The End of Leadership as We Know It

Maximize your leadership impact with the latest insights and research from the field of adaptive leadership

In The End of Leadership as We Know It, a team of veteran executive and leadership strategists delivers an expert analysis of the ten most common errors leaders make when attempting to address disruption and concrete strategies for avoiding them. In the book, you’ll find ways to apply the latest research in adaptive leadership and complexity to your own leadership style and achieve the impact you seek to have on your business, your followers, and yourself.

The authors explain how to rethink the essence of leadership during times of flux and show you how to deal with unpredictable situations. You’ll also find:

• Ways to identify the devastating blind spots caused by current approaches to leadership
• Strategies for unleashing the creativity and potential of employees, rather than controlling them
• Tough-love feedback for contemporary leaders doing their best to deliver results in an increasingly uncertain and volatile business environment

Full of creativity and inspirational energy, The End of Leadership as We Know It will benefit managers, executives, board members, business students and other current and aspiring business leaders.

Foreword xi
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

Preface xv

1 Introduction: Making a Difference in Our Complex Times 1

2 It’s Not About You 19
Trap to avoid: Leading through expertise rather than relationships

3 The Vulnerability Paradox 35
Trap to avoid: Projecting confidence at the expense of humility

4 Stop Strategizing and Start Doing 51
Trap to avoid: Separating strategizing from executing

5 Freeing Your People with Purpose- Driven Simple Rules 69
Trap to avoid: Talking about purpose without operationalizing it

6 Why Community Organizers Consistently Beat Superheroes 85
Trap to avoid: Saving the day instead of building teams that solve problems

7 Vive la Résistance! 101
Trap to avoid: Overcoming resistance to change rather than working with it

8 Resilience Beats Efficiency 117
Trap to avoid: Cutting costs to the point of becoming brittle

9 The Siren Song of Certainty 135
Trap to avoid: Seeking certainty at the expense of reality

10 Data- Driven Decisions Still Need a Driver 151
Trap to avoid: Replacing judgment with data

11 When Best Isn’t Best 169
Trap to avoid: Assuming “best practices” are right for your situation

12 Conclusion: The End of Leadership in a Quantum Age 185

Notes 193

Acknowledgments 211

About the Authors 213

Index 215

STEVE GARCIA is a Managing Partner at Contemporary Leadership Advisors. He helps clients build and lead faster, higher-impact, and more adaptive organizations in rapidly changing, complex environments. He has extensive experience as both an executive and executive educator.

DAN FISHER is a consulting psychologist and Co-founder of the Institute for Contemporary Leadership and a Managing Partner at Contemporary Leadership Advisors. He has significant experience coaching and advising executives and their teams.

Contemporary leaders understand that the ways of doing things that worked so well for so long are no longer cutting it. Leadership frameworks and organizational strategies that used to deliver results are constantly being upended and disrupted by a world that no longer offers us stable ground or waits around for leaders to catch up. So, what’s a leader to do when the old tools no longer do the trick?

In The End of Leadership as We Know It, a team of award-winning executive and leadership strategists delivers a practical and insightful analysis of the most common errors leaders make when trying to tackle disruption, as well as a set of concrete strategies for avoiding those mistakes. The authors demonstrate how to apply the latest research in adaptive leadership and complexity to your own style in order to generate an outsized, positive impact on your business, your followers, and yourself.

In the book, you’ll learn to rethink the essence of leadership during times of flux and change. You’ll discover how to deal with unpredictable situations by addressing the massive blind spots generated by the traditional approach to leadership. The End of Leadership as We Know It also presents strategies for unleashing the creativity and full potential of your employees by giving up on the idea of control as a positive characteristic of leadership. It offers tough-love feedback for contemporary leaders doing their best to achieve results and hit targets during increasingly uncertain and volatile times.

Filled with inspirational energy and bursting with creativity, The End of Leadership as We Know It will prove invaluable to managers, executives, directors, entrepreneurs, founders, and other business leaders who seek a new, effective, and powerful framework for leading others at work.

Praise for THE END OF LEADERSHIP AS WE KNOW IT

“Operating in volatility and complexity is not for the faint-hearted. The old rules no longer apply. Garcia and Fisher provide a practical and thoughtful guide to avoid the traps so many leaders keep falling into.”
—Jennifer Paylor, Head of Global Talent Innovation, Capgemini

“Learning to become a trusted leader starts with the willingness to embrace uncertainty, the humility to change how you approach your colleagues and employees, and the discipline to lead with listening first. The End of Leadership as We Know It perfectly captures how leaders must journey into this new age of management that seeks to foster collaboration and creativity.”
—Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Best Selling Author and World’s #1 Executive Coach

“In these dynamic times where barriers to entry are falling and opportunities for innovation accelerating, leaders need to adapt their approach. Garcia and Fisher outline the main leadership traps in this evolving landscape and propose simple, effective strategies that leaders can use to help their companies win in the marketplace.”
—Philip Hammarskjold, Executive Chairman, Hellman & Friedman

“Garcia and Fisher provide a new holistic approach to navigating the traps that executives must avoid if they are to lead adaptive and effective organizations. Full of practical strategies and insightful wisdom, this guide gives leaders the tools they need to thrive amidst disruption and turn complexity to their advantage.”
—Jesse Cohn, Managing Partner, Elliott Management

“Leadership has never been easy. And the modern world is only making it harder. One frequently hears terms like vulnerability and leading without authority, but all too often beneath the bromide there is no substance. Not so here! Garcia and Fisher deliver grounding, advice, and perspective that will help any leader, no matter where they’re starting from. Highly recommended.”
—Ben Fried, CIO, Google, 2008-2022