1. Direction-Alignment-Commitment: A Leadership Framework
Theoretical Roots
Applied Practice
Opportunities and Dilemmas
Cindy McCauley
Senior Fellow

2. DAC as Ontology
Traditional leadership ontology (the “tripod” framework of leadership)
Context
Leader
Behaviors
Follower
Behaviors
Shared
Goals
Leader
Characteristics
Follower
Characteristics
Drath, W.H., McCauley, C.D., Palus, C.J., Van Velsor, E., O’Connor, P.M.G., & McGuire, J.B. (2008). Direction, alignment, commitment:
Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 19,

3. DAC as Ontology Direction-alignment-commitment leadership ontology
Individual
Leadership Beliefs
Direction,
Alignment,
Commitment
Longer-term
Collective
Outcomes
Leadership
Practices
Collective
Leadership Beliefs
Context
Leadership Culture
Drath et al., 2008.

4. Leadership Outcomes Direction Alignment Commitment
Agreement in the group on overall goals
Alignment
Coordination of work within the group
Commitment
Mutual responsibility for the group

5. Roots of DAC Framework: Experiencing the Limits of the Tripod
Constructivist perspective
Leadership as “meaning-making in a community of practice” (Drath & Palus, Making Common Sense, 1994)
Relational perspective
Leadership cultures as the source of leadership; leadership as emerging from relationships (Drath, The Deep Blue Sea, 2001)
Whole system perspective
Leadership development as individual and organizational development (CCL Handbook of Leadership Development, 2nd edition, 2004)
1994
Constructivist
Perspective
2001
Relational
Perspective
2004
Whole System
Perspective

6. Four Streams of Research on “Leadership in the Plural”
Sharing leadership for team effectiveness
Pooling leadership at the top to lead others
Spreading leadership across levels over time
Producing leadership through interactions
Mutual leadership in groups: members leading each other
Dyads, triads, and constellations as joint organi- zational leaders
Leadership relayed between people to achieve outcomes
Leadership as an emergent property of relations
DAC Framework part of broader movement in the field.
Denis, J., Langley, A., & Sergi, V. (2012). Leadership in the plural. The Academy of Management Annals, 6(1),

7. Application: Putting DAC to Work
Improving Group Processes: Monitoring and improving leadership (DAC) in teams
Empowering People to Act: Encouraging all people to see their role in producing DAC
Crafting New Leadership Practices: Developing leadership beliefs and practices that better enable the production of DAC in the face of complex challenges

8. RESULTS

9. Group Processes: DAC Debrief
To what degree has the team generated DAC thus far? Very Little A great deal DIRECTION ALIGNMENT COMMITMENT What did the team do collectively to produce direction, alignment, or commitment (DAC)? What did I do to contribute to the production of DAC? What can the team do going forward to better produce DAC? What can I do going forward to better contribute to the production of DAC?

10. Empowering People to Act: Telling Your DAC Story
Think about a time when…
…we found our purpose
…we saw how all the parts of the work fit together
…we were committed to one another

11. Three Kinds of Leadership Culture
How do we achieve agreement on direction?
How do we coordinate our work so that all fits together?
How do we maintain commitment to the collective?
© 2009 Center for Creative Leadership. All Rights Reserved.

12. Opportunities and Dilemmas
PERSPECTIVE
OPPORTUNITY
DILEMMA
DAC as outcomes of leadership
A cross-context way of assessing whether leadership is happening
If it’s not happening, tell me how to improve DAC production.
DAC impacts collective results (but so do other factors)
Doesn’t make leadership synonymous with results
How can we say we have effective leadership if we aren’t achieving results?
DAC is produced through the interactions of people with shared work
A way of seeing that all leadership is shared leadership
Are you promoting participative or democratic forms of leadership?
A wide variety of social processes can produce DAC
Expands the possibilities when it comes to producing leadership
Aren’t you diluting the distinctiveness of leadership as a concept?