What is the ideal leader ? Does it exist?

"What is the ideal leader? " Does this exist?

These are powerful questions that are incredibly relevant as ‘leaders’ in organisations grapple with the present complex challenges facing them each day in an increasingly turbulent world.

The ability of managers to build a generative dialogue together around these questions with the aim of establishing an archetypical model of the ideal leader that they wish to bring into their leadership culture is arguably a core strategic competence that should be wired into the cultural DNA of their organisations.

This is exactly the kind of process that we enable as part of the CMI Level 7 Award in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice specialising in cultural change leadership. https://www.culturalchange.co.uk/practitioners-toolkit-cmi-level-7-award that we offer to our clients.

However, exploring these questions  is not a straightforward process.

There are many models of leadership supported by empirical research that assert the premise that they represent ideal leadership practices. Further, managers often have quite diverse interpretations of what leadership is based on their own beliefs  and values rooted in their individual life experiences.

Navigating through such complexity needs guidance and facilitation.

Organisational culture also impacts on the framing of an ideal leader. Therefore being able to diagnose the enablers and blockers of effective team-based dialogue to explore the archetypical ideal leader is essential.

Also the archetypical model of the ideal leader needs to be compatible with the underlying culture of the organisation. If not then cultural change of strategic magnitude will be necessary.

The tricky question that ‘leaders’ must also address as part of such a dialogue is “ok we have designed our model of the ideal leader however does such a leader exist in our organisation?”

This is a research question and so these ‘leaders ‘ must have the research skills to address it effectively.

Once we have valid data on their current leadership culture it is often not easy to look into the mirror held up by our teams and realise that we have some way to go to bring our model of ideal leadership into the day-to-day experience of organisational life.

This process is often a cultural change and therefore a strategic change  that is transformational  in nature.

This is a process we reflect on quite deeply in our book ‘Building a Culture of Conscious Leadership  https://shorturl.at/zh4aL published in 2023 by Routledge.

It is not often I get the chance to explore such insightful and relevant questions.
 

So I am delighted to be invited to do so as part of the closing panel discussion at the Share Inspiring Leadership Conference 2025 https://lnkd.in/eHKbJ-Wz   which promises an outstanding conference agenda and I am so looking forward to attending as a delegate as well as a closing panel discussion member. If you woudl like to know more about our approach to the themes outlined above please do contact [email protected]