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Synonyms

Charismatic leader; Difference maker; Inspirational leader; Shaman; Transformational leader

Definition

A shamanic leader is someone who focuses on healing or making the organization, community, or world better, connecting across boundaries and disciplines to create integrative insights and practices, and sensemaking to provide meaning and purpose. These three functions of healing, connecting, and sensemaking are undertaken in the service of a better world.

Introduction

In many traditional communities, an important leadership figure is the local shaman, the medicine woman or man, often a locally respected, even revered figure in the community (Waddock 2017). Many traditional and Indigenous communities rely on shamans for their healing abilities, as well as their wisdom. Shamans work to heal the community and individual patients. Though not all leaders are shamans, many more leaders and enterprises of all sorts could benefit from explicitly taking on the healing mantle of the...

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Correspondence to Sandra Waddock .

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Waddock, S. (2018). Shamanic Leadership. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3587-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3587-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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