The future of leadership looks bright – if you know where to look

Why is this a challenge?

When the pendulum swings between these two ‘false’ opposites, we lose sight of the business. We tend to overemphasise the contributions of individual leaders while downplaying the significance of the surrounding context.

When we get stuck focusing too much on the individual, we end up with an artificial opposition, where the leader's role is exaggerated, and the influential ecological factors are overlooked. The consequence is that our leadership frameworks, concepts of leadership, and leadership development programmes become detached from the actual needs of the business. Too often, they are designed under the influence of the ‘fashion industry’ – i.e., what is currently trending in the People & Culture sector.

Furthermore, with this hyper-individualised focus, we end up expecting individual leaders to master a long list of skills – so extensive that not even a superhuman could live up to these expectations. When we do focus on some of these skills, they are often labelled as 'soft skills,' 'universal skills,' or 'impossible to measure.' These skills become very detached from the business and are often seen as 'nice to have' rather than 'need to have’.

What we wish to say about leadership

Instead of sticking to outdated frameworks, we need to take a systems thinking approach to leadership – and it is absolutely pivotal that this approach understands leadership as a dynamic process that emerges, naturally, from the interactions both within and outside of the organisation.

We find this to be a general challenge and the key reason for the gap between HR and strategy that we encounter in many organisations. Moreover, it is an urgent issue in current times, where adaptable challenges in the world are increasingly calling for a new type of organisational and leadership thinking to respond to the rapid changes in our organisational ecosystem.

With environmental constraints, the transformation of information, scientific discoveries, and shifts in social norms, we see a clear need to rethink and revise our leadership models. We must move towards a framework built on ecological principles, where interconnections and adaptability are central to how we navigate complexity. Taken together, these factors create a key opportunity for HR to step up and drive a true leadership transformation.

Bridging the gap between HR and business

To realise this – and the many commercial and cultural benefits that such an approach would entail – we need to make sure that HR gains a true understanding of the tensions within the organisational system and a deep grasp of all the organisation's capacities. HR should act as trusted advisors, not just as servants to the system, helping navigate complexities while earning – and receiving – respect for their expertise.

In an ideal scenario, the conversation around leadership would then shift. People would stop referring to essential skills as 'soft' and recognise that opinions on 'the people side of the business' are just that – opinions. Just as we would never challenge the annual report from the CFO, we should acknowledge and respect the expertise of HR professionals.

Finally, we need to embrace a shift in how we approach organisational development. Progress and strategic success should be recognised as a blend of both art and science, rather than simply relying on tools and templates. True development goes beyond checklists – it requires deep, meaningful engagement with the complexities of leadership and growth.

Our suggestion is to move the pendulum to a new place, shifting away from the extremes of a ma(n)chine-focused, transactional approach and the deeply personal focus on the individual. Instead, we propose a systemic and contextual approach that bridges back to the business while maintaining focus on the leaders' specific environment – all with the purpose of introducing a new type of contextualised leader.

Effective leadership arises from the understanding of complexity, social systems, processes, and relationships, which again highlights the interdependence within organisational and social systems.

The organisation as the highest context

The organisation represents the highest context in which leadership unfolds. It is not confined to individual actions but emerges within the broader multiverse of organisational strategy. The context in which leaders operate is far more crucial to organisational success than what is typically seen in how organisations approach leadership. Since leadership emerges from dynamic human interactions within the organisation, it cannot be reduced to the actions of individual leaders alone.

Organisations, like other social, biological, or psychological systems, are complex and non-linear. They consist of elements that interact in a dynamic and adaptive way, often leading to unpredictable behaviours with no single identifiable cause. Even small actions can trigger massive reactions, while significant interventions may sometimes prove ineffective. Leaders must recognise that effective leadership depends on collaboration and interdependence. Through ongoing decision-making and sense-making, leaders must stay attuned to the ripples across the organisation, continuously adapting, pivoting, and realigning to navigate an ever-evolving context. And decision-making processes need to be more diverse, conscious, and intelligent, acknowledging the complex interplay of various factors that influence organisational success. Moreover, the metrics for evaluating impact should evolve from traditional KPIs to measures of adaptability.

A possible dream (with four guiding choices)

While this may sound like a bold vision, it is certainly not an impossible dream. At Implement, we have seen it happen firsthand and understand the type of drastic shift required in how we understand, design, and conceptualise leadership and leadership development.

The journey ahead requires a shift – from solving technical challenges to navigating adaptable challenges, and from placing the individual at the centre to focusing on the system as the true point of departure. Our advice: shift the focus. The system should be the foreground, not the background. This gives you a chance to elevate the relevance of HR, and to truly practise the art and science of leadership.

While this shift carries several important implications, beginning with a consideration of the following four principles will provide a strong foundation for any leadership team. This focus will equip you to make informed decisions and take impactful actions that drive organisational growth.

At Implement, we believe that traditional leadership models fall short in addressing today’s complex challenges. That is why we advocate for a systemic approach to leadership, one that focuses on the processes through which leadership emerges, both within and outside the organisation. Understanding – and, more importantly, changing – the system is key to effective leadership and will move us away from ‘soft skill’ training and into the art and science of leadership.

Moving forward, leadership development should centre on understanding how the system works and identifying what needs to change. The critical question now is: How do we actively shift the pendulum from the individual to the system – and make sure it stays there?

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