Leadership becomes more important with increasing complexity

As complexity increases, the need for good leadership increases. The default response of leaders to shocks to their team (whether threats or opportunities) is usually to increase control. Counter-intuitively, leaders in such contexts need to learn to lead like a gardener in order to cultivate an innovative environment that equips their team to address the shock.

As the world becomes more complex, the importance of leaders will only increase. Even quantum leaps in artificial intelligence are unlikely to provide the personal will, moral courage, and compassion that good leaders offer. Persuading teams to network with other teams will always be difficult, but this is a culture that can be planted and, if maintained, can flourish. It just requires a gardener: a human, and sometimes all-too-human, leader displaying the willingness to accept great responsibility remains central to making an ecosystem viable.^[1]

#leadership #complexity

See also:

• Leaders cultivate an innovative environment
• Leading like a gardener creates shared consciousness
• Leadership is by circles in decentralized organizations
• Consistency of rigid management processes decreases flexibility