Thriving Leadership in an Age of Disruption
In today’s world, we’re grappling with an unprecedented convergence of challenges: climate change, digital transformation, social upheaval, economic uncertainties, and more. These forces necessitate a shift from traditional leadership models to ones that can meet these new demands effectively.
At Wisdom Works, we advocate for a transformative approach that we call thriving leadership. This paradigm goes beyond navigating disruption; it’s about transforming it into opportunities for growth, capacity-building, and overall wellbeing. Leaders who adopt this paradigm view every aspect of their organization—from tech innovations to brands and daily operations—as chances to succeed in ways where people and the planet can thrive.
Seven Shifts in Consciousness, Capability, and Impact
Thriving leadership is about building on the best of how we’ve led in the past, yet broadening our consciousness, capabilities, and impact. It challenges both formal and informal leaders to elevate how they use their power and influence through seven essential shifts:
- From Transactional to TRANSFORMATIONAL
- From Individual Control to COLLECTIVE EMPOWERMENT
- From Efficiencies to SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE
- From Action without Awareness to INTEGRITY
- From Extraction to REGENERATION
- From Siloed Thinking to ECOSYSTEM SYNERGY
- From Burnout to WELLBEING
Thriving Leadership Is Personal
The seven shifts toward thriving leadership can feel a bit overwhelming when taken altogether. Yet, they don’t have to be. Start right where you are—with yourself. Because thriving leadership isn’t something you do “out there.” It’s quite personal. It’s about a new way of being and operating altogether.
This way of leading calls you to invest in your own capacity to thrive as a daily practice, as much as you focus on thriving for the people and systems you lead.
As examples of how to begin:
- Create a clear vision of thriving for yourself and determine how you’ll use it to guide your life and work.
- Intentionally use methods, such as time in sunlight, breath, movement, rest, work-chunking, and life-work boundaries, to cooperate with rather than ignore your biological rhythms and make emotional self-regulation your most likely default response to stressors.
- Plant seeds of positivity within your ecosystem by sharing gratitude with a colleague, a vendor, or friend.
When you experience a deep wellbeing internally, you’re naturally better resourced to operate with clarity and calm presence, engage with differing perspectives without defensiveness, adapt in the face of disruptions, channel your energy into better performance, and set the tone for a thriving work culture.
Better yet, leaders who thrive are an invitation for everyone they touch to bring forward wiser decisions for wider benefits.
This Is a Journey, Not a Destination
When we thrive, we have an abundance of energy to unleash toward positive business and social outcomes. As more leaders worldwide embrace this evolving paradigm of leadership, they are transforming disruption into a powerful force for good.
Thriving leadership is about harnessing challenges to envision and create a future where both people and the planet flourish.
Reflect on your own leadership style and that of your organization. Where do you stand on these shifts toward thriving leadership? For most of us, this is an ongoing journey of development, offering opportunities for growth from outdated practices to more visionary, inclusive, and regenerative leadership approaches.
