What are the qualities of leadership needed in our world today?

We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and anxious (VUCAA) world. No matter your role, the current reality calls everyone to deepen their understanding and practice of the qualities of their leadership.

But what are the qualities of leadership that are helpful and needed in our world today?

Leadership, as defined by Ed and Peter Schein, is the creation and implementation of something new and better [1]. This simple yet profound definition gives us a launching point for conversation. This definition also helps to differentiate leadership from management, governance, and other ways of working together that can distract us from naming and practicing quality leadership.

No matter your definition, the human qualities that you embody in your practice of leadership must reflect these present realities. 

Below, I’ve named three leadership qualities that I've found helpful.

I’m curious of what qualities you believe are needed in our world today. Please respond by posting them at the bottom of this blog.

Quality #1: Deep Listening

Deep listening to another person is increasingly rare and uncommon in many of today's leaders and in the places they occupy. Unfortunately, we tend to listen to confirm our understanding of things, we listen to reinforce our position on our known reality, and we listen for ways to draw another person’s power towards ourselves.

True deep listening means that we comprehensively understand the other person’s context through the words, phrases, and stories that they share with us. To deeply understand another person’s context, we must tap into and utilize our natural curiosity. This innate human quality allows us to open our minds, hearts, and bodies to wonder and consider the other person’s perspective, context, and situation.

When we listen with curiosity, we seek to understand another person’s word choice and the meaning they have for the words they are using. When we use our definition for the word or phrase someone else is using, we shut down curiosity, believing that we understand what they mean. We don't.

What if they have a slightly different definition or meaning behind that word or phrase they are using? We can’t say that we have truly listened to someone until we can repeat back to them what they mean by the words they are using.

Herein lies a helpful tool that helps us to listen deeply. It is perhaps the most powerful phrase in human relationship building…Tell me more.

Quality #2: Authentic Curiosity

As already noted, curiosity is a powerful tool when listening to another human. In a VUCAA world, curiosity about the present moment (and those present moments to come) further opens our minds to the emerging future.

In leading oneself, let alone leading others (whether a corporation, non-profit, church, denomination, family-owned business, partnership, etc.), we must tap into our curiosity and consistently ask ourselves a series of questions. Helpful questions that fuel our curiosity and help us search for how best to lead.

Questions like:

• What current activities or behaviors, while helpful in the past are keeping me and those around me from thriving now and into the future

• What new learnings and ways of being must I acquire and utilize, including unlearning those things that no longer serve, to position myself and those around me to live into a vibrant future?

• How can I improve my current ways of thinking and being that will help create and implement the changes necessary and bring about a new and better future for everyone?

Let’s get curious about the answers to these and other questions that will help you improve and grow as a leader.

Quality #3: Humility in Action

Humble leadership [2] as defined by Ed and Peter Schein is the practice of all forms of leadership by integrating them with Situational Humility. Situational humility is a developed skill characterized by the openness to see and understand all the elements of a situation by:

• Accepting uncertainty, while remaining curious to find out what is really going on,

• Being open, intentionally and mindfully, to what others may know or observe, and

• Recognizing when unconscious biases can distort perceptions and trigger emotional responses.

Humility in Action combines and integrates listening, curiosity, and situational humility into the act of leadership. In doing so, you are able to form your next steps with a dramatically expanded amount of information and with the understanding that you cannot do leadership alone.

So, what are the qualities of leadership needed in our world today? I believe these three are a great start.

Deep Listening

Authentic Curiosity

Humility In Action

What qualities would you add?

Mind how you go,

Lon L. Swartzentruber

Design Group International
Senior Design Partner

[1] Humble Leadership 2^nd Edition, Ed and Peter Schein, Berrett-Koehler, 2023, page 4.

[2] Humble Leadership, 2^nd Edition, Ed and Peter Schein, Berrett-Koehler, 2023, page 3, 8