Ron Webb, the new APQC KM Blog author asks, "Does leadership style affect Community of Practice effectiveness?"
Does leadership style impact the effectiveness of communities of practice (CoP)? That is, communities of practice by definition are loosely based “organizations” defined by their members’ identification and affiliation to the community’s goals.
If they are loose organizations, does leadership have an impact?
Leadership of communities shows up in the executive sponsorship, the champion, and in the internal community leaders and volunteers and members. My take on this question links to the idea of singleness of purpose. All these roles impact the direction of the community, and if they push the community down the wrong path, the community can lose its drive. Of course, the community can recover from this as well.