There have been many calls for leadership approaches to shift to meet the demands of a fast-changing, unpredictable world. Traditional “command-and-control” styles are considered outdated, while newer, more agile, and collaborative approaches have become de rigueur.
However, the reality for today’s leaders is more complex than “out with the old, in with the new.” For example, we found that some aspects of leadership that seemed to be outdated, such as top-down decision-making and a focus on tactical execution, were extremely valuable to get through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, rather than settling on a more static model of emerging behaviors, we found that “seven leadership tensions” between the traditional and emerging worlds were a much more accurate way to describe the current state of effective leadership.
Our research, conducted with more than 1,000 managers across the globe, suggests that what’s out-of-date is the idea that a leader should adopt a fixed leadership style that’s agnostic to the specific context in which he or she is operating. A single approach to leadership, whether traditional or emerging, is not going to meet the myriad of challenges that today’s leaders face.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.