New age, new leadership

Q I hear the term "new age leadership" a lot these days. How is this "new" leadership different from "old" leadership? Most theoretical foundations for leadership models and processes we follow these days are based on thinking from the middle and late Industrial Age of the 20th century. These theories reflect studies conducted in industrial, manufacturing, and corporate environments that were the predominant workplaces of the time. Even later 20th century leadership studies were conducted in business enterprises. Although many determinants of effective leader behaviors accurately depicted successful leader performance in the workplace, they predominantly focused on the leader's role and personal characteristics that supported leadership expression. In the context of the 21st century, an innovative and more contemporary understanding of complexity in human dynamics has developed that mirrors the complexity impact in other arenas. Newer notions have emerged of how humans act, interact, relate, and behave when alone, with others, and in complex social and work circumstances. This growing understanding of how complexity operates in our lives, how complex adaptive systems behave, and the emerging evidence suggests a different set of variables are at work.1 Past leadership practices have been challenged and newer applications of the leader role have materialized. None of this suggests that the leader behaviors we idealized in the past aren't useful or relevant going forward, but they must now be viewed within a larger context and a different frame of reference that includes this new learning about leadership in a complexity frame. In complex work environments, myriad forces influence the viability of certain behaviors and responses to the demands they create, which influence appropriate action(s). A confluence of forces constantly interacting and acting on each other demand particular responses that can generate a useful outcome. The leader must quickly adjust behaviors and practices in a way that tightly reflects the demands and needs that emerge from this conjunction of interacting forces. These forces are always in motion and acting on the choices and actions that, if positively managed, will increase the potential for positive outcomes. In this scenario, the leader is more conductor than director, more facilitator than controller, more agent than owner, and more coordinator than driver.2 Historical unilateral notions rooted in vertical structure and control unbundle in this environment. These singular and linear notions of work structures and relations now evolve toward a more robust response deeply embedded inside the multilateral, interacting, changing, constant maelstrom of dynamics that informs and reveals a trajectory of possibilities that leads to a preferred outcome. The leader is the agent managing these forces, acting within them and on them in ways that positively influence their applications and outcomes. These realities completely redefine the role characteristics of leadership in our time. These forces of change call for a deeper and broader understanding of the multifocal interface between systems and people and the proper application of leadership to positively address them.3 Every leader, whether new or seasoned, is now called to both learn and engage these emerging complex and "quantum" realties informing leadership capacity and expression.4 This call reflects the need for constant and lifelong leadership learning to ensure the continuing effectiveness of the role. The contemporary leader should now use available technology and media to add insight to skill development and preferences that support effective leadership that best addresses the increasing complexity in the system and in the effective leader's role. It's a new world, and it requires "new" leadership!