June 12, 2025
Leadership requires a solid foundation and leadership capabilities that evolve in response to the changing times. This came home to me vividly the other day. I attended a luncheon for nonprofits to celebrate the 60th birthday of Head Start. Head Start provides early education interventions to low-income families and has a documented track record of success. A Federal government report, Head Start Services of February 2025, notes, “Since 1965, Head Start programs have reached more than 38 million children and their families. Children enrolled in Head Start programs are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, exhibit improved social, emotional, and behavioral development, and are better prepared to be parents themselves than similar children who do not attend the program. Children enrolled in Early Head Start programs have significantly fewer child welfare encounters related to sexual or physical abuse between the ages of 5 and 9 than those who don’t attend. “The Head Start Speaker noted that despite government endorsement of this program, Head Start programming offices have been cut, and the program might be eliminated. The speaker noted that, yes, the context has changed, yet their core beliefs remain unchanged, and they will utilize different leadership capacities due to the leadership in Washington. I was amazed by her unflappable approach and response: ‘We will change how we lead to ensure a 61st Birthday for Head Start and beyond .’
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This is a stark example, seen around the world, of what John Maxwell, in High Road Leadership, referred to as Low-Level Leadership. This level of leadership, along with various types of occurrences, changes the Context of leadership practice. Throughout our history, we have seen this on numerous occasions, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders still lead, and in today’s rapidly shifting world, the foundation of effective leadership remains unchanged: values, purpose, motivation, and mindset are the bedrock, the core upon which all outstanding leadership is built. These core elements serve as a leader’s compass, providing consistency, ethical grounding, and clarity of vision, especially true as the world around them grows more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Yet, while the core is rock solid, the capacities leaders must develop—such as learnability, emotional intelligence, communication, and coaching are dynamic, evolving in response to the unique challenges of each era.
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This Thursday’s leadership insight is the first of a four-part series on leadership in the context of the times. This first article will discuss the importance of leadership core in the context of the times. A brief review of four current contextual themes that leaders must utilize their capacities to address in these times will be shared. Intentional leadership practice to address these four themes will assist leadership to navigate in a VUCA environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity to another VUCA defined By Bob Johansen In The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything as VUCA PRIME of vision, understanding, clarity, and agility.
“The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can not read or write; the illiterate of the 21st Century will be those who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
The Core: Leadership’s Unchanging Foundation
Values and Purpose: Leaders who are clear about their values and purpose inspire trust, guide ethical decision-making, and foster a sense of shared mission. This clarity not only motivates teams but also anchors organizations during times of turbulence.
Motivation and Mindset: A growth mindset and intrinsic motivation empower leaders to persist through setbacks, adapt to new realities, and model resilience for their teams
“Purpose and values serve as guiding principles for leaders. A leader’s purpose is their ‘why’—the reason they do what they do. Values are the beliefs and principles that matter most to them. These principles help leaders make decisions and prioritize actions that align with their broader mission.”
Elona Lopez
The Context: Evolving Leadership Capacities
Context is, quite simply, what is occurring in the present times. Today’s organizations, whether in the workplace or schools, are characterized by high turnover, low retention, disengagement, and increasing divisiveness, as noted in Gallup’s State of the Workforce and the Gallup Walton Family Report on the Future of Teaching. To lead effectively in this environment, leaders must develop and expand capacities that fit the Context of the times, including leadership capacities such as choice, Learnability, and Emotional learnability. Communication, Coaching, and Collective Capacity are crucial as they interplay with four contextual themes.
We are not in an era of change. We are in a change of era.”
Pope Francis
These themes are
- Rapid Unpredictable Change
Change is constant and often met with resistance. John Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model provides a proven framework for leading successful transformation. His model, which will be discussed next week in Part II, emphasizes the importance of leadership, communication, and engaging both the “mind and heart” of the organization to drive lasting change.
.2. Generational Diversity: Tim Elmore and David Yeager
For the first time, up to five generations share the workplace, with six generations present in the school setting, each with distinct values, communication styles, and expectations. The work of Tim Elmore’s A New Kind of Diversity and David Yeager’s 10 to 25 will be reviewed to leverage multi-generational talents in Part III .
- Working with Complicated People: Ryan Leak
Every team has complicated personalities. Ryan Leak’s “How to Work With Complicated People ” offers practical strategies for working with and winning with complicated people. Leak reminds us that learning to collaborate with difficult colleagues is not just necessary—it’s transformative for teams and organizations.
- Paradoxical Leadership: Tim Elmore and Recent Research
Paradoxical leadership involves holding seemingly contradictory traits in tension, such as being both decisive and flexible, maintaining control while empowering others, and striking a balance between uniformity and individualization. Tim Elmore’s The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership, to be reviewed in Part Four of this series, shows that leaders who master leadership paradoxes move from “either/or” to “both/and” thinking — a mindset essential for Today’s multifaceted challenges.
The times demand more from leaders than ever before. While the core of leadership—values, purpose, motivation, and mindset—remains steadfast, the capacities required to lead must continuously evolve. By embracing structured change, generational diversity, the challenge of complex individuals, and paradoxical leadership, Today’s leaders can navigate VUCA environments with a different focus on Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.
In the coming weeks, we’ll dive deeper into each of these contextual leadership themes and explore strategies for equipping leaders to lead effectively in these challenging times, adding value to those they serve and lead.
The Leadership Question for You Then is.
Is your leadership core solid, and are your leadership capacities able to stretch to address the four leadership themes necessary to lead in the current context? to develop collective capacity in your organization?