The Leadership Mask: a personally focused art based learning enquiry into facets of leadership

Abstract

Leaders are faced with challenges that are personally and professionally complex. In order to meet these challenges leaders need to be flexible, self‐reflective and continually looking for new ways to deepen understanding of their own leadership. Engagement with art based learning enables an innovative and creative exploration of beliefs, values and experiences. The paper draws on mask making workshops that explore leadership style and behaviour as well as feelings and agendas that may be hidden. The paper argues that this constitutes qualitative research with the mask maker as both researcher and the researched. The activity, as well as being enjoyable and intriguing in itself, models creative and lateral thinking, develops self awareness and can enable access to information beyond the objective through the expressive metaphor of the mask. Working with visual, emotional and aesthetic literacies, further developed through non‐directive professional dialogue, can lead to a more effective, authentic and therefore ethical leadership. Feedback from participants suggests that the exploration of experience through art based methods offers a valuable process, in parallel with more usual and logical approaches to reflection, and helps to explore both conscious and unconscious drivers.

Keywords:

• leadership
• reflection
• art based learning
• masks
• creativity