Embracing the Paradoxes of Leadership

While corporations face constantly competing demands for resources, we still talk about moonshot long-term strategy. How can we sync ambitious aspirations with maintaining our business-as-usual which funds these innovative and profitable visions of the future?

In today’s uncertain world, employees need a way to make sense of competing demands that create tension. Such conflicting demands include planning for the long term and operating in the short term; acting globally while dealing with local needs; collaborating and competing with other companies.

An important tension for firms at the moment is the need to be profitable but also to be socially and environmentally oriented.As everything shifts (such as managing other cultures in an accepting way instead of expecting them to fit into one-size-fits-all roles), our “either/or” ideals around leadership are often forcing square pegs into round holes.

To expand our conception of work, leadership and creativity, it’s necessary to embrace paradoxes.As humans, we have an internal need for consistency. We experience cognitive dissonance when we encounter an apparent inconsistency.