Searching for the “Just Right” Leadership Approach in this Era

For hundreds of years, individuals known as alchemists searched in vain for the mythical Philosopher’s Stone, a substance that was imagined to have the properties essential for turning basic medals into gold or generating the elixir of immortal life.

Today’s equivalent search is for that one leadership style capable of turning crisis into survival and then prosperity.Much like the alchemist’s search, finding the “just right” leadership style in today’s maelstrom of issues and wicked problems is elusive. Yet, for those striving to lead successfully, there is hope, and it comes in the form of a blended, adaptive model of leading.

When mixed in the right proportions for the situation, the properties of leading we describe as wartime, servant and resilient prove capable of transmuting crisis into hope and progress.

Consider the leadership environment in our world

If you elevate your altitude and survey the environment, the variety and volume of problems are breathtaking in a negative way.

People are frightened about their health, lives and their jobs.
Many businesses — large and small — face an existential threat and must adapt or die.
Everyone is learning to work, teach, govern and engage in new ways.
The mirage of seamless, low-risk supply lines stretched across the globe has been exposed for everyone to see.