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.

1. From TRANSACTIONAL to TRANSFORMATIONAL

OLD PARADIGM: Focus on short-term results, task management, and information-driven interactions.

NEW PARADIGM: Lead from a shared vision and purpose, engaging the hearts and minds of people beyond immediate reactions or self-interest. Emphasize meaningful goals, productive relationships, and empathetic communication to achieve excellence.

2. From INDIVIDUAL CONTROL to COLLECTIVE EMPOWERMENT

?OLD PARADIGM: Command and control, focusing on individual achievements and gain.

NEW PARADIGM: Empower collective success through autonomy, trust, collaboration, and shared accountability. Transform structures and norms that cause harmful imbalances.

3.??From EFFICIENCIES to SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE

?OLD PARADIGM: Assume the abilities and talents of people are static and focus solely on efficiency, sticking to established protocols even when they no longer serve.

NEW PARADIGM: Assume thriving is a natural state of human functioning, and the basis of human potential, development, and performance. Design work, work processes, and environments that energize and grow people to foster sustainable performance, innovation, and resilience.

4.?From ACTION WITHOUT AWARENESS to INTEGRITY

OLD PARADIGM: Drive action through fear or ignorance of consequences.

NEW PARADIGM: Encourage full engagement and ethical decision-making to guide commitments, actions, and responses to challenges.

5.?From EXTRACTION to REGENERATION

OLD PARADIGM: Treat people and the planet as resources to be exploited.

NEW PARADIGM: Regard people and the planet as complex, dynamic living systems to learn from, adopting practices that promote sustainability, yet go beyond it for the sake of renewal.

6.?From SILOED THINKING to ECOSYSTEM SYNERGY

OLD PARADIGM: Make decisions in isolation with limited perspectives.

NEW PARADIGM: Leverage the interconnectedness of ecosystems for holistic problem-solving with innovative upstream solutions. Include diverse perspectives to better reflect and respond to a broad range of needs and insights.

7.? From BURNOUT to WELLBEING

OLD PARADIGM: Overlook signs of overstress and overwhelm.

NEW PARADIGM: Prioritize thriving as a benchmark of success, redefining how we grow, work, and succeed, plus strengthening the sources of sustainable wellbeing and resilience for the organization, people and communities, and the planet.

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.

Want examples of thriving leadership in action? Check out this equally visionary and pragmatic documentary, A Brief History of the Future, by futurist Ari Wallach. Wallach highlights leaders around the globe who are reimagining a future filled with discovery, hope, and possibility about where we find ourselves today and what could come next.

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.?

I am grateful to be on this journey with you, Renee