which are relevant across contexts. This resource can complement others which focus on the hard skills that are needed for different leadership roles.

Leadership Roles

In the Wikimedia movement, leadership appears in different contexts and leaders hold different roles. While there are formalized leadership roles, there are also many informal ones. In the following table, you will find leadership roles categorized by context and function. The information provides an overview of known and common movement roles that require leadership.

It is not meant to be a prescriptive or exhaustive list but rather to raise awareness and conversation. There are certainly leadership roles in the movement that are not widely known, named, or recognized. Lastly, it is worth acknowledging that people or groups do not always easily fit into categories, leadership roles can overlap, and roles may differ based on language or regional communities.

The leadership contexts described below include:

  1. Affiliates and Informal Groups
  2. On-wiki Extended Rights
  3. Governance Committees
  4. Organizing
  5. Programs and Projects
  6. Community Facilitation
  7. Mentorship
  8. Capacity Building

Affiliates and Informal Groups

Organizing

Programs and Projects

Community Facilitation

Mentorship

Capacity Building

Leadership Skills Assessment

Now that you have a better understanding of leadership roles and skills, it’s time to ask yourself: what are your leadership strengths and areas for improvement? The Leadership Skills Assessment (For Self) is a tool designed for you to assess your own leadership skills. The goal of the self-assessment is to bring awareness to your current leadership abilities and opportunities for further learning. As a companion to this assessment, we also created a Leadership Skills Assessment (For Colleagues) that allows colleagues to assess the leadership skills of others who are either already leaders or have aspirations to develop their leadership.

Notes

  1. The importance of soft skills: Education beyond academic knowledge - Schulz, B. (2008)
  2. Personality Traits - Edward Diener and Richard E. Lucas (University of Utah, University of Virginia, Michigan State University)
  3. “Emerging” and “Established” are used to describe the characteristics and activities of the group, not the official affiliation status or their impact.