Host Leadership Roles Revisited
Keynote contribution by Dr Mark McKergow, the co-author of Host (with Helen Bailey, 2014) and The Host Leadership Field Book (with Pierluigi Pugliese, 2019).
To mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of Host, co-author and Host Leadership pioneer Mark led a discussion about how understanding of the six roles of the host leader (a key part of the HL model) has developed over time.
What seems more important now? Which elements of the roles seem to be more challenging to implement? How might things be different today?
Following a brief and funny introduction about what Scotland and Bulgaria have in common, Mark introduced the HL newcomers to the origins of the approach, to its metaphor and model. He then went on, sharing his new learnings over the ten years of the book life. One by one, he reviewed the roles and spoke about his present day thinking about them. With regard to the Initiator role, a key new concept of ‘priorities’ emerged, as well as evaluating and re-evaluating them. He then foregrounded the power of a good, strong ‘Yes’ within the Inviter role and brought the point home by giving lively examples.
New for me was his focus on trusting the change of place and space within the Space Creator role: utilising the benefits of new spaces, especially those coming with the promise of lots and lots of interactions.
Setting and observing boundaries do not necessarily present barriers for the host leader in their role of Gatekeeper. Important is to negotiate rather impose boundaries. Mark highlighted the significance of the ‘container’ concept, i.e. what is inside the boundaries: topics, people, place and time. Welcoming people over the threshold is another important aspect of the Gatekeeper role.
Mark based his new understanding of the Connector role on the description of the Edinburg Minute, a quick, free, daily, 7am round-up of Edinburgh’s essential news, events and links, hand-curated by a real human – Michael Macleod – in a 60-seconds-ish summary. The Edinburgh Minute is a brilliant example of connecting people with what is going on in their city.
When Mark was done with the role of Co-Participator, he posed two questions to the participants: What have YOU learned? What’s next?
The floodgates to ideas, suggestions, and dreams flew open.
